By Zach Goldaber

Earlier this month, sophomores at Homestead High School, myself among them, took the California High School Exit Exam. The state reported that 91 percent of students who took the test in its inaugural year passed it on their first attempt.

The English/Language Arts portion of the test is written at a 10th-grade level, with a two-and-a-half page essay graded mostly on spelling and grammar as an addendum to it. The mathematics test is written at an eighth-grade level.

Most teachers took roughly 45 minutes of class time to explain the test and review some of the material provided as a practice test. While this test in particular only absorbed seven hours of school time, another test looms on the horizon in March, April and May across the state: the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test.

As a student, the STAR test is the bane of my existence. It’s not because the test is difficult – it isn’t – and most people my age feel it’s relatively easy and are far more concerned about the SAT and ACT.

Instead, the primary issue lies in how standardized testing and goal-based funding is destroying education. All over the country, attitudes in education have shifted, as teachers have begun to teach to the standardized tests in their subjects because their schools won’t get sufficient funding if a certain number of students don’t pass.

The amount of time spent preparing for the STAR test alone is astounding. