Standardized testing in schools

My daughter took the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test this week at school and while most of the year I totally don't worry about her education because she goes to a pretty good school, the week of these standardized test always make me cringe. I hate standardized testing. I realize that it's a good way to see what level students and schools are performing at but I hate what they represent in the day and age of the No Child Left Behind act. These tests have been put forth by our government in order to see where funding should go and when schools are under performing for multiple years parents have the choice to switch the school that their children go to. The government mandated the amount of funds that schools should get but then refused to pass the amounts in the budget so many schools haven't even gotten monies promised upon the passing of that particular bit of legislation. I completely disagree with these tests, mostly because teachers will teach the test material and leave out important teaching material that children really should learn. Schools that under perform rarely get the funding or resources that they need to get up to the level that the state requires. My daughter goes to a "magnet school" which means that school accepts only gifted students. They are required to keep so many seats for neighborhood children but most of the classes are made up of the gifted students. These kids already test well or they wouldn't be accepted to the school in the first place. When the district holds them back by teaching mostly test material they aren't learning everything they need to know. The biggest textbook that she brings home is the study guide for the standardized tests. There is already certain "controversial" material that is left out of Texas textbooks, but that's a whole other blog! With the NCLB act my kids are rarely given individual opportunities to excel. They are allowed to turn in papers late and receive no less than a 70. They are allowed to bring home failing grade papers and redo them for a 70. What happened to letting children fail so that they learn something from that and try harder next time? I was the type of kid that would only do the minimum that I knew I could get away with. If I knew that no matter what I did I would still get a passing grade then that would be it for me. Children are being held back by these rules and there is nothing that I, as a parent, can do. I am deeply involved in the my kids schools and I do talk to teachers about these issues. They all tend to agree that the tests are a horrible way to gauge anything really. There are ways to help our kids excel in school and forcing these standardized test on kids is not the way. I could go on and on about the ways to help our kids be better students. One way would be to place less emphasis on these tests and more on the way that our kids are taught and helping schools that are falling behind by bumping up funding rather than taking away funding based on test scores. Our children deserve access to a good education. Parents can only do so much at home and some parents work so much to make ends meet that they can't do much at all to teach their children things they need to know. We have to get someone in office who is serious about education. I already spoke about student loans and issues facing college students but now we are making it difficult for a person of any age to get a good, quality education. Anytime education is allowed to fall by the wayside is a time when our country is in trouble!

Carissa