SAT. Scholastic Aptitude Test vs. Stupid Awful Test

SAT. The nations largest, most important standardized test whose results are known for making or breaking your college career. Testing in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Science, English Skills, and Persuasive Writing, the SAT scores not only determine the future of the students but how the government funds the schools. Instead of these tests being about how well the students learn and take tests, it becomes the battle for money and educational funding.
In the movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUHe3xcXkSc), The Perfect Score, a group of students who are worried about the SAT decide to come together and steal the master test from the testing center located here, in Princeton. Their plan was to get the test, and work together on the problems to come to a common answer. Each student comes from the classic “Breakfast Club” clique but all share the same issue with test anxiety and the fairness of the way the test was created. By the end of the movie, the students realize that the SAT’s should not, and do not have control over their future. They, themselves, have control over what steps they take with their life. The overall theme of the movie, is that regardless to what standards are set, or what the government says you “have” to do, you need to make sure that it is the best for you.
This movie is a good example of how we as future teachers and human beings need to take more risks in challenging the standards that are set for our students. Tests like the SAT’s are becoming more and more popular, starting with testing as young as second grade. These standardized tests are supposed to be used to create “equal opportunity learning” but end up really turning kids, and their teachers off to learning.
The government uses these tests to gage how much funding goes into a school system. The lower end schools receive money to rebuild their fundamental classes and the higher-level schools receive money to promote “higher level learning”. The biggest problem with these tests is its lack of ability to connect to the student. With SAT Prep classes, we are training students to become carbon copies of the “ideal” student, not allowing them to discover and learn on their own, topics that are interesting to them. The government decides everything from what schools should and need to teach in order to have the students be successful to whether the arts hold a place of their own in a school environment.
Below is a link to a video of Roger Brown, President of Berklee College of Music. He talks about the importance of the arts and music in the classroom today. I feel that everything he says is truly important with democracy and the government. The arts have been proven to raise tests score, yet the school systems always pull these programs when money is taken away. If the SAT’s were changed with sections that the students could choose, while keeping the main math, reading and writing, the students would have a better success rate. A test that is so highly evaluated should be fair for all students, especially those who connect to the arts and sports classrooms when they struggle in other classes. I believe that the SAT’s need a change or done away with completely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA6p1I9GkX0