Our Public Schools Then And Now

As an eleventh grader, I found Mr. Bracey’s article very enlightening. I believe that to make American education stronger, we as citizens should press for an amendment that would give the national government greater power to establish standardized testing (especially in math and science) and to press the states toward balancing out their curriculums to match one another. There should be standardized tests for fifth graders (who are coming out of elementary school), eighth graders (who are getting out of middle school), and eleventh graders (who are preparing for college).

I know eleventh graders are supposed to take the SATs, but these cover only two subjects, and the test I propose would cover everything that the average eleventh-grade student should have learned. Establishing these mandatory tests would be a way to improve America’s education; it is also a way to shut up the critics of the American school system and the students in it.