 is an extension of socio-economic power relations. Research has found standardized assessment to reproduce race-based and economic class-based inequalities (Au). Analyses of test data highlight affluent, often White students have higher achievement, whereas their low-income, minority counterparts, often do not (Olander). Test scores are highly correlated with family income; the scores of affluent students have nothing o do with their intelligence, but the likely possibility that parental education and exposure to enriching experiences give students more knowledge to understand the passages they are given in tests. Unfortunately, it is a cycle – students who perform poorly end up in lower-income jobs, having to work more, and will be able to spend less time focusing on their child’s academics, thereby producing children who do not have a leg up in standardizing testing.
High stake tests also contribute to gaps in student knowledge. These tests deem only tested knowledge to be legitimate; untested is not, despite students understanding the world in different ways and through different knowledge. Standardized testing has distorted the curriculum, forcing teachers to focus on certain outcomes and expectations in hopes their students will demonstrate higher outcomes on standardized testing. Testing in reading and math takes precedence over history, science, and the arts. The tests also take away valuable instruction time, leaving little room for education beyond rote memorization.
On a personal note, the curriculum fed to First Nation students in the north is a curriculum that is designed for students living in British Columbia and Alberta. The social structures which exist in both of those provinces, are not similar to the ones lived in remote, First Nation communities. The students, however, are required to write the same standardized tests and their performance is always much lower. Despite the differences in culture, lived experiences, and knowledge-bases, students are expected to perform like their southern counterparts. The graduation rate in the Northwest Territories is 44% because the educational structures in place do not allow for students to connect with the education and learn. This is an unfair structure which perpetuates socio-economic status, and yet, it continues to exist.