Standardized Testing Doesn’t Work

Jenna Marlow

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As winter approaches, students prepare themselves for standardized testing. For Powell High School, the testing starts the day after Thanksgiving break. While this isn’t unusual for schools, it is self-sabotage for schools looking for their student's scores to blow state standards out of the water. Most students can’t remember what they ate for dinner, which isn’t different from any other aspect of their lives. The amount of sleep or “brain fuel” consumed at the breakfast table is not going to help students on their tests. Not only is the EOC (End of Course) test unnecessary, but it also counts for fifteen percent of your grade. FIFTEEN PERCENT!! You could be a perfect student the entire semester, but if you tank the EOC all that hard work is for nothing. This is why schools should no longer have standardized testing. It teaches students to be good at test taking, rather than remembering the content. The State of Tennessee Department of Education (or one of their contractors) can grade all the tests they want; however, only a teacher knows a student's capability. A student who is considered academically successful might have amazing test scores, however, when they get out into the world their people skills are nonexistent. While another student can talk to a stranger for hours but test anxiety can plummet their scores. If schools did not use this outdated way of rating students’ knowledge they would see better results from the transition from high school to the real world. These results would be better because a professional's knowledge comes from experience, not a test. This is why an EOC is not needed, a student's knowledge can be recorded by a teacher who is passionate about the subject, not a cold sheet of paper and a number two pencil.