It’s no secret that adolescents and children are more anxious and depressed nowadays. When analyzing why, school was found to be a big factor. In a society where the education system places an immense amount of pressure and stress on their students, standardized testing is no exception. For as long as I have been in school this has been a severe point of anxiety for me and my peers. Preparing for months or sometimes years in advance for these brutal exams, it is supposed to be a test of our knowledge. However it is just a measure of our performance abilities. It is not an accurate way to test our achievements, skills, or success and only has a severe negative impact on students’ health and overall well-being. 

This has been a controversial topic since standardized testing started to become more and more serious. There have been drastically different opinions on this topic, varying from wanting to get rid of testing as a whole and some stating that it is a perfect way to test students’ knowledge. Not only does it place unfair expectations on students, it is also found to put certain races at a disadvantage. With the continuation of this, students are obviously developing more mental illness partly because of the severe expectations placed on them by teachers and parents.

Despite the minor advantages of using standardized testing, it is obviously clear the mental and physical problems and overall negative effects that testing has on students. 

 

In one particular article, “What We Should Do About Standardized Tests” written by a student Carlos Alejandro Los Santo, he delves into the problems with standardized testing and his personal issues surrounding this topic. Starting off with a  scenario of coming home after 

a long day, he is ready for dinner only to come to the table greeted by a textbook, notebook and pencil while explaining that you need to study before you are allowed to eat. They proceed to say that if he does not do well on his tests he will ruin his future. He adds it is as “if you do not excel in your exams, you won’t get into a good college and you won’t have a good life” This often reflects parents all over, putting their own level of stress on their children’s academic achievement. As parents it’s important to make your child feel safe, comfortable and supported but as De Los Santos made clear, many of them have also become swept up with grades, triggering more anxiety in students than they already had, not focusing on what is truly important in life. He uses pathos by appealing to people’s emotional side and making his readers more sympathetic to this topic. By bringing in his own personal story with his parents he enables the audience to really focus in on his point and make his argument more relatable and understandable. This could possibly make it more appealing to them and his aimed audience, who are potentially people going through the same situation. Students his age have had the same anxiety placed on them and also have issues with standardized testing. This story makes it really easy for his audience to relate because they are going through the same problem. 

He proceeds to talk about the mental issues that could come out of these tests, especially when you put so much of your energy and focus into studying it can really have severe negative outcomes on mental health. Exclaiming “ “It can feel as if your life is dependent on multiple choice questions……Testing can really take its toll mentally”. Again he is using pathos, by bringing in his own mental issues with testing and forcing people to sympathize with him because of this.  It’s very obvious how detrimental studying and the anxiety behind that can have on a person. Teachers, parents and the education system as a whole choose to ignore these aspects, because they think the outcome of testing is more important. However, that should not be the case.

“Effects of Standardized Testing on Students Well-Being”, a report done by Christina Simpson, showed some of the evidence proving the negative impact of school and testing on students’ mental health. Stating in her article that research done by the American Psychological Association (APA) showed “Respondents reported stress levels far above what they view as healthy, and on average, teens’ reported stress levels were higher than adults’…….Eighty-three percent of teens surveyed cited school as a source of stress”. She goes on to show how kids were worried about their exams and getting into college. This statistically shows the effects that school and standardized testing can actually have on a child. She also focuses on specific children and proclaims “Health consequences associated with standardized testing were cited as including stomach aches and vomiting, headaches, sleep problems, depression, attendance problems, and acting out”. She explains that any age student should not be going through these problems and anxiety over testing, and how parents were concerned for their children’s mental stability. De Los Santos was able to put this point across without actually bringing in any facts but by catering emotionally to his readers, while this article in comparison used ethos. 

The mental health issues are evidently present in students today from the outcome of our education system and research has proven that, however it is hard to make these necessary changes. De los Santos goes on to say “With something so ingrained into the American education system, it may be difficult to even question it’s validity. Tradition is always something people have difficulty questioning and changing”. This is a very important question to bring up, asking ourselves why we were not straying away from this and why it’s not being talked about more. Even the creator of standardized testing, Frederick J. Kelly stated, “These tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned”. He said this shortly after the tests were created and should give some insight into how bad they truly are.  In society we really tend to cling to what we know and this is not always the best option for human growth. Thankfully there are constantly more stories surfacing regarding standardized testing and as time goes on more people are confidently speaking out. Despite peoples need to follow tradition, De los Santos is able to bring up a very powerful question and makes the point that it can be beneficial to stray away from tradition. 

