Introduction
The assessments of students’ progress over time which are performed by all educational facilities throughout the country, are critical for addressing the potential gaps in their skillsets and ensuring their correspondence to the requirements. However, it is generally performed by adopting testing instruments developed per the established standards, whereas this method does not allow thoroughly examining the actual situation. The reason for this stance is the incapability of educators to reveal various impacts of the implemented curricula while focusing on a limited number of variables in the process. Therefore, putting an emphasis on standardized approaches to evaluating students’ knowledge and skills is a flawed method since it does not help demonstrate essential abilities useful for professional growth in the future.
The Neglect of Creativity
The first aspect of the matter is the problem of the specified techniques in discouraging creativity in the affected persons by highlighting the need for simply memorizing the answers to a pre-defined set of questions. This method of educating young people highlights the necessity to develop a limited number of abilities, such as good short-term memory and a fast pace of processing the presented information. Nevertheless, it does not address critical thinking, which is an essential skill for promoting the formation of one’s opinion, and completely neglects the creative aspect of the learning process. In this case, the adverse consequences of continuing the implementation of the described assessment tools include individuals’ failure to think deeply about theoretical issues and develop new considerations in this respect. Consequently, these people will not be able to cope with performing tasks in the workplace as they are not used to acting efficiently in the case of emergencies or elaborating innovative solutions.
Excessive Generalizations Distorting Results
The second idea supporting the claim of the feasibility of introducing changes to the procedures of evaluating students’ knowledge is excessive generalizations. They are demonstrated by the fact that standardized testing materials do not consider personal circumstances or one’s background and language while giving similar tasks to people. In this situation, the problem from the perspective of future employment is conditional upon the impossibility for the affected individuals to occupy the positions corresponding to their actual abilities. The lack of instruments providing for the required modifications as per the described conditions contributes to the failure of educators to accurately report on learners’ potential for growth in regard to specific professions. This outcome leads to the increased stress levels of all participants, whereas it could be avoided by complementing the tests with other tools presenting a clear picture of students’ successes on an individual basis.
The Inability to Use the Studied Materials in Practice
The third factor explaining the described viewpoint is the inability of young people to use the studied materials in practice as they do not reflect reality. The knowledge gained through preparing to take standardized tests seems limited to understanding theoretical concepts and other data, which are not applied to their actual tasks in the workplace in the future. This issue might be especially detrimental to their progress in the professional field as they can lose their motivation to achieve better results. When facing the gap between their skillsets and the actual needs of organizations, these individuals are likely to be struggling with the demands of employers that they are not ready to satisfy. Subsequently, this failure might lead to growing concerns regarding the feasibility of education as such when it does not clearly indicate that the gained knowledge is applicable to this context.
Job Placement: New Requirements
The fourth circumstance determining the dubious effectiveness of standardized testing as the tool ensuring the presence of knowledge and critical abilities in students is their neglect of changing conditions of the environment. Thus, for example, when considering the shifting nature of the business world, one can easily come to a conclusion that its requirements are continuously evolving. This fact leads to the necessity to timely readjust efforts and learn the new information under the implied restrictions for ensuring the profitability of operations in which they participate. However, adhering to this need does not seem possible without previous experience, and the tests developed by educational institutions cannot serve as evidence of a student’s ability to demonstrate the required degree of flexibility. It means that introducing new assessment methods to complement the existing procedures is vital for schools and colleges which intend to efficiently educate future professionals.
Conclusion
To summarize, the evidence for the claim of the uselessness of standardized tests when evaluating one’s preparedness for performing tasks in the workplace relates to several reasons. They include the neglect of the creative aspect, the gap between theoretical knowledge and practice, and the lack of skills allowing young people to adjust to the changing environment. From this point of view, it is reasonable to suggest that educators should incorporate the procedures correlating with the described needs in their work. This idea is critical for addressing the emerging concerns of teachers and their students with respect to the feasibility of present-day programs. Thus, the inclusion of instruments assessing creativity, presenting practical challenges, and developing flexibility while adopting critical thinking should be considered an optimal solution to the mentioned problem.