Sydney Smoot speaks up against standardized testing in her school.
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Standardized testing per ProCon.org has been used in the American education system since the mid-1800s. The usage of standardized testing saw an increase in 2002 with the No Child Left Behind act and at the same time, saw American students ranking lower and lower over the years in their placements of math and the sciences in comparison to schools around the world. While supporters of standardized testing consider them fair, objective and possibly even accurate, opponents say the opposite, that the tests provide a narrow curriculum that teaches to the test rather than fostering a true atmosphere for learning.
YouTube screenshot
This is an argument that has been going on for a long time with seemingly little to no changes. It apparently takes the impassioned speech of a 9-year-old fourth grader to stir things up and bring attention to the matter. The Washington Post reported on April 7 that Sydney Smoot, a young student from Hernando County, Florida stood in front of her school district’s board last month to address the issue surrounding the new controversial standardized tests. “…I consider myself a well-educated young lady. However with FSA tests, my five years of school…do not matter,” she said. “This testing looks at me as a number. One test defines me either as a failure or a success through a numbered rubric.”
Smoot had written the speech with the help of her mother in frustration over the test, which also made students promise to not talk with their parents about the test. “I am not comfortable signing something like this. I have the right to talk to my parents about any and everything related to school and my education,” relates a very eloquent and poised Smoot.
The test in question was brought in by a private company to replace the Common Core test. It hadn’t been tested on the Florida students before (though it had been in Utah). The test was similar to the Core, a test that has been seeing many opt outs of late on the grounds that the tests aren’t fair and do not accurately reflect the abilities of students or their teachers.
“Why are we taking most of the year stressing and prepping for one test at the end of the year when we should be taking tests throughout the year that really measure our abilities?” asked Smoot. “My opinion is, we should take a test at the beginning of the year, middle and end of the school year to accurately measure what we know.”
Watch the video above as Smoot mic drops the board with her very confident and powerful speech about her concerns over the standardized testing in Florida.
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