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It is widely known throughout the education community that students have different learning styles and comprehension levels. The standardized testing that exists for most schools systems do not address all of the possible learning styles or retention levels of the students that they are testing. As a former educator, I found it quite frustrating to watch my colleagues teach only the materials required for the actual tests. Everyday beating the correct question and response format so that the students might have a better chance at passing. Instead of teaching the art of free-writing, which leads to free-thinking, the students were instructed and graded solely on the format that the state required. This limited the amount of information that could be absorbed by the students and crippled the students who were not at the same learning pace as their classmates. Not only that, but a majority of the tests that states require do not account for the lack of instructional tools in some school districts.

For instance, a high school located in a prominent community may have access to highly technical science labs that allow for exploration of ideas to which an underprivileged inner-city school does not. Should these students then be held accountable to answer the same questions related to these ideas to which they have not been exposed? Most state governments say yes. Instead of focusing of ridiculous testing that does not reflect the true knowledge obtained in the classroom, perhaps state governments should focus more on providing funding to the less privileged school districts so that the education level of all students statewide can be compared effectively. All schools should be equipped with equal amounts of technology, books and other resources. As long and schools differ economically and the state governments continue to ignore financial discrepancies among the school districts, standardized testing will remain pointless and ineffective. Standardized testing as it is today, simply keeps the privileged privileged and those who are not dreaming of a better but unattainable life.

Learn more about this author, Eileen Christenson.
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