<p><strong>Thesis</strong>: Mostly disagree</p>
<p><strong>Reason 1</strong>: It provides a standardized form of comparison that aids teachers and administrators in making informed decisions.</p>
<p><strong>Reason 2</strong>: Provides a concrete goal for students to achieve.</p>
<p><strong>Concession</strong>: However, I do concede that students from wealthier backgrounds have an advantage on standardized exams that undermines the "fair" aspect of the test.</p>
<p>For thousands of years, education has been a priority of many societies, but standardized exams are a relatively modern invention. The prompt asserts that our recent reliance on these tests harms students more than aids them. However, I mostly disagree with this position for the following two reasons, though I do concede that some standardized exams test knowledge that is not exactly useful for students in the real world.</p>
<p>First of all, standardized tests are useful because they allow teachers, administrators, and others in the pedagogical field to make informed decisions. For example, high school students applying to university can be reasonably compared to one another with SAT or ACT scores, even if said students went to vastly different high schools under varying circumstances. In contrast, if the standardized exams were not used, college admissions committees would have to rely on the much more unpredictable GPA metric, letters of recommendation, or personal statements. These criteria should not be dismissed, of course, but none provide a fair comparison from one student to the next. In addition, if a state government is trying to compare one elementary school to another in different districts to determine fund allocation, the only reliable metric it can use is state standardized exams. Imagine if the state government instead relied on teacher evaluation reports, for example. This would make it incredibly difficult to distribute funds in an equitable manner. As these examples show, standardized exams can be depended upon to provide the fairest comparison of student to student or school to school, especially in consideration of other criteria that might be used.</p>
<p>Second of all, standardized exams are beneficial from a learning perspective because they provide students with a concrete goal to achieve. For instance, because so much depends on a high school student's SAT or ACT score, she will likely exert the maximum possible effort to achieve the highest score possible. In doing so, she will inadvertenly learn reading, mathematical, and writing skills. If the standardized exam was not available or required, the student in question might instead slack off or not devote as much energy to their studies. This is even more true with a standardized exam like the MCAT, which is required for those seeking entry to medical school. The MCAT requires vast stores of knowledge to do well, and students preparing for the test are reaching for a score that will, as a side benefit, adequately prepare them to succeed in a rigorous medical program. As economists have so rightfully pointed out, humans respond to incentives, and standardized exams are perhaps the best available in an educational setting. Ideally students would learn for learning's sake, but unfortunately most of us do not operate purely by intrinsic motivation.</p>
<p>However, I do concede that wealthier students have an advantage on standardized exams that undermines the "fair" philosophy by which so many of them operate. For example, a wealthy student can hire a private tutor that charges $300 an hour to help him prepare for the GMAT exam. Even test preparation classes, which usually cost over $1,000, are cost prohibitive for many students seeking to improve their scores on standardized exams. If students do not have resources available to them, their preparation for the tests is likely to be lower quality than that of the richer students. This of course introduces a level of bias and prejudice into the standardization process and lowers the validity of the results overall. </p>
<p>In conclusion, standardized exams, despite rhetoric to the contrary, do offer numerous benefits to students, with two stated above. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that not all students can prepare for the tests in the same way, with wealthier students having a distinct advantage.</p>