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Standardized testing: Education's Hidden Evil

Teachers in many school districts are required to take time out of their regular classroom sessions to give students a general overview of the test, along with several types of practice questions and their answers. The tests take a total of two days and disrupt school schedules, causing students to miss their regular classes. When students are in class, teachers feel that "most tests in use today don't teach kids to be creative thinkers but to be better test takers" (Harris). .
             There is a general consensus that teachers are teaching to the tests, instead of how they would like to teach based on what they feel their students should learn. It is more than common to hear a teacher in an Advanced Placement class tell his students that one set of material is more important to focus on because questions about it appear more frequently on the AP test than that of another topic. Because of this, teachers say that they have to "limit their creativity in the classroom, thereby limiting their ability to teach effectively" (Harris). There is so much information that students are missing out on because it isn't necessary to know for the tests. Standardized testing is robbing America's students of important aspects of the learning process.
             The tests are obviously quite one-sided, with students only learning what they need to know to pass the tests. It is a well-known fact that many states use the tests as a .
             means to decide whether pupils pass high school. "For many students, their scores represent whether they pass or dropout, whether they receive scholarships or whether they will be retained" (10 Reasons). To many people, it just does not seem fair that the outcome of four years of education at a high school should be based entirely on whether a student passes or fails a test. This becomes even more disturbing when we learn that "many states are introducing tests with questions too hard for most adults to answer Students say they are being tested on material to which they have not been exposed" (Harris).


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