Letter: Is standardized school testing worth it?

Standardized testing was put in place to measure the progress of children throughout the school year, but the question arises time and time again, “Is it worth it?”

These tests put unnecessary stress onto kids because if they fail, they are put into the “dumb” class or forced to take a reading or math lab. The pressure to do good on these tests isn’t just put on the students. Many times a teacher’s job will be held in the balance to see whether their students do well on the tests or not. Some teachers will help their students get some answers right so they themselves will look good to the school board.

Instead of having such a reliance on these tests to judge how teachers and kids are doing, the state governments should use the millions of dollars they spend on the tests to actually educate the students. School budgets are determined on those test results, but shouldn’t every school get roughly the same amount of money?

I believe that instead of trying to collect data for a statistic, states should use the money they spend on testing to better teach the kids.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 3:25 AM with the headline "Letter: Is standardized school testing worth it?."