Standardized Testing Persuasive Essay

Valerie Strauss, an education writer for the Washington Post for nearly 30 years, states, “The average student in America's big-city public schools takes some 112 mandatory standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and the end of 12th grade — an average of about eight a year, the study says.” Standardized testing has been used in the United States for over 50 years. There are two types of standardized tests, aptitude tests and achievement tests. An aptitude test measures what a student’s knowledge is in a particular subject area. The achievement tests measure the amount of knowledge one has. The required use of standardized testing can be controversial for many reasons. The amount of time spent preparing, the stress involved, and the limited lifelong benefits from standardized testing all contribute to why

Patte Barth, a director of the Center for Public Education, an initiative of the National School Boards Association, reported that “Teaching to the test can be a good thing: it simply means focusing on essential content and skills, eliminating time-wasting activities that don’t produce learning gains, and motivating students to excel.” The amount of time spent preparing and taking the standardized tests distracts from learning more valuable skills. Therefore, standardized testing should no longer be used in the state of Ohio. Reporting for Washington post for an estimated 30 years, Valerie Strauss claims, “In the 2014-15 school year, on average, 1,110 minutes were dedicated to the New York State standardized testing process (in reading and math) for students in Grades 3-6 and 1,134 minutes were dedicated to this process for students in Grades 7-8. This represents 2 percent of “required annual instructional hours.” This statistic demonstrates schools in the United States spend way to much time on standardized testing. This quote proves students spend too much time on test taking because there are a lot of valuable