Parents and communities want to know that their children are performing up to standard. For years, school districts have used standardized tests to keep track of student performance and to make comparisons between themselves and other districts. Many respected professional organizations and people believe so. The test results do not tell us what a child knows and can do, when the child does not value or understand the importance of the testing situation.
Young children have very short attention spans.
They may not be able to attend to the test for more than a few minutes before becoming distracted. In an actual testing situation, a teacher observed a child marking bubbles next to pictures on the test sheet of favored items instead of correct answers. When she asked him why he had done this, he said it was because he found them more interesting. Young children may have difficulty following multi-step directions. Another teacher observed a little girl marking her test sheet in pink crayon rather than the obligatory number 2 pencil.