Standardized Testing and Its Effects: An Annotated Bibliography The first standardized test was administered by Horace Mann in the nineteenth century as as a result of the concern with the educational reform in America (Gallagher, 2003). Although the students’ results were disappointing, this lead to the movement of using standardized tests throughout curriculum. In spite of the controversy, the popularity of this form of testing has increased greatly over time. The debate on standardized tests has been an ongoing issue throughout history. While some believe that these tests are an unjust, incorrect way to measure intelligence, others suggest that standardized testing is a vital part of the educational process. In order to gather an unbiased …show more content…
All of the sources I included with the exception of one had a publication date within the past five years. In doing this, I focused on gathering the most recent information available about standardized testing. While some of the articles included outdated research, the publication dates of the articles reinforced the idea that this data is still prevalent enough to use today. There were limitations in regards to the variety of data found due to the fact that two of my articles used the Virginia Department of Education as a secondary source. Also, I found that most of the articles I researched supported the idea that standardized tests have a negative effect on society, therefore that bias is seen in my annotated bibliography. I chose to exclude sources that were published after the year 2000 in order to keep the information I found relevant to standard testing in today’s society. The format of these tests has changed expansively over the years, so I wanted to provide recent studies from researchers. I also chose to omit sources that focused on this form of testing in different countries due to the fact that the results would have most likely been varied. Finally, I did not include sources that focused on a variety of minorities. Most of my articles focused on one group of individuals, so this could lead to a potential …show more content…
Using data from the Virginia Department of Education (2012), the authors use graphs and charts to display the wide difference between Caucasian and African-American children in the public education system in Virginia. In one instance, Brunn-Bevel and Byrd (2015) found in a SOL (Standards of Learning) science equality index that African-American students “were more likely to fail each of these tests compared to their white peers but were frequently as likely to pass with a proficient score if they did pass the tests” (p. 438). Brunn-Bevel and Byrd continue to state to that according to the data shown, African-American “students consistently fall behind white students in all subject areas at each grade level” (p. 441). According to the
Southern Regional Education Board (2009), “racial and ethnic disparities in educational attainment exist across Virginia and are noted to have real consequences for the daily lives of black Virginians” (p. 442). The purpose of this article was to provide insight on the racial