Excessive Testing in American Schools

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Excessive Testing in American Schools

General testing in today's school systems has a negative effect upon the actual learning of the students. Standardized testing narrows school curriculum, labels children as failures at a young age, and uses money that could possibly be used in a more productive manner.

While standardized tests are problematic at all ages and levels of schooling, they are especially questionable in primary grades. In these years children's growth is idiosyncratic (Russel, 2002). Skills needed for school's success are in their most vulnerable stage. Failure at this age can be devastating. 'My six year old is already crying himself to sleep at night worrying about his SATs,' states Mark Adams from BBC news (2003, p.1). It is necessary for teachers, school administrators, and parents to strongly argue that testing in the early years must end and testing in the years following must be reduced.

How many of us really believe that a child's intelligence, achievement, and confidence can be represented adequately by standardized tests? How can any distribution curve classify all children? What about all we have learned about children?s growth and their response to education? Few teachers and parents would accept that a single test score could define any child (Russel, 2002). We must ask if these tests address the educational concerns of teachers and parents and do they provide useful information about individual children or the class. Almost all teachers feel pressure to teach to the tests and feel that tests clearly limit educational possibilities for students (Russel, 2002). We feel it is detrimental to a child's education to enjoy reading. An article reported by the BBC news (2003) entitle...

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