In the Pennsylvania elementary and middle schools, state testing demands that schools designate a week to administer the Keystone exams or PSSAs. This can cause teachers a great deal of stress because they are forced to “teach to the test” that the state requires students to take.

The test of course is merely a way for the state to gauge where a school ranks in comparison to other schools in the state, and therefore the amount of money the school may be entitled to receive. The highest scoring schools will obtain more funding from the state, while the poorer scoring schools will receive little to no funding.

Under the Bush’s presidency, the No Child left Behind Act was passed to encourage schools to shoot for success and to encourage competition among schools. Ironically, this has achieved the opposite effect that President Bush set forth during his presidency.

During the time No Child Left Behind was implemented by Mr. Bush, a 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”

During the Obama presidency, The President implemented the “Race to the Top” educational program that aims to look at students’ test scores in relation to the way that teachers teach. Mr. Obama also proposed that if schools were failing to meet the requirements of success in testing, they will be shut down and turned into charter schools, which President Obama believes will achieve much more than public schools.

The test by which President Obama believes education can be measured is called the Common Core and was created to determine success on a national, rather than state, level.

When I attended Gladwyne Elementary and Welsh Valley Middle School, teachers and counselors continually stressed good study habits before the statewide testing took place the following week. I personally never felt stressed. If anything, I was thrilled that I would not be assigned homework the following week!

The tests weren’t too difficult and I was not wracking my brain over them. As Lower Merion students, we do not have trouble completing these tests during our early education because we are fortunate to be given one of the best educations offered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

However, in an urban, impoverished community in Philadelphia, a student may not be given the same quality of education, and has other outside circumstances that affect their overall educational experience. As a result these students often fall behind.

Moreover, the poor education they receive does not put them in a position to achieve high scores on standardized tests. As a result, the top-notch schools receive the most while the schools that truly need the funds often do not receive them.

At the high school level, matters only worsen for students in poor, urban schools. If any students want to pursue a college education, many schools require either they take the SAT or ACT. The disparity of wealth between urban and rural areas affects student’s education, and it is easy to understand how this can affect test taking habits, as well as the drive to succeed on these tests and in school.

Many students in Lower Merion are able to afford tutoring and other forms of prep for these tests. If you cannot afford this prep, you are already at a severe disadvantage. How is this fair? Standardized tests create an unfair disadvantage for underprivileged students; no matter how hard they strive to achieve, their wealthier peers generally outperform them.

Throughout the entire process of tutoring and studying for tests, I have come to realize that they are not reliable indicators of a particular student’s abilities. Presidents might promote different methods and programs in the hope of increasing our intelligence as a nation.

But, at the end of the day, we are left wondering what is “teaching to the test” really accomplishing? And how is a test a fair indication of intelligence if wealth is a determining factor in achievement? I cannot help but wonder whether our time is better spent studying and understanding material in order to actually learn, rather than memorizing information purely for the purpose of achieving a high test score.

It is my hope that our educational institutions will realize how unjust standardized testing is – both logically and economically – and strive to develop more accurate ways to assess a student’s intelligence.