My Opinion Story

All students are familiar with standardized tests, STAAR, SAT, ACT, MOY, AP tests, etc., and the stress they bring with them. We are forced to think the same way the test makers think, because of the somewhat-biased choices, avoid the correct-looking-wrong-answers, and become masters in subjects that do not always interest us. I think that this is wrong, students shouldn’t be required to spend hours differentiating between a, b, c, and d, or writing essays on ridiculous prompts that don’t truly reflect our writing skill.

Although I realize that some measure of knowledge is needed to show if students are learning enough, I don’t think that standardized tests are the way to go. First of all, these tests don’t take into account learning impairments as much as they could. For example many students read slowly, but these tests don’t accommodate that.

Secondly, the time constraints make students nervous and stressed as time runs out. For instance, many students like to double check their answers to ensure that they answered every question right, but the time constraint doesn’t always allow these students enough time to do this. 

In addition, the sheer number of questions is ridiculous; sixty questions about grammar, sentence structure, and literary analysis is excessive. For example, students in Texas must take the English STARR test twice in high school. 

Lastly, students are required to take five STAAR tests to pass high school, but three of these are generally taken during freshman year. Even if a student takes algebra in 8^th grade, they still must take two STAAR tests in 9^th grade, while sophomores and juniors take one STAAR test and seniors take none. If we could just take biology in 9^th grade, English II in 10^th grade, algebra II in 11^th grade, and United States government in 12^th grade, then there would be less stress freshman year, and fewer tests to take for high school students.

I don’t agree with the fact that students have to take both the English I STAAR and the English II STAAR. If we could just take the English II test, then our skills would still be tested and we wouldn’t be as stressed freshman year. In addition, if we could just take an Algebra II test instead of the Algebra I test, then our skills would be more developed and we could take fewer tests as a 14-15 year old. And instead of taking an United States history test, knowledge that is rarely used, we could take an United States government test, we would be more knowledgeable about our government and this knowledge is much more relevant in today’s world than U.S. history.

I think that standardized tests are too stressful and don’t accurately measure students’ knowledge because the test is unaccommodating for disadvantaged students, and because of the time constraint, and somewhat-biased answers.