My son was asked to write a short essay on standardized testing. I thought I’d share it with the world. Note that these are his opinions, not mine!
I’ve edited it slightly for clarity.
Should Standardized Testing Be Scrapped?
I strongly believe that we should definitely scrap NAPLAN [Ed : NAPLAN is the nationwide standardized testing that takes place in Australia] for many reasons. Although there’s the government that disagrees with me, as well as many other politicians and people. Well, now I will tell you that the government has a very sneaky plan, and also the many other reasons that I have.
Firstly, NAPLAN is for grades three, five, seven and nine. However, the government secretly encourages schools to do NAPLAN for all grades, right behind parents’ backs [Ed : when my son was in grade 4, he was in a mixed 4/5 class, and did the year 5 NAPLAN along with his classmates]. This would mean that students since grade one are constantly doing a test just for test skills. Then the kids get put into heaps of tests. And if you win a money prize for one of the tests, you have to immediately pay tax on your prize, which means the government gets most of the money! See how sneaky the government is!
Secondly, wasn’t NAPLAN made for seeing how clever a child is? Well, then, why are there time limits that force you to only learn test skills, which are not in the least important to anyone? Although, there are tests like this from grade 1 all the way to grade 12.
Thirdly, can’t you have any compassion for a child doing at least 1344 hours of NAPLAN each year? This would be sixteen thousand one hundred and twenty-eight hours in your primary and high school schooling years. Almost nobody could stand that much NAPLAN.
Therefore I conclude that NAPLAN should be scrapped.