To Test or Not to Test?

The New York Times recently reported that parents in Royal Palm Beach, Florida rallied to voice their frustrations with the number of standardized tests that have come pouring in from district, state, and federal levels. Some are concerned that their teenagers have to take anxiety pills to cope with stress; others mentioned the fact that some teachers would rather retire than "promote a culture that seems to value testing over learning." The influx of tests are due to the state trying to fulfill federal grant obligations on teacher evaluations, and also due to the district trying to keep up with the new Common Core standards, which are making standards harder and standardized tests much more difficult. All of these tests, in addition to SATs, ACTs, and AP tests, are weighing down heavily on the students, and on the teachers who instruct them. Many schools in Florida this year will dedicate 60-80 out of 180 school days for standardized testing. Now, the question is this - Is this what we call "quality education"?

In my opinion, standardized testing is not an accurate assessment on a student's academic ability. I also believe that implementing an increased number of standardized tests creates a learning environment in which the teachers are forced to "teach to a test". Arne Duncan said that the teachers have not had enough time to adapt to these new standards and tests. When the teachers have to adapt and change their way of teaching to meet new, harder standards, the students suffer from bad test scores. When students get bad test scores, it reflects poorly on them, on the teachers, and on the schools. Because the students get bad test scores on the tests that the government uses as evaluators, schools and teachers get less money to function, and this limits the resources that the students are able to receive to get a quality education. Then the cycle repeats.

America's education system is flawed, and needs drastic changes. Students nowadays are just taking in information that they need to get good grades on tests, instead of actually learning and retaining the material that they need to succeed in the real world. I've seen first-hand that students in 12th grade just work to get the "A", so that they can satisfy parents, colleges, etc. What I think that the government should do is stop making formulas and standards that "equally evaluate" students. The government needs to stop creating a system of education that conforms students to what they believe are apt standards. If we keep going down this road, free-thinking and actual learning will be a thing of the past.