It is a known fact that the American education system needs to have some major changes and students have been very vocal on wanting this change.

As of right now, the education system runs almost entirely on standardized testing, which has been proven to not be all that accurate in determining a students educational capabilities.
According to Fair Test, “no test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for any of these important educational decisions” meaning that the American education system relying on this form of education is not productive nor is it beneficial to the students.

Standardized testing as a whole harms students both educationally and mentally. The eruption of this format of education has been known to be a cause of more mental health issues among students.

According to a paper written by Christiana Simpson, a graduate student who attended Harvard university, teens have been reporting high levels of stress which also affects anxiety levels and can cause other adverse health issues.

Emma Palacios, a junior at Canyon, gives us insight into how the education system in America has affected her as well as what she thinks could be done to help fix these issues.

“The standardized testing system affects my creative thinking. It causes everyone to think pretty much in the same way. It also affects my grades because sometimes I don’t understand things in the same way as everyone else, but teachers decide not to teach in different ways because they would rather teach by the book. I think teachers need to care more about actually teaching students and getting them to absorb and understand the information rather than simply focussing on memorization. In my experience, teachers only really care if something is going on in your life when they should be focused on providing as much help as possible all the time.”

Another student, Laura Gonzalez, shares her opinion on what she thinks would help better the education system. “I think the school system should focus more on teaching us about mental wellness and about things we need to be successful in life or our futures instead of focusing too much on academic tests on things most people won’t use in their future.”

According to School of Education Online, there are many different ways to help reform the current education system America has; starting with addressing the issue of overcrowding.

Overcrowding is a huge issue in schools and is creating an environment where not every student is able to receive aid for things they are struggling to understand. This creates additional stress for students as well as teachers as it is harder to thoroughly teach a subject while also keeping the class engaged and nondisruptive.

Another thing that can be done is providing more funding for schools so the students can be provided with more resources and aids to hopefully comply with every student’s educational needs.

One of the major things that needs to change if we are going to see any form of long term progress is the elimination of the standardized testing system.

Progress is slightly being made with California’s elimination of the need to take the SAT and ACT to get into California Universities and we hope to see more states follow in their footsteps.