Dear future President,

I am an 11th-grade student attending Oak Hills High School and I am writing this to bring your attention to some things that I think should be changed about standardized testing. I question some things about standardized testing like, "How are they helpful?"(me), "Why are they necessary to graduate?"(me), "Why should students be judged by one test score?"(me). This is a topic I feel strongly about.

One thing I think should be changed about standardized testing is the fact that your score one the test determines your future. I think that your grades throughout your high school year should determine whether or not you graduate or are accepted into a certain college. Through my research this is what I found, "The next month, the University of Delaware announced that it would no longer require in-state students to submit SAT scores, citing research that high school grades better predict college access."(gale group). In this quote it is stating that there are colleges that are agreeing with the fact that your score on standardized testing is not a great way to determine whether or not you are accepted into college.

Another reason that standardized testing should change is because the topics they are tested on are not a wide enough variety to determine students capabilities. Research says “Additionally, because of the small sample of knowledge that is tested, standardized tests provide a very incomplete picture of student achievement.”(gale group). That being said this has proved my theory as correct.

Some ways that you could do to fix this problem are, the tests could be made up of topics and lessons that the teachers and students have gone over and reviewed throughout the year rather than topics they rarely go over during the school year. Also I do not think that students should be judged based on their test scores in order to be accepted into a college or to graduate. I think that you should make it where they are judged by their grades during their years in high school. Another way is not having students take the standardized tests at all.

Overall I think that standardized testing should be changed or considerably not mandatory. No student should be judged based on a score and no teacher should be based on the scores of their students on the standardized testing. That is why I believe changing standardized testing is an important issue to be approached. Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. I hope the issues and facts I have brought to your attention have made an impression on your idea of standardized testing.

Sincerely,

Megan