In recent years Neshaminy High School has begun to make the move from requiring a graduation project in addition to regular classes to receive a high school diploma, to requiring passing grades on the Pennsylvania Keystones test in addition to regular classes to receive a high school diploma. In light of this many students and staff alike have aired their grievances with the expansion of standardized testing into even this sector of the school system.
Although it has been shown that the extreme increase in time spent taking standardized tests, at all educational levels, can result in increased stress and other issues within the school system, that is not to say that a standardized test, such as the Keystone, would not be more appropriate in this context than an independent project might be.
The graduation project, which takes extended amounts of time out of the daily schedules of Neshaminy seniors each year, in reality shows no basic knowledge, skill, or employability to prospective colleges and employers, as there is no real way for these institutions to value such a venture.
On the other hand, Keystone testing establishes a basic base of knowledge accessible and known by everyone who has passed them, and shows colleges and businesses what they can expect from graduates. No independent, unstandardized project would provide that advantage to graduates.
In addition to this Keystone testing establishes instructional framework from which teachers may build their curriculum statewide, holds teachers and schools accountable for maintaining their curricula, and sets a barrier of objectivity between student knowledge and grading bias.
With landmarks such as the Keystones set at the same markers in a child’s development in each school in a state, teachers will, of course, plan to teach the curriculum of the tests to students prior to the time they will be taking the test. This will allow easy transfer between schools without confusion between varied curriculum and work loads.
As scores for standardized tests are publicized, schools and teachers become accountable for the curriculum being taught within their classrooms, rather than face scrutiny. Such scrutiny has often become detrimental to the work loads of students, but with limited testing, such as our current schedule of Keystones without the additional standardized tests Neshaminy students are so often subjected to, this could be avoided.
Keystones, like many other standardized tests, are graded objectively- a computer, or stranger to the test taker, grades all components of the test, therefore eliminating any bias a teacher may have for or against the test takers.
Although standardized testing may be going too far in the American educational system, budging into things that may need not be graded in such a manner, graduation requirements are one sector of schooling in which it is heavily appropriate to use such trails. Through eliminating unnecessary extraneous projects and testing throughout a student’s journey through the system of public education, and replacing said things with a regulated, evenly spaced measurement such as the Keystones, excessive work and stress on both students and teachers would surely be eliminated. Similar strategies have seen success in educationally dominant countries such as Finland, which ranked number six internationally in education, and Singapore, which is ranked number one internationally, where minimally mandatory testing has been implemented.
