In my personal opinion I do not believe that tests are an accurate measure of student success. Having 9 years of experience, I have plenty of reasons why.

I think that the state tests are so much more difficult than they need to be and every year those standards get higher and higher. I remember taking these tests and even the teachers did not understand the problems. I have been told by teachers that the higher a school’s scores, the more money that they get from the state. I think that this is completely outrageous!

This is why teachers stress state tests so much and it is not their fault. Most of the time these tests do not even contribute to our overall grades, but these are the tests that are most important. These are the tests  that our teachers take weeks out of class to prepare us for. The high standards of these tests make it unrealistic for the majority of the students. Tests in school I feel are somewhat alike to these state tests. Recently I took a midterm that was 7 questions long. If you miss even the smallest portion of a question your A is gone.

I think that students taking tests are not so much a measure of the students success, but a measure of the teachers success. If an entire class does badly on a test it is most likely not because all of the students were not paying attention, but that the teacher did not teacher the lesson thoroughly enough for all of the students to understand. I think that teachers should begin having to take tests to make sure that they know the skills well enough to teach the students and make sure that they understand completely.