4 Fascinating Standardized Exam Statistics and What They Teach Us About Learning

Standardized exams divide people. Standardized examinations are being questioned more frequently by instructors and parents, yet others still maintain their value and necessity.  

Let's examine some of the studies on standardized exams and its use. We'll explore:

• The benefits and drawbacks of standardized exam for kids and teachers
• Interesting information about the effects of these exams on students, teachers, and the school system.

What is standardized exam?

Standardized exams are pre-set exams designed to measure student performance, usually based around predetermined grade standards. These exams mostly use multiple-choice or true/false questions to exam student knowledge in a particular subject.  

Standardized exams are most often used to measure reading and math progress. Because the questions and answers are the same across the exam population, this type of assessment can share how well an individual student, school, or district is performing compared to the greater population.  

Some of the most common examples of standardized exams are the ACT and SAT, both used for college admission. But students are taking standardized exams throughout their schooling years, sometimes beginning as early as kindergarten.

Benefits of standardized exams

More parents than ever are opting out of exam, and we’ll be digging into plenty of research later pointing away from standardized exams. But these measurements of student and school success have some benefits.  

1. Standardized exams highlight areas for improvement

Where are students in your area struggling? Are they behind grade level in reading or math? If scores are consistently low in certain areas, that can be the data your school district needs to create positive change.

By highlighting areas for improvement, more time and school funding can be funneled to these programs — improving a child’s learning and the chance of future success.  

2. Exams can help schools evaluate their general progress in education

Data helps schools learn their benchmarks and set plans for improvement. Without standardized exams, school districts would need to find other ways to evaluate student needs.  

Low graduation rates can begin to tell the story, but standardized exams can help fill in the details. Are your students performing better or worse than in previous years? Once you have that answer, you can begin to figure out why.

3. Standardized exams help students become comfortable with the exam process

Exam doesn’t end in high school. College courses, graduate programs, professional licensing and skill certifications all require passing exams. Even though many students struggle with exams, they are likely to encounter them throughout their lives. And practice is the best way to improve.

4. Exam can be used for teacher evaluations

There may be all sorts of reasons exam scores come back low, and all reasons should be considered. Consistently low exam scores may indicate a problem with a particular teacher’s curriculum or style of instruction. While standardized exams should not be used as a direct measure of teacher performance, they can provide some insight into whether a teacher’s methods are working.

5. Exams give some guidance for curriculum design

Standardized exams align with grade-level curriculum standards. As such, exam content can be a guide for developing a solid grade-level curriculum. What should students be learning in the sixth grade? Check what the exams are measuring and develop a curriculum to meet those standards.  

6. Standardized exam avoids subjective grading practices

With standardized exam, there are right answers and wrong answers. These exams are a simplified way of measuring knowledge and achievement. While this makes it more difficult to measure complex student understanding, these exams can reveal basic gaps in student knowledge.  

4 Interesting statistics and facts about standardized exam

Do any of these surprise you?

1. Urban schools are tested more frequently

Research from 2014 by the Center for American Progress shows that schools in urban areas exam students twice as often as schools in suburban areas. All grade levels in urban schools spend more time exam than their suburban peers, but in high school the difference is huge. Urban high school students spend 266% more time taking district-offered exams than their suburban high school students!  

While exam can help show areas for improvement, having too much exam (or as the research paper states, “exam overload”) can take away from other areas of instruction and increase exam anxiety.

2. Math scores are easier to improve compared to reading

Many reading skills are developed early in life. Early exposure to lots of words (and books) can set the stage for early reading success. Even though schools play an important role in learning to read, they are building on the foundation created at home.

For these reasons, it’s often easier to improve math scores on standardized exams. Math can be drilled and practiced to increase exam numbers. But whether or not these higher exam scores indicate a true understanding of math concepts is up for debate.

3. Standardized exam is still popular among parents

Well, this statement was at least true in 2014. But even then support was waning. More recent research isn’t available, but it would be interesting to see the current numbers after almost two years of living with COVID-related school closures.  

Many parents agree that standardized exam is important for keeping their kids on track. Even though there has been a lot of talk about postponing exam over the last year, it’s more difficult to find parents who want to opt out altogether. But the opt-out community certainly exists and seems to be growing in numbers.

4. Students take over 100 standardized exams from pre-k to grade 12

This is a shocking one. In this research from 2015, the average number of standardized exams in the United States was 112. That means plenty of students are taking well over that amount in their educational lifetime. And all of this exam is taking away from valuable instructional time.

Potential impact of standardized exam on students

It’s easy to see how standardized exam can have a big impact on a student’s learning and their opinion on their achievements.  

For those who score in the top percentiles, these exams can be affirming. These students are more likely to feel set up for future success in both college and their chosen profession. But even these high-performing students can feel the downsides of exam anxiety, perfectionism, and high competition.

Other students who struggle with exam can internalize poor results and struggle with key social emotional skills. They can be left feeling stuck or like they’re bad at school. They may cut short career plans because they feel like college is out of reach. Even if these students earn high grades, they may feel less intelligent than their higher-scoring peers.

Even though exam data is important for school districts, we need to further examine if standardized exam is providing benefits to current students.

Potential impact on teachers

Exam doesn’t only affect students. Teachers are feeling the pressure of frequent exam as well.  

Teacher performance is often linked to exam scores. This limits teachers to focusing their curriculum on the exams. And while this may help keep a classroom on track, it also leaves little room for educators to teach to their students’ individual needs.  

At the urging of school administrators, teachers are spending more time on exam prep than ever before. And this is taking away from valuable teaching time. Is this instruction preparing students for life beyond standardized exam? Many would say no.

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