To: U.S. Department of Education
Change Or Remove U.S. Standardized Testing
Standardized testing has done many things—but the majority of them are horribly negative.
Why is this important?
Standardized testing has always been seen as a gray issue, but in reality it really isn’t. The biggest importance it carries is how much colleges look at a student’s scores. Yet, standardized testing was never meant to test the aptitude of a student in the first place—but rather how well a teacher is doing their job. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only reason they shouldn’t be used to measure a student’s academic progress.
As a student myself, I can tell you that to take a standardized test, we first practice for a practice test, which is used as a practice for the actual test, but we still do practice for the actual test, and practice for the practice. Confusing? It IS. Whether your class has actually gotten to a certain subject that the testing will go over doesn’t matter, as you are still expected to already know it. And when the testing is over you never get it back to see what you did wrong, just your score. This doesn’t help a student improve! I’ve asked fellow students and each have told me that it only makes them feel stupid. I’ve taken a poll and petition and have recorded that only 1 person likes standardized testing, 23 (and a half) feel that they benefit from it, 66 want to get rid of it, and 101 have said that it makes them feel worse mentally. If you don’t see a problem that 101 students—KIDS, feel worse by pieces of paper, then there is a problem. When it comes down to it, the Department Of Education only cares about our “education,” and not our actual mental health. I know too many kids that feel suicidal and zero students that look forward to the grind of this testing. And the only students that felt they benefitted from this grueling process told me it was because of how colleges look at their scores which helps their chances.
But here’s the thing; multiple countries DON’T take standardized testing and still have many people going to college. And do you want to know the real kicker? They are the top schooling systems in the world.
Now lets delve into the unfairness of these tests. Every year we are told that they are all fair to every student’s as we are each given the same test. THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT UNFAIR. Do not tell me that every single student is exceptional in Mathematics , English, Science, —and Mathematics again! We are not all the same. If a student is horrible at art, everyone immediately tells them that it is okay and how it isn’t for everyone and how art doesn’t have to be good—yet God forbid if someone can’t do a math equation. If you are bad at any major class, you are seen as stupid, not trying hard enough, lazy and that you give up too easily. This is the same message standardized testing gives out. Every student is different and learns different because, believe it or not, we ARE people. Yet standardized testing tests us all the same like we are some type of hive mind! And for those with learning impairments don’t even get a different test—they are just given more time to do it, even if they DON’T want it!
These tests even hurt those students from minority backgrounds, low-income families, and those with impairments! Yet we are all expected to be used as a proper grading system for the teachers. What an excellent idea! That last sentence was a part of my “teenage sarcasm,” if you couldn’t catch it.
What’s worse than the stress and ridiculousness, is that we lose actual learning time! How ironic is it that the test that is meant to measure our learning is also limiting it? This has even caused many students to dislike learning, which is a pity. It’s human nature to be curious and want to learn, yet being forced to kills the motivation of it. The only students that don’t get stressed by these tests are usually the ones that have stopped caring about their grades. As for the parents that agree with it, let me remind you that YOU don’t actually have to take it. You don’t know what it is like to actually sit there for hours and fill in little bubbles that decide your future. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not.
And it also decides teachers’ fates. These tests are used to also punish and even fire teachers! I, myself, have asked some teachers on where they stand with this and they hate them as well! They benefit NO ONE. For those students that do do better on standardized testing than actual school curriculum don’t outweigh the students that do worse on the standardized testing but do well on actual school curriculum. I’ve come to realize that at the end of the day, all that these tests amount to is lowered expectations, insecure students, stressed out kids AND adults, loss of school time and curiosity, and how those in charge are trying to force kids to think and learn one certain way and teach them that anything else is “wrong”—oh, and of course that percentage of students that do well. But the Department Of Education, of course, will only focus on that percentage.
Is this a good time to mention that depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies has increased in teens? Or that standardized testing is increasing? Of course, there can’t possibly be any correlation between the two! Again, that last sentence was some more of my good old sarcasm. If you’ve caught on by now, good job!
Bottom line; standardized testing sucks. Excuse my brash way of saying it. But let’s be real, school is stressful enough without these tests, and when you take as much time as I have to do them, you get a little brash.
If you’ve read all this, thanks! If you read a bit of it, I don’t blame you but thank you all the same! And if you sign this petition, thank you so much. You have no idea what it means to me or any of the other students that suffer from these things.
I’d love to see these tests gone forever, but I know that some students do like them—like that one person on my poll that said yes. And I, unlike the Department of Education, bothered to ask. I want them to at least change. That department is full of adults that don’t actually have to take them—kids do....
As a student myself, I can tell you that to take a standardized test, we first practice for a practice test, which is used as a practice for the actual test, but we still do practice for the actual test, and practice for the practice. Confusing? It IS. Whether your class has actually gotten to a certain subject that the testing will go over doesn’t matter, as you are still expected to already know it. And when the testing is over you never get it back to see what you did wrong, just your score. This doesn’t help a student improve! I’ve asked fellow students and each have told me that it only makes them feel stupid. I’ve taken a poll and petition and have recorded that only 1 person likes standardized testing, 23 (and a half) feel that they benefit from it, 66 want to get rid of it, and 101 have said that it makes them feel worse mentally. If you don’t see a problem that 101 students—KIDS, feel worse by pieces of paper, then there is a problem. When it comes down to it, the Department Of Education only cares about our “education,” and not our actual mental health. I know too many kids that feel suicidal and zero students that look forward to the grind of this testing. And the only students that felt they benefitted from this grueling process told me it was because of how colleges look at their scores which helps their chances.
But here’s the thing; multiple countries DON’T take standardized testing and still have many people going to college. And do you want to know the real kicker? They are the top schooling systems in the world.
Now lets delve into the unfairness of these tests. Every year we are told that they are all fair to every student’s as we are each given the same test. THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT UNFAIR. Do not tell me that every single student is exceptional in Mathematics , English, Science, —and Mathematics again! We are not all the same. If a student is horrible at art, everyone immediately tells them that it is okay and how it isn’t for everyone and how art doesn’t have to be good—yet God forbid if someone can’t do a math equation. If you are bad at any major class, you are seen as stupid, not trying hard enough, lazy and that you give up too easily. This is the same message standardized testing gives out. Every student is different and learns different because, believe it or not, we ARE people. Yet standardized testing tests us all the same like we are some type of hive mind! And for those with learning impairments don’t even get a different test—they are just given more time to do it, even if they DON’T want it!
These tests even hurt those students from minority backgrounds, low-income families, and those with impairments! Yet we are all expected to be used as a proper grading system for the teachers. What an excellent idea! That last sentence was a part of my “teenage sarcasm,” if you couldn’t catch it.
What’s worse than the stress and ridiculousness, is that we lose actual learning time! How ironic is it that the test that is meant to measure our learning is also limiting it? This has even caused many students to dislike learning, which is a pity. It’s human nature to be curious and want to learn, yet being forced to kills the motivation of it. The only students that don’t get stressed by these tests are usually the ones that have stopped caring about their grades. As for the parents that agree with it, let me remind you that YOU don’t actually have to take it. You don’t know what it is like to actually sit there for hours and fill in little bubbles that decide your future. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not.
And it also decides teachers’ fates. These tests are used to also punish and even fire teachers! I, myself, have asked some teachers on where they stand with this and they hate them as well! They benefit NO ONE. For those students that do do better on standardized testing than actual school curriculum don’t outweigh the students that do worse on the standardized testing but do well on actual school curriculum. I’ve come to realize that at the end of the day, all that these tests amount to is lowered expectations, insecure students, stressed out kids AND adults, loss of school time and curiosity, and how those in charge are trying to force kids to think and learn one certain way and teach them that anything else is “wrong”—oh, and of course that percentage of students that do well. But the Department Of Education, of course, will only focus on that percentage.
Is this a good time to mention that depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies has increased in teens? Or that standardized testing is increasing? Of course, there can’t possibly be any correlation between the two! Again, that last sentence was some more of my good old sarcasm. If you’ve caught on by now, good job!
Bottom line; standardized testing sucks. Excuse my brash way of saying it. But let’s be real, school is stressful enough without these tests, and when you take as much time as I have to do them, you get a little brash.
If you’ve read all this, thanks! If you read a bit of it, I don’t blame you but thank you all the same! And if you sign this petition, thank you so much. You have no idea what it means to me or any of the other students that suffer from these things.
I’d love to see these tests gone forever, but I know that some students do like them—like that one person on my poll that said yes. And I, unlike the Department of Education, bothered to ask. I want them to at least change. That department is full of adults that don’t actually have to take them—kids do....