My name is Maddie Dellinger and I was one of the 20,000 students enrolled in your school district. As the Superintendent of the Edmonds School District it's your responsibility to ensure that your students are receiving an intriguing and excellent education . However this is not currently the case, I remember several instances when I felt like I was only learning for a test. Or I felt as though my teachers were unable to teach the way they wanted to. I understand that the Advanced placement system is a national test and is out or your control. However I don't want my sister to lose her love of math or science because she is no longer learning, only memorizing. I remember loathing my favorite subjects because I wasn't free to explore the subject. Nothing was worse than walking into a class room and seeing a practice test packet waiting for you. Spending weeks upon weeks of valuable class time on practice packets, or being told to remember your practice book for class was always boring and took the fun out of learning.
This started at a very early age, I remember coming to class when I was 8 years old and seeing a practice test packet on my desk. I loved going to school and found the subjects exciting and intriguing. But tests drained me of that passion. It also created a fear that I carried throughout high school but luckily lost slightly in college. I am a nervous test taker, especially standardized tests. The environment of testing centers and the very words " you will have 20 minutes to complete the following section" terrifies me. Because of this AP tests, the WASL, and the SAT were incredibly nerve wracking. This all stared when I was 8 years old.
As I recently read in " Road to Rome" by. Jonathan Kozol this is a problem that is happening all over our country. Kozol speaks about a boy named Anthony who was also a nervous test taker and almost lost his future because of that. Anthony was a true student , he wanted to learn and explore things. He wrote poetry and wanted to write a novel when he was an elementary school student. But his test scores weren't sufficient so he was disregarded until they were improved. The concept that a test defines someone's future is preposterous. Anthony was an intelligent individual with ambition and drive but his scores were low so he doesn't matter? I urge you Mr. Brossoit to work towards leaving standardized testing out of your students curriculum. Or at least don't put test packets in front of 7 and 8 year olds, try to keep some of that love of learning alive.
Sincerely,
Maddie Dellinger