AHS should stop CSAs, CFAs, and all standardized testing

by Jimena J.

AHS students have to take CSAs, CFAs, and standardized tests after every semester. With the CSAs, which stands for common summative assessments, these are unit tests that all teachers of a particular subject must administer to students. These teachers also have to create CFAs, which are common formative assessments, for each unit. The district requires four unit CSAs per course, and the API at AHS requires at least two CFAs per unit; so, for each core class, students are required to take a minimum of fifteen common assessments per class. This is in addition to other assessments unique to that teacher. That’s a lot of tests.

Standardized testing has been around for many years since the mid-1800, and in 2002, an act called “no child left behind” mandated tests in the United states in all 50 states if they want to receive federal funding for their schools. This legislation has resulted in “teaching to the test,” and school districts have become obsessed with getting good scores, so they pressure teachers to practice tests by requiring they give even more tests to monitor students progress along the way, hence the CFAs and CSAs. Is this working? Most would argue no.

AHS and all high schools nation wide should stop standardized testing, but especially the CSA’s and CFA’s we have at our school.

First of all, any kind of testing is unfair for evaluating teachers and students. A teacher who appears to be ineffective in one year might have a dramatically different result than the following year all depending on how the students take the test and how much they pay attention in class without having to do anything to do with the teacher. CSAs, CFAs and all standardized testing could harm teachers' reputation. Some people could say that testing holds students and teachers accountable but the truth is that good teachers could get fired over test grades that were not their fault, all because students don't pay attention or just want to play in class but the test aren't just harming the teachers but also the students if a teacher isn't teaching the away they need to be taught it could lead to bad test grades and failing testing .

The second reason that standardized testing, CSA’s, and CFA’s should be stopped is because testing only determines which students are good at taking tests. Testing can be inaccurate and an unfair measure of students' actual progress. People might say that testing is fair, but no matter the subject, some students have advantages over others, be that a language advantage, the privilege of not being anxious during tests, having had more exposure to these kinds of tests than their peers, etc. A student who has good testing skills would most likely get a better grade and more of an advantage over a student who has an average or low testing ability; in other words, the tests may be measuring these variables rather than actual acquisition of knowledge and skills like they claim.

The third and final reason that testing nationwide needs to stop is that they are not working. Testing simply has not improved students' performances. Many can say that testing scores are good for college and jobs, but really testing has nothing to do with college or jobs, especially those that test only reading or math skills. Fewer kids attend college than they did ten years ago, and test scores continue to go down. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only about 40% of high school seniors matriculated into a four-year college in 2021, the rate as ten years ago; if tests were increasing student achievement, college attendance rates would probably be going up because more students would be qualified to attend, but this isn’t happening. Similarly, the longer tests have been around, the worse the scores are. Here in our own state, we have been giving EOCs for decades now; yet, those scores continue to go down. Even with the ramping up of CFAs and CSAs, standardized test scores at AHS have been stagnant or gone down. According to the state report card, we have been around the 50-60% mark in proficiency for ELA scores across the past several years, so clearly teaching to the tests isn’t resulting in an increase in knowledge. Lastly, most colleges are actually getting rid of SAT and ACT requirements. According to an article from Forbes, approximately 80% of colleges and universities are test-optional. Like our top schools have done, the rest of the nation needs to get on board with the anit-testing revolution.

The fourth and final reason why overtesting must stop is because the pro-testing arguments are invalid. People in favor of tests say tests are fair and good for your future. However, these arguments are invalid because because tests determine how good you are at taking them and don't show everything that you know and when it comes to the future you could be a different person than you were at school .

A sophomore student from airport high school Ana S. says, “I think standardized testing should be stopped due to not being prepared enough and having to take it early in the morning. Us students need time to be awake and to be aware of what is coming at us. I honestly think that standardized testing is difficult and stressful. Testing puts a lot of pressure on students and myself including taking all these tests does nothing for me or others I know around me. It's a waste of time for both us students and teachers I've not seen any progress with taking my test. Instead of taking tests, our teachers should be teaching us.” With what Ana says, she supports that tests don't measure progress and have not improved students' performances.

A freshman student, Raquel G., says, “Standardized testing is a waste of time and it doesn't help. I get that it's to measure what we know but using it to get into college or using it for jobs is dumb because I don't know now what I'm going to know once I get into college or get a job."

Hopefully, overtesting will soon become a thing of the past.