Once upon a time, some French guy came up with an idea to test a bunch of people with the same questions to compare their scores. Nowadays, standardized testing is forced upon us. However, the entire system is completely flawed, bringing the use of standardized testing into question.

First, according to “Why Do We Need Standardized Testing?” on New York School Talk, “Standardized tests are a spotlight that help education leaders see what effect schools are having on students. With that information they can make changes to address students’ needs”. However, they are an “unreliable measure of student performance” according to ProCon.org. Not only this but teachers are “teaching the test” meaning they don’t teach everything, just what’s on the test

Standardized testing and public schools are a horrible combination. They are supposed to be a spotlight to help teachers see what they need to help students out with, and instead of helping these students out, schools are “gaming the system” according to ProCon.org. But most of the time, this only focuses on what the test asks, not detailed specifics of what each individual person needs help with. And while the school does have tutors to help with these more specific needs, these tutors aren’t professionals, and it can be difficult to teach someone. And while there are private tutors, they are very expensive, and many students that are failing simply don’t have the money to hire a private tutor.

Standardized testing also puts unnecessary strain on young minds, driving students from even wanting an education if they’re just going to be tested and possibly fail. Stressing students out to try to teach them something isn’t the way to go. “Tests” should be engaging, hands-on exams so students can truly grasp the knowledge they’re being presented.

Last, standardized tests just aren’t realistic. I dislike sounding like a boomer, but in the real world, people work together as teams. This is so that each member of the team can not only pulls their own weight, but also so they can cover each others flaws. If we teach students how to work in teams, even with people they don’t like, we’ll be able to get a more thorough point across. This skill will be way more important than what current tests measure.

State issued, standardized testing is just terrible, it needs to cover more of these points instead of driving students insane with stress. We can still see how well schools are doing, just not with a boring stressful test that doesn’t really teach students anything.