Editing Standardized test (section)

== Testing issues not specific to standardization ==
Most tests can be classified on multiple categories. For example, a test can be both standardized and also a high-stakes test, or standardized and also a multiple-choice test.  Complaints about "standardized tests" (all test takers take the same test, under reasonably similar conditions, scored the same way) are often focused on concerns unrelated to standardization and apply equally to non-standardized tests. For example, a critic may complain that "the standardized tests are all time-limited tests", but the focus of the criticism is on the time limit, and not on everyone taking the same test and having their answers graded the same way. Recent mathematical research has introduced the concept of Exam-Grade Collapse Systems, showing that exam-driven feedback systems regardless of whether tests are standardized can induce structural fixed-point traps in learning dynamics, which prevent stable identity formation and suppress creative emergence.<ref>Alpay, F. (2025). ''Fixed-Point Traps and Identity Emergence in Educational Feedback Systems''. Research monograph. Online version: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.21038</ref>

=== High-stakes tests ===
{{Main|High-stakes testing}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+
Types of tests
!
! Low-stakes test
! High-stakes test
|-
!Standardized test
| style=max-width:16em | A [[personality quiz]] on a website
| style=max-width:16em | An [[educational entrance examination]] to determine university admission
|-
!Non-standardized test
| style=max-width:18em | The teacher asks each student to share something they remember from their homework.
| style=max-width:18em | The theater holds an [[audition]] to determine who will get a starring role.
|}
A [[High-stakes testing|high-stakes test]] is a test with a desired reward for good performance.<ref name="Allen" />  Some standardized tests, including many of the tests used for [[University and college admission|university admissions]] around the world, are high-stakes tests. Most standardized tests, such as ordinary classroom quizzes, are low-stakes tests.<ref name="Allen" />

Heavy reliance on high-stakes standardized tests for decision-making is often controversial. A common concern with high-stakes tests is that they measure performance during a single event, when critics believe that a more holistic assessment would be appropriate. Critics often propose emphasizing cumulative or even non-numerical measures, such as classroom grades or brief individual assessments (written in prose) from teachers. Supporters argue that test scores provide a clear-cut, objective standard that serves as a valuable check on [[grade inflation]].<ref>{{Citation|last1=Buckley|first1=Jack|title=Measuring Success: Testing, Grades, and the Future of College Admissions|url=https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/measuring-success|pages=344|year=2017|place=Baltimore|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=9781421424965|last2=Letukas|first2=Lynn|last3=Wildavsky|first3=Ben}}</ref>
=== Norm-referenced tests ===
{{Main|Norm-referenced test}}
[[File:Meseret Hailu wins the women's race at the 2012 World Half Marathon Championships in Kavarna, Bulgaria.jpg|alt=woman crossing the finish line|thumb|A [[footrace]] is an [[Authentic assessment|authentic]] [[norm-referenced test]]. The point of the race is to see who runs the fastest, rather than to see whether everyone can run at a certain speed.]]

A norm-referenced test is one that is designed and scored so that some test takers rank better or worse than others.<ref name="Allen" /> The ranking provides information about the relative ranking, which is helpful when the goal is to determine who is best (e.g., in elite university admissions).<ref name="Allen" />

=== Disagreement with educational standards ===
A [[criterion-referenced test]] is more common and more practical when the goal is to know whether the test takers have learned the required material.<ref name="Allen" />

However, some critics object to "standardized tests" not because they object to giving students the same test under the reasonably similar conditions and grading the responses the same way, because they object to the type of material that is typically tested by schools. Although standardized tests for non-academic attributes such as the [[Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking]] exist, schools rarely give standardized tests to measure "initiative, creativity, imagination...curiosity...good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kohn |first=Alfie |title=The Case Against Standardized Testing: Rising the Scores, Ruining the Schools |publisher=Heinemann |year=2000 |isbn=978-0325003252 |location=Portsmouth, NH}}</ref><ref>To teach: the journey of a teacher, by William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-8077-3985-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8077-3985-3}}, pg. 116</ref>  Instead, the tests given by schools tend to focus less on moral or character development, and more on individual identifiable academic skills, such as [[reading comprehension]] and [[arithmetic]]. 

In his book, ''[[The Shame of the Nation]],'' [[Jonathan Kozol]] argues that students submitted to standardized testing are victims of "cognitive decapitation". Kozol comes to this realization after speaking to many children in inner city schools who have no spatial recollection of time, time periods, and historical events. This is especially the case in schools where due to shortages in funding and strict accountability policies, schools have done away with subjects like the arts, history and geography; in order to focus on the content of the mandated tests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kozol |first=Jonathan |title=The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America |publisher=Random House |year=2005 |isbn=9781415924167 |location=Print |pages=118–119}}</ref>

=== Test anxiety ===
{{Main|Test anxiety}}
Some people become [[Anxiety|anxious]] when taking a test.  This phenomenon is more common for high-stakes tests than for low-stakes tests. High-stakes tests (whether standardized or non-standardized) can cause anxiety.    

