In the best of times, standardized testing is a poor use of student educational time. Only 28 percent of 10,000 teachers polled thought it was an effective way to measure learning. At this time, after most students missed vast amounts of learning last year, continuing to test as if everyone is at normal levels is ridiculous and adds stress to an already incredibly stressful situation for students and for teachers.

Then, there is the money that drives testing. The big corporations write the tests, grade the tests and sell books to prepare students for the tests. Think they are motivated to convince us that testing is good? Much federal and state funding across the nation for schools depends on test results. Tests are designed to be used with their own textbooks. Poor districts cannot afford the new text books that teach to the test so poorer districts continue to do poorly on the tests, thus getting less funding and so on …

These tests are not effective. These billions of dollars could be used to hire more staff, to buy newer better books and learning materials, to renovate buildings, etc.

Testing is a waste of our resources and the time of our students. Do standardized tests in fourth, eighth and 11th grade like we used to! Then allow teachers to teach and students to learn.

How many of us feel being a good test taker has helped us in life?

Valerie Razsa
Gray

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