An annoyance for some and a breeze for others, California Strandardized Tests (CSTs) are a type of testing given to every student throughout California, though they do not directly affect students. Rather, this is a type of test administered to evaluate the performance of a school in regards to instructional prowess. If students receive adequate scores on these tests, the school will benefit, though the students, for the most part, experience no direct benefit. Some instructors do; however, create the incentive of raising a semester grade by a certain amount for students who score a proficient (4) or advanced (5).
This type of cumulative test will assess everything the students enrolled in a course should have learned from the beginning of the year to the test-taking time. The testing consists of English, a type of science, Mathematics, and a type of history. This is because the aforementioned courses are conventionally taken by all students throughout their high school years, with the exception of optional science classes and all freshmen taking a Physical Education test rather than a history test. Though this may seem like a rather efficient way to test a student’s knowledge, it does have certain issues.
The test has no benefits or consequences for most students, causing a large amount of students to simply disregard the test. For the school, this is a large problem, though some students simply do not care. This compromises the goal of the test, as it is used to obtain information on a school’s efficiency. This adumbrates lower scores for a school as well as a lower regard, and, ultimately, less federal funding. This can severely harm most, if not all, public schools. The tests are also overshadowed by tests such as the SAT and ACT due to the fact that they actually benefit the student by exponentially increasing their chances of getting accepted into a college.
Another issue stems directly from the content on the exams themselves. Realistically, reaching every standard on the exams in time for them is almost impossible as inconveniences, such as an instructor becoming ill and missing a few days of class, is unavoidable. The substitute teacher that fills in might not be qualified to actually teach that subject, so it is impossible to continue instruction during the instructor’s absence. If the students have never been introduced to the material they are being tested on, how can they be expected to score well?
The California Standards Test is not completely pointless, though the results are compromised every year by unavoidable events and unwavering apathy. For the most part, this is not likely to change, though the school system may be suffering and students might be taking a highly stressed test for absolutely no reason. Instead, teachers could be preparing for an arguably more important test that will assist them in their future by placing them into a college. Ultimately, the test does assess the topics that should have been learned during the duration of the course, even if it is not administered in the most effective way.
