By Joe Mislansky.

My name is Joe Mislansky and I am a ninth grade student in Ohio, fourth in a class of almost 700. I am against the standardized tests that are being forced upon me and other students in America. We are being treated as numbers on a test. We should be judged by our accomplishments and progress throughout our high school careers, not a few tests.

A major reason I am against standardized tests like the SLOs and PARCCs is because they take time out of the day that could be used for learning. This school year, I will take approximately 20 state mandated tests thanks to the Common Core and the new state standards. SLO exams took up a period for each class which is 50 minutes lost. I have to take three english PARCC exams and those change three entire school days. Not only that, but an entire month of school is altered because most kids also take a science and math exam. Then we repeat the same process a month later for our end of course assessments and then we take finals shortly after. We lose time taking the tests and lose time practicing and preparing for the tests.

Another reason I am against standardized testing is that we don’t know their gravity. Ohio is adopting new graduation requirements that changed the graduation standards for my class of 2018 and on. I must get a minimum collective score of 18 on my exams to graduate. Some classes I have already taken, I will automatically get a three out of five on all those exams. This isn’t fair to me because I could have possibly gotten a better score. These tests are only scheduled for 9th and 10th grade. There aren’t state exams for classes I will take in 11th and 12th grade. Does that mean I’m done testing after 10th grade? Does it mean the graduation requirements will change every year as new tests are created? We don’t know. We don’t even know if these tests will be used next year. This isn’t fair to me as a student because I don’t know how important these tests are.

A third reason I am against standardized testing is that it isn’t fair for students to take a few tests that determine their graduation. Maybe that student isn’t a good test taker but is still a straight A student; they just get really nervous for these big exams. Maybe that student had a sickness, death, or divorce in their family which isn’t allowing them to think straight. Maybe that student is sick themselves but only came to school because they knew how important these tests were. Is that fair that a student has to miss these tests and school work later the next week because they missed a day of testing? Adults at work get sick days where they don’t get punished for missing work but as a student, you get a ton of work pushed on you to make up for every single day you are absent.

Overall, I believe that standardized testing is not what American schools should focus on. These tests are too time consuming, too unclear on what their results mean, and too important for the size that they are. We should not be treated as the data that sets our teachers paycheck. We should not be taking tests that give big corporations money. We should be treated as individuals and be allowed to pursue what we want to, not narrow our thinking so we can pass some tests.

Because of this, I have started a petition here. This is the White House’s official petition site. To get a response from them, we must reach 100,000 signatures by March the fifth. This is a huge task for one kid. That’s why I am writing this. I need help. I need people to spread the word. I need people to tell everyone they know, get their whole family to sign, share it on social media. I need this out there so we can put American schools back on track.

I’m tired of learning to pass a test. I want to learn to learn.

What do you think of Joe Mislansky’s petition? (Click HERE to sign.)