Not So Standard The U.S. is the only economically advanced nation to rely heavily on standardized tests. Other nations use performance-based assessments. They use essays, projects, and activities to evaluate students. Oddly, this is because these nations do not focus on teaching to standardize multiple-choice and short-answer tests, they score higher on exams. Standardized tests don’t value diversity. There are a wide range of differences in the people who take standardized tests: they have different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency in the English language, different learning and thinking styles, different family backgrounds, different past experiences. These tests don’t value creativity, individuality, or the learning styles of the children taking them. In David …show more content…
The “No Child Left Behind Law” (NCLB) only tests reading, math, and science. Other subjects are getting less attention: such as history, art, physical education, and social studies. This restructure in the curriculum is very lop-sided. The things that are missed are some of the most important fact in history. “We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Without a history lesson students will not be able to recognize these words as being a part of the most important reason we have the rights and freedoms we have in the United States. Most graduates today don’t know this is the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution, thanks to standardized