However not everybody agrees with these arguments and does not understand De Los Santos’ point. One journalist, Lane Wright, in his article “Why Do We Need Standardized Tests?”, delves into the pros of testing and why it’s crucial to keep them around. He starts off by talking about how this is not truly an evaluation of individual students’ test scores but Wright says “it’s to check the education system as a whole. The results are a reflection on school leaders at the local, district and state levels”. However it is not appropriate to say that this can just be a reflection of the education system because ultimately we are using these tests for individual scores to test our knowledge. We use these scores as a way to apply for college and our often judged almost solely based on our grade. Wright goes on to make the claim that  “Standardized tests help principals and other school leaders figure out which groups of students are struggling and gives them the evidence they need to push for changes”. De Los Santos makes it evident that this is not actually an accurate representation of students skills. We can’t use this as a tool to understand which students are struggling because ultimately it is not a fair test of  knowledge as a result of different issues including test anxiety.  These are very big issues that Wright chooses to look past that, only focusing on the minor, and not even accurate ways that testing can benefit us. At the end of his argument he states that “clearly having an imperfect test is better than no test at all”. This is an ignorant statement because he is objectively ignoring all the severe issues with standardized testing, pushing aside all the emotional and physical consequences that students face daily. De Los Santos makes it clear that this is also not the case stating “In my own opinion, I feel that testing has been a detrimental aspect of my education rather than one that has been useful”. 

People clearly do not feel indifferent about these tests and can get through them, however they actually put a massive strain on people. Through De Los Santos stern and upset tone we can see the effects it can have on individuals so it is not fair for Wright to say that it is better to have an imperfect test than none at all, because this is clearly not the case. The education system and those who make the rules evidently ignore the impact it can have on people and think their “imperfect” test is acceptable. De Los Santos uses the word “detrimental” which is a very bold and powerful statement to make, helping make clear how horrible it can be for students’ education growth. His choice of words truly represents how students all around feel and how testing can drastically impact them and their overall mental health and school experience. 

In another article “Why We Need To Get Rid Of Standardized Testing” written by Angela Cramer, we see a very logical approach as to why testing should be dropped. She  talks about the specific issues with standardized testing and how it doesn’t prove anything. “A test doesn’t determine your ability to communicate with others, to interview for a job, or how to work well with others. All of these are valuable skills that everyone will face at some point in their life and a pencil and paper will do you no good”. She stresses that it’s crucial to not stress the importance of grades and tests, but rather the importance of values and morals. Unlike De Los Santos, she uses logos however still making the same point and explaining to her readers the reality of this situation. how these tests are not actually going to help us in the real world and how we should not be putting any focus or attention into them. We put an immense amount of emphasis on this when in reality we need to put attention into preparing for reality. When people start to get jobs and into relations, knowing how to take standardized testing is not going to help us and putting so much energy into preparing for them takes away learning the skills we truly need. De Los Santo backs this up saying  “If we gave teachers the resources and time spent on testing to do things they believe to be more beneficial, I think that our education system could improve tremendously”. He appeals to many audiences in this, especially teachers or educational high ups reading this. He brings up a very useful solution in a simple way, but still manages to make a huge statement about standardized testing and getting rid of it. 

There is a disgusting amount of pressure put on children from such a young age and the fact that the education system and society has let it go on for this long is devastating. The problem only continues to worsen and that truly says something about our country and the way it is run. Pushing human beings’ mental state to the side in order to receive good grades is an abnormal ideology and should be abolished. The levels of anxiety and depression that have risen in students nowadays should be more alarming than it is. Removing standardized testing should be the first step in improving education. Carlos Alejandro De Los Santos is able to push his point across using pathos and appealing to his audience using personal stories along with bringing in relatable views on standardized testing. Through this he is able to cater to his audience, who are mostly students in the same situation as him, and have the same views. It could also be individuals in the education system who may or may not agree with this. He is able to remain a calm tone throughout his article despite his evident anger and frustration with standardized testing. This enabled his argument to be extremely persuasive, even to those who might have opposing views. Also being a high school student helps push his point across because he is currently dealing with this and has very relevant opinions.  He keeps his article short and simple, only bringing in what really needed to be said in a very clear and concise matter. He talks about his own and the general struggles with testing, which allows many to relate to this. It is through all this that he is able to make a very solid argument for moving away from standardized testing and the benefits we can gain in doing so.