Sarai Colon

My name is Sarai Colon; I’m a Communications major at the University Maryland and I’m against standardized testing.

A bulk of my time in school was focused on learning what material would be on the test that would determine whether or not we were smart enough to move up. There was a lot of pressure to do well; by the time I got to high school, the norm for students was pressure. I saw students with the highest grades crying over test scores. The norm was wearing expressions of defeat and going without sleep for days. No one believed school should be fun, it call came down to the tests that supposedly determined our worth.

Everyone talked about getting high scores on the HSAs, and the crown jewel, the SATs. If you got a low score people would give you sympathetic looks because the chances of getting into a good college or getting money to go there, would drop significantly. It didn’t matter if you weren’t a good  test taker or a brilliant writer or a creative thinker; standardized testing was all about knowing how to take the test.

It’s time we stop determining a child’s future with a test and start giving them opportunities to shine, and encouraging their potential. Kids need to know they’re not stupid and hopeless if they don’t do well on a test. We have to lift our students up not bring them down.