Dear Mr. or Madam President of the United States of America,

I would like to address a situation that’s been crossing the U.S with unnecessary stress and overwhelming situations. Now I am aware that tests are influential to challange students to see how much they’ve payed attention in class and or have progressed. But we arent just talking about regular tests, we are talking about Standardized testing. STAAR testing has been around for years, but over those years, plenty of situations have erupted overtime. Mr. or Madam President, we need to reduce the amount of educational dependence on just the testing and support the student’s overall year.

For example, an average student in class could be a straight A student, but they could struggle on standardized testing. But yet the district is not going to look at the student’s excellence throughout the year, their going to determine their progress based on their STAAR test grade. Should one test really determine your education as a student? According to Casserly from washingtonpost.com, In 40 percent of districts surveyed, test results aren’t available until the following school year, making them useless for teachers who want to use results to help guide their work in the classroom. So we are putting this much stress for teachers to get students ready for the STAAR test all year, when the grades might not even be addressed by the end of the year?

Now according to standardizedtesting.procon.org, there are parents and students that do believe that STAAR testing is benefitial for the student’s education. A June-July 2013 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 75% of parents say standardized tests "are a solid measure of their children's abilities" and 69% say the tests "are a good measure of the schools' quality." 93% of parents say standardized tests "should be used to identify areas where students need extra help" and 61% say their children "take an appropriate number of standardized tests." I understand how STAAR can help students in areas where their not very strong in, but do you really know how many tests an average student takes that needs to help thoses areas their struggling in? Do the parents even understand how know how big the tests are?

The big issue that should not come across students this young is stress. If our child comes home from school crying because of the STAAR test, would you really want that to happen to the rest of the population? I know that typical everyday school work and tests can stress any student out, but do we really know how many tests an average student takes in all their school years? A typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and 12th grade, a new Council of the Great City Schools study found. That is only one student out of all of the districts of the U.S. For how big the U.S population is with the amount of tests taken to each student is ridiculously too much.

Congratulations on becoming the new president of 2016-2020. That is a big honor and responsibility to lead this beautiful country. Therefore with that leadership, extremely devote into changing standardized testing to make education turn from stressfulness to peacefulness. Students start crying and working themselves up on a test that may not even show your grades till your next school year. It is not accurate to just take one grade that the student may have failed, but yet is always an excellent student. This one grade determines your whole school year. Mr. or Madam President, reduce the amount of educational dependence on the testing and look more at the student’s overall year. It is key for you to look into the standardized testing system to help advance the system to greater and better ways to teach our students for the future. We can make a difference for the U.S benefits. But it needs to start somewhere immediately.

Thank you,

Lindsey M.

Works Cited:

#1 & #3

"Study Says Standardized Testing Is Overwhelming Nation's Public Schools." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

#2

By Mar. 2002, after a Surge in Testing and the Passing of NCLB, That Figure Dropped to 47%. "Standardized Tests - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

"Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?" Concordia Portland Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

"Pros And Cons of Standardized Testing." Kavips. N.p., 07 June 2013. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

@ernweb. "Pros and Cons of NCLB: What the Research Says." Educational Research Newsletter and Webinars. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

"Pro & Cons of the SAT Test | The Classroom | Synonym." Pro & Cons of the SAT Test | The Classroom | Synonym. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.