Standardized tests rob education

Re: the Nov. 11 story headlined "State investigating all-time lows in high school test scores."

The extreme pressures of standardized testing in the 21st Century are appalling and take away from the principles and values of our educational system.

Education officials are preparing to hire an independent auditor to discover why "Illinois high school students posted all-time low scores on an achievement exam." Test scores have become the defining motif of what passes for school reform these days, as students, teachers and schools are being rewarded or punished based on standardized test scores.

Whether you are smart, stupid, lazy, or hardworking is being limited to how fast and how accurately you can darken the circles on a multiple-choice test.

Standardized tests do not expose what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test.

Having this auditor scrutinize the students "low scores" will only undermine their potential and will reduce their self-assurance in the future.

Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and instead are forced to prepare and improve their test taking skills.

Elina Sirotskaya

Buffalo Grove