Dear Future President,

Consider this, you walk into a middle school class on a test day, what might you see? You may see students reading through a practice packet for the math or science test, yeah, in our world we’re scrambling around trying to study all we can so we don't fail the math or science test we have next period. This exceeded stress level was caused by the standardized testing system that was supposed to “help” us.

In 2002 the no child left behind act was passed and state mandated tests were created. In the year 2000 we were ranked 18th in the world in mathematical practice, by 2012, after nearly ten years of standardized testing we had dropped to 27th with a similar decline in science but still no change in reading. Most have blamed this on the rising amounts of poverty, the teacher quality, and the spreading use of standardized testing. The standardized test teach a narrow curriculum and seems to “teach to test” .according to factcheck.org teaching to test lowers the numbers in creativity and critical thinkers.

I propose a system that works at a student's capabilities as opposed to the whole student body. A system that will still have a firm structure but better taught curriculum than that of the currently used common core. If the common core system had never come to be think about all of the creativity we’d have in our world today. Unfortunately, that won't happen for many years to come as long as we learn under the dark shadow of the current system and we have janet napolitano to thank for it. Janet Napolitano was the chair of the national governors association from 2006 through 2007, created common core as a “high quality” education for schools grades K-12. These learning goals outline what students should know. This system was created so that every student exceeds high school. However, through the common core system over the years our nation has shown no progress and has lost ground on other nations due to this system.

I myself struggle with math and find that the common core system does nothing to improve my learning ability and makes it harder for me to comprehend and complete the work. That's why i propose a system that's easier to comprehend than the strenuous methods of common core. We need a better way. Even now states are opposing the common core system for the very reason that their students are failing because of it. With a new system our country could be one of the top ranked in math again. Do you really want half of the next generation not even making it through high school?

Thank you for your consideration,

Payton N.