TESTING with School-aged children

Now days, assessment are a major part of a school aged child’s life.  It is because of this that schools have been pushed to teach towards a test and make sure children pass this test, so that they do not lose funding for their schools.  In the United States, most schools even require that students pass a standardized test in order in progress to the next grade level. This testing starts as young as 6 years old (first grade).  

The one test that I struggled with the most was the SAT. I was a great student in high school, always was on honor student, but when it came down to taking the SAT for college, I struggled. In my opinion, the SAT should measure the individual’s intelligence but it does not do that. My personal experience with the SAT was not that great. I made mediocre scores, but never the score that I would have liked. AT the time, colleges and universities truly seemed to base their admissions process firmly on the scores of that particular standardized test. This is unfair to those students that made the good grades while they were in high school, but were just not good test takers. Many people suffer from test anxiety and that is a proven fact, so how could you base an individual’s performance based on one test.

I decided to research children in France. In France, schools test facts and skills, but there is not much formal testing and there isn't much stress put on students. I can imagine what life would be like if I was raised in France. I think that it is more beneficial to test children on the facts and skills that they do know, instead of pressuring them with standardized test. I feel that too much pressure and emphases are being put on children, teachers, and administrators in passing certain test. I always wondered, at the end of the day, what all does passing a standardized test prove?. Does it really showcase the knowledge children acquire growing up while in school?