The PSAT, SAT, ACT, and SOL are just some of the tests that make up each of our futures. These tests determine our fate. Isn't this a lot of pressure, put upon the testing systems for each student to succeed? In the same aspect of it is this is all we are learned to prepare for. When the society is solely biased upon passing these tests or scoring in the highest percentile, we forget the purpose of the actual learning. Do we even learn in the end or do we just shove facts upon facts into our brains that eventually disappear in a few years to come.
In one of my classes a few days ago, my history teacher exclaimed that for the next two weeks we will be running a sprint for obtaining information for the midterm. In fact he said "it doesn't matter that you learn, what matters is that all of you pass the midterm." This is what the school system is composed of, tests, tests, and more tests. We are so prepared to memorize information that we "need" to know instead of understanding any of it. If this is the purpose of the schooling system, something needs to be fixed.
Standardized testing has been a part of the school system for centuries. Michelle Rhee published an article in 2010 on the fact that public schools and teachers make the system only based upon tests that will determine our grade, eventually determining our GPA and then our colleges we may attend. In a recent study done on standardized testing, it is proven that scores have not improved students achievement. Standardized testing in the public school system is the focal point in the understanding of knowledge in each subject, but do we actually obtain information. In some ways the test can prepare the students for college and advanced level classes but in the way we approach these tests, it can be misleading to both the students and the teachers.
Although these tests are the only way we have ever done anything in order to determine the placement and understanding of each student. This has been a long standing controversy and I feel the tests are beneficial, but sometimes the ultimate goals of the teachers are only to get each student to pass, when ideally the ultimate goal in the end should be how much each student was able to actually learn in the class. When something is tried to be done in mass amounts, there will always be flaws in part of it, but some flaws are much bigger than a simple fix, but a truly messed up side of it.
