Don't look now juniors and seniors there is yet another test to complete before graduating from Leyden. This one goes along with the SAT's the ACT's, IGAPs and all those other millions of scantrons you fill out every day. Starting this year you will have to complete the Prairie State exam. This exam is suppose to test a variety of skills that the state feels you should have learned and mastered throughout your four years of high school. It seems that most of us have been taking these standardized tests as rights of passage since we were in diapers. These tests have become an easy way for schools, parents, and employers to label a student as an underachiever or overachiever. But these tests have certain groups of students failing from the start. The tests are written and are biased towards groups of students that have lower incomes or backgrounds. So why are states being even more narrowed minded in the new millenium by issuing yet another standerized test? Shouldn't schools determine whether or not students are fit to graduate by what they can do, not by what they can score on some pressure-filled exam?
The Prairie State Exam might not have much of an impact on regular students, but what about those students who have been pushed through the system at a steady pace even though it was always apparent that they weren't prepared to keep up? Now after there thirteen years of showing up to class, participating, working hard, but still getting average grades these students may be denied a diploma?
They'r not the only ones who couldbe hurt by this. There are many students who are bright and excel in classes, but when it comes time to take an exam they bomb it. Sure some teaching and coaching methods can be applied, but those do not always work, which is why students' grades are weighted heavily on homework, particaption, and quizzes.
This Prairie State exam totally contradicts that by basing all of a students work on one exam. Should student's who have always had good grades have to take yet another test? These tests are a waste of resources and valuable funding.
(OK, so it wasn't exactly my school, but my district)
