No Child Left Behind: A Personal Narrative Analysis

I USED TO THINK... tests were pretty awful. Growing up, I did not care for tests - although I always knew the necessity of them. I love learning, but being graded was uncomfortable and nerve-wracking, particularly for tests for which much of my grade was dependent. I would study for days and pull all-nighters in preparation. However, often times, once the test was in front of me, nothing in the test was what I had studied for. In addition, because I worked so hard to cram in as much information as possible, within a week, I remembered practically nothing.
I felt that schools cared more about grades than learning, especially since some of the teachers I have had taught for the tests. No Child Left Behind and the subsequent outpouring of standardized testing made me dread coming to school.
While I still do not enjoy taking tests (I imagine that there are few who do,) they provide diagnostic feedback to teachers so they know how to adjust instruction to best fit students’ needs. From analyzing test results, teachers can infer what is and is not working in their instruction. In addition, teachers can gauge students’ understanding of content so they know whether or not they can move on.
Furthermore, there are different types of testing, summative and formative. Formative assessment is not daunting and can be interesting and a good way of communicating understanding to the