When I was in high school, everything was a test. Finishing homework was a test. Becoming the teacher’s pet was a test. Struggling with adolescent hormones was a test. Everything was a test . . . except for the actual annual state tests, which were at the bottom of our priorities list. That is, these tests were the least of our least worries—until the very last month before the test date. Suddenly, teachers would stab the concept into our brains that these tests would decide our graduation, our college, our futures. If these standardized tests were so important, why were students not given a reason to care earlier? Why did they seem so out of place? Well, the teachers were not passionate about the tests either, so they did not push the idea until they had to. They were simply required to have us take the tests because the standardized tests were mandatory by law, that law being the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA). Under the 2002 legislation, all 50 states in the United States are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school (Kozol). Yet, can a test
This not by choice but is necessary for survival in public school. If the students do not score high enough, they compare themselves to and are outcasted by their peers, negatively affecting their mental/emotional health. A distinct difference is made between those who score high and those who score low. Therefore, by “equalizing” students using a standardized test, the students are instead polarized. More-so, standardized tests polarize students without even considering the students’ disadvantages. By passing the NCLBA, the United States had achieved unity but lost sight of the student as an individual. In doing so, students no longer have an education catered to them but to the test. Everything is about the test. Everything is a