Driver While Texting

MORE than Standardized Tests

Sammy North

DeVry University

MORE Than Standardized Tests

Brittany, an honors student in Atlanta, Georgia, had worked hard her entire academic career to celebrate what would be her proudest moment in high school: commencement. She wanted to walk across the stage to the flash of cameras and smiles of her family just like her classmates, and then journey off to a college in South Carolina where she had already been accepted. So she gathered her proud family members from Chicago and Washington, D.C., to come to share in her joy. Brittany watched as her classmates put on their caps and gowns, and walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. But she did not, and waited all during the day to get a last-minute waiver signed. She continued to wait through the night, but it never came. She began to realize that if she graduated, it would not be quick or easy. Her problem was that she had not passed one of four subject areas in the state’s graduation test, which students must pass to earn a regular diploma. She is not alone. Thousands of students, such as Brittany, every year do not make it across the stage at graduation due to failing these state tests. And many of them, such as Brittany, were honors students who had fulfilled all the other requirements of graduation except this one (Torres, 2010).

Stories such as this one are far too common and should not happen, and we have the power to change the status quo, so that no student should have to follow the same path as Brittany. This problem can be solved, though like Brittany’s case, it will be neither quick nor easy.

The purpose of this proposal on replacing standardized tests with end-of-year subject tests is to convince readers that changing assessments in education will improve education, and a strong educational system will result in several positive outcomes. Though I am a novice scholar, I will include several sources that will establish my credibility regarding standardized...