Have you ever gotten an A all semester in a class, And one day you take a test and then all of a sudden that A drops to a C? Chances are you're not alone, in fact this happens to over 47% of students across the nation at some point in a school year according to standardizedtest It may not happen at the end of a semester but 17% of those students drop from a passing grade to a failing grade. Then how is it that you had a passing grade before then? This proves that standardized tests do not measure a student's full knowledge.

It is hard for some students to learn. Some may not get above a C all year. But They may get an A or a B on the final and there grade will boost up higher than some of the kids who have gotten an A all year who did bad on the test so their grades dropped. So there is another problem. Along with not measuring a student's knowledge, it counts too much.

People spend money to take tests to make them eligible to get into college. For example people spend $40 on the ACT registration fee and $60 on the writing fee. You have to take this test to go to college. Some people waste money by testing and doing bad on it and that is wrong. If you don't do good on it then you shouldn't feel bad.Sadly some colleges only look at the high scores. Some even have a required score you have to meet.

Some states are taking a stand and eliminating standardized tests completely. States like West Virginia and Oklahoma are leading the way in the stand.  The reason these states can do this is because Barack Obama disagrees with the testing method as well. Obama has even gone to far measures and placed limits on standardized testing. According to one source, “Do tests reflect current knowledge about how students learn? Not at all. While our understanding of the brain and how people learn and think has progressed enormously, standardized tests have remained the same.  Test makers still assume that knowledge can be broken into separate bits and that people learn by absorbing these individual parts,” (Fairest,2). The tests don't change often because they want each kid to have a fair shot, but learning methods change as well as many other things.

Schools are falling in love with standardized tests. One source stated, “Eighteen percent of Cleveland parents said their child's school requires too many standardized tests, and 27 percent of Cleveland's parents said teachers in their children's schools are so focused on the tests that they neglect other forms of teaching,” (Williams). Schools should enhance multiple ways of teaching. Kids don't always learn the same as other kids so they may need a new way to learn it or it may take more 1 on 1 work with the teacher. “The test does more harm than good,”(Cook).

Sure a test is good to see where your class is at and see what you need to teach more of. But almost always on a standardized test that's the student's final grade on that subject. Teachers don't go back and reteach it. They only do that on pre-tests. Some say that this is the lazy teaching method.

I’m not saying we need to get rid of standardized testing all together but i think we expect too much from it. It can’t give you a student's full knowledge, so don’t make it worth so much as a grade. That why I feel like each state should put a limit on standardized testing.