April represents the beginning of spring to some, but to students across the country, April marks the beginning of a new season: testing season. Students are tested annually by government mandated standardized tests. This testing takes up instructional time and creates unnecessary stress for students and educators. The emphasis put on these tests and the pressure to succeed is detrimental to the mental health of the student body. Test burnout and the general despise for standardized testing causes the results to be meaningless. Schools should focus on assessing students holistically instead of reducing them to statistics on Scantron tests.

The Colorado high school graduating class of 2018 was given four different tests from 2010 to 2015 (TCAP, CSAP, CMAS and PARCC). With each new name came a different, short-lived test. The underlying problem was not with the test content, but with the existence of the test itself. Eliminating standardized testing would save individual states approximately $1.7 billion per year. After the No Child Left Behind Act, the U.S. went from 18th to 31st in the world in math achievement, an overall decrease in progress once the tests were implemented.

One may argue that standardized testing is a way to measure achievement on the same scale, but abilities are exaggerated or compromised when only four subjects (reading, writing, math and science, primarily) are tested. Having the same scale lumps students together to conform them to a standard, rather than emphasize what makes them unique from others.

Improvement isn’t mass produced; it’s a human learning process. Students aren’t just machines trained to bubble A, B, C or D. They’re innovators, creators and trailblazers. They’re the future of our nation and they’re capable of changing our country for the better. It’s about time the education system treated them as such.

Nikki Schlegel