There is criticism from students themselves that tests, while standardized, are unfair to the individual student. Some students claim they are "bad test takers", meaning they get nervous and unfocused on tests. Therefore, while the test is standard and should provide fair results, the test takers claim that they are at a disadvantage and have no way to prove their knowledge otherwise, as there is no other testing alternative that allows students to prove their knowledge and problem-solving skills.  

Some students have [[test anxiety]]. Between ten and forty percent of students experience this type of anxiety.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wood |last2=Hart |last3=Little |last4=Phillips |date=2016 |title=Test Anxiety and a High-Stakes Standardized Reading Comprehension Test: A Behavioral Genetics Perspective |journal=Merrill-Palmer Quarterly |language=en |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=233–251 |doi=10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.62.3.0233 |issn=0272-930X |pmc=5487000 |pmid=28674461}}</ref> Children living in poverty are struck most with testing anxiety.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 February 2019 |title=Tests and Stress Bias |url=https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/19/02/tests-and-stress-bias |access-date=2022-10-27 |website=Harvard Graduate School of Education |language=en}}</ref> Testing anxiety applies to both standardized and non-standardized tests.

=== Multiple-choice tests and test formats ===
{{Main|Multiple choice test}}
[[File:Exams Start... Now.jpg|alt=part of a multiple choice test|thumb|Multiple-choice tests can be standardized or non-standardized tests.]]

A multiple-choice test provides the test taker with questions paired with a pre-determined list of possible answers. It is a type of [[closed-ended question]]. The test taker chooses the correct answer from the list.  

Many critics of standardized testing object to the multiple-choice format, which is commonly used for inexpensive, large-scale testing and which is not suitable for some purposes, such as seeing whether the test taker can write a paragraph.  However, standardized testing can use any test format, including [[Open-ended question|open-ended questions]], so long as all test takers take the same test, under reasonably similar conditions, and get evaluated the same way.

=== Teaching to the test ===
{{Main|Teaching to the test}}
Teaching to the test is a process of deliberately narrowing instruction to focus only on the material that will be measured on the test.  For example, if the teacher knows that an upcoming history test will not include any questions about the history of music or art, then the teacher could "teach to the test" by skipping the material in the textbook about music and art.  Critics also charge that standardized tests encourage "[[teaching to the test]]" at the expense of creativity and in-depth coverage of subjects not on the test. Critics say that teaching to the test disfavors higher-order learning; it transforms what the teachers are allowed to be teaching and heavily limits the amount of other information students learn throughout the years.<ref name="Williams">{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Mary |date=2015 |title=Standardized Testing Is Harming Student Learning |url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=OVIC&id=GALE&#124;EJ3010692244&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon |access-date=March 28, 2018 |website=go.galegroup.com}}</ref> While it is possible to use a standardized test without letting its contents determine curriculum and instruction, frequently, what is not tested is not taught, and how the subject is tested often becomes a model for how to teach the subject. 

Externally imposed tests, such as tests created by a [[department of education]] for students in their area, encourage teachers to narrow the curricular format and teach to the test.<ref name="Put to the Test: The Effects of External Testing on Teachers. Educational Researcher">{{cite web |title=Goswami U (1991) Put to the Test: The Effects of External Testing on Teachers. Educational Researcher 20: 8-11 |url=http://edr.sagepub.com/content/20/5/8.abstract |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202022524/http://edr.sagepub.com/content/20/5/8.abstract |archive-date=2013-02-02}}</ref>

''Performance-based pay'' is the idea that teachers should be paid more if the students perform well on the tests, and less if they perform poorly.<ref name="Williams" />  When teachers or schools are rewarded for better performance on tests, then those rewards encourage teachers to "[[teach to the test]]" instead of providing a rich and broad curriculum. In 2007 a qualitative study done by Au Wayne demonstrated that standardized testing narrows the curriculum and encourages teacher-centered instruction instead of [[student-centered learning]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Au |first=Wayne |date=2007-06-01 |title=High-Stakes Testing and Curricular Control: A Qualitative Metasynthesis |journal=Educational Researcher |language=en |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=258–267 |doi=10.3102/0013189X07306523 |issn=0013-189X |s2cid=507582}}</ref> New Jersey Governor [[Chris Christie]] proposed educational reform in New Jersey that pressures teachers not only to "teach to the test," but also have their students perform at the potential cost of their salary and job security. The reform called for performance-based pay that depends on students' performances on standardized tests and their educational gains.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arco |first=Matt |date=June 12, 2015 |title=Christie Education Speech in Iowa |url=http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/06/christie_education_speech_in_iowa.html#incart_2box_politics_index.ssf |access-date=July 25, 2016 |website=NJ.com}}</ref>

Critics contend that overuse and misuse of these tests harms teaching and learning by narrowing the curriculum. According to the group [[FairTest]], when standardized tests are the primary factor in accountability, schools use the tests to narrowly define curriculum and focus instruction. Accountability creates an immense pressure to perform and this can lead to the misuse and misinterpretation of standardized tests.<ref name="Holloway" />