Dear Viklet,

I am a currently a senior at Shanksville-Stonycreek High School. While I feel that I am receiving a quality education here at the ville, I am writing to the Viklet to express my displeasure with the amount of standardized testing I have taken over the course of my high school career. There are a multitude of problems when it comes to students taking these dreadful exams.

One of the main tests that has recently been implemented into the standardized testing system in Pennsylvania is the Keystone Exams. These are end of course assessments designed to assess proficiency in subjects such as biology and english. These tests do not define intelligence and are not great at developing students’ minds. It’s not right to place stress on students by forcing them to fill in countless multiple choice bubbles in a set amount of time.

The No-Child Left Behind Act of 2001 signed by President George W. Bush required all 50 states to have standardized testing. Despite the order, the U.S. has slowly been declining within the ranks of world education. In certain subjects, such as math and science, the U.S. is towards the back end of the pack internationally. This proves that the standardized testing is not engaging students and encouraging them to perform better in school.

Finally, I would like to say that the standardized testing that we have in place now is a total joke and should be replaced. Teacher’s curriculums should follow what the students are going to use outside of school and beyond rather than conforming to testing standards. If this happened, visible improvements would happen such as student’s willingness to learn, and because of that intellectual levels would rise. These are just a few of the undeniable pitfalls of our flawed standardized testing system in the United States.

Sincerely,

A Dissatisfied and Disappointed Shanksville Senior