Commentary Article

Every year, at about the same time, something strange happens at every school in Texas. Instead of going to normal classes and learning, students hunker down in a classroom and prepare for a "4 hour" test. But, lets be honest, most people usually finish in about an hour and then spend the next three reading a book or rolling your pencil across the desk; unless you're the one person in the class who somehow takes three hours in every test (I'm looking at you, Rohan). This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the STAAR test. Standardized tests are a staple of public schooling and have been for a while, and it's surprising why they are still a thing considering EVERYONE (especially teachers!) hate them. I think standardized tests are ridiculous and should be abolished immediately.

First of all, studies have shown that standardized testing doesn't help students. According to the national academy, despite the use of standardized tests for a while, educators found that incentives created by standardized tests did not improve education. Did you know that after the No Child Left Behind act was passed in 2002*, the U.S. went from 18th in math in the world on the Programme for International student assessment to 31st in 2009. So standardized tests aren't just unhelpful, they are literally hurting student's education. And it makes sense to. Don't you think it would be more useful to use the several days that you lose due to testing for something helpful, like learning new information, instead of sitting around like a vegetable?

 Now, haters will say, "wait! wait! The point of standardized tests isn't to improve learning for students immediately, they're for measuring a students' academic achievement so that the student can be placed in classes that help them the most." You know what I say to that? Wrong.  According to a study published by Brookings institution in 2001 that found that 50-80% of test score improvements were temporary and only caused by normal fluctuations that had nothing to do with the level of learning by a student. So with these "normal fluctuations" how are standardized tests good enough to measure a students' long term intelligence? Spoiler alert: they aren't.

Tests are extremely stressful, especially to younger students. According to the Sacramento Bee, test related jitters were so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do if a student vomits on it. Are you kidding me? Kids don't need to be subject to this much stress. Life itself is already stressful enough for some people, and with the stress of a single test that decides "how smart you are", it's obvious how it could become too much for some people. Especially if the stress is so bad that you literally have to include instructions on what to do if a student vomits on a test due to stress.

 I think it is completely obvious that standardized tests are inadequate because they don't measure long term intelligence, and they hinder your learning ability. I think students and teachers alike can unite and say that standardized tests should be abolished.

*NCLB was the act that made standardized testing mandatory for all schools across the U.S.

https://docs.google.com/a/austinisd.org/document/d/1sNWAJDkKaRY9ISjw_1jkyhTo76lUPK4gIYKQR2M4JA4/edit?usp=sharing