Standardized Testing: Public Education In The United States

In recent years testing has been a huge component of public education in the United States. Students take year long classes and then are forced to take long exams based on what they have learned. The problem with this is that many of these classes don’t provide students with the tools that they need to function outside the classroom. It is true that some of these classes are necessary and need to be taught, however, this is not the case for all of them. Standardized testing needs to be re-evaluated and replaced with more beneficial ways of teaching students information. If more schools offered classes that taught students important skills like how to budget or made the material more interesting students would be more engaged and would be

These tests begin in the third grade and take place at the end of the school year. Students are tested in English and mathematics and have to use the information and the skills they learned throughout the year. Not only are these tests long and hard they are used as tools for deciding whether or not a student will go to the next grade. This system has many flaws and they do more harm than good. First off, many students are not good test takers and tend to do poorly on them. It is unfair that a student could be left back because of one bad test grade. Although standard testing may not be the best option for most students there are some benefits. One being that it gives students a glance into the future and how testing never really goes away. In high school students are constantly taking quizzes exams and tests. Some of the more well-known ones are the regents, SAT and ACT. The regents are more like the state tests, however, the SAT and ACT are much more demanding. Students have to enroll in prep classes and take multiple practice test in order to do well on the test. While this helps students become organized and more responsible it can cause many students to be stressed out. Families have to spend money on classes and materials used to prepare for these tests. Students have to balance school work and test prep which from personal experience is very stressful. It is true that these test challenge students to retain information which is a good skill to have but, there are other options besides