Standardized TestsEvery year thousands upon thousands of children, ages seven and up, sit for scheduled standardized tests. This generation has been classified as the most tested in history. “His progress through childhood and adolescence” was “punctuated by goals, key stages, levels of achievement and qualifications” (“Stalin at School” 8). Every year the government comes up with a new standard and then finds a way to test how each student measures up to this standard. They concluded that the easiest way to track the success of school reform is to follow the results of standardized tests. But evaluating education strictly by numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex as learning, and teaching children how to memorize facts and remember dates is an entirely different outcome than teaching them how to make sense of new ideas and experiences. The testing system currently used is based on academic standards. These academic standards represent clearly written expectations of what each child should know and be able to do at specific grade levels. They usually only test core school subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies. For example, “in Wisconsin, standards were written for English/language arts, math, social studies, and science at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels” (“Questions and Answers about Standards and Assessments”). These standards are usually written by educators and parents who serve on special committees, and sometimes by commercial test manufacturers. However, as you will see, these standards do not cover real learning. True learning involves teaching students to think logically and draw their own conclusions based on facts and inferences, not memorization and regurgitation of facts. These facts would be useless to students if they were unable to use logic to connect these facts and make informed decisions. However, core school subjects do not include it. According to Brady, “School subjects are just convenient organizers of information. As all effective teachers know, the real challenge is not filling kids' heads with second-hand information, but teaching them to think, draw inferences, generate hypotheses, formulate generalizations, explore systemic relationships, make defensible value judgments, and so on. away. .? Education is not about how a student can… in the middle of a sheet of paper… evaluate situations and make logical inferences and decisions based on facts and observations. Furthermore, evaluating a student's education and progress solely through numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex and intricate as learning. Works Cited Brady, Marion. “Still-Answered Questions About Standardized Testing.” Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service January 28, 2003: K.Clarke, Kevin. “Why do students feel so irritable.” US Catholic July 2000: 27.Gallagher, Tom. “The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising Scores, Ruining Schools.” The Progressive August 2001: 44. “How Standardized Testing Hurts Education.” FairTest: National Center for Fair and Open Testing. Moon, Tonya, Catherine Brighton, Carolyn Callahan. ?State Standardized Testing Programs: Friend or Foe of Gifted Education? (On gifted students in school).' Roeper Wntr Review 2003: 49.Morse, Jodie. “To test and not test.” Now October 6, 2000. March 27, 2003. "Stalin at school." New Statesman 17 June 2002: 8. "Standards and ratings: questions and answers". Whitefish Bay Education Supporters.2002. March 27, 2003.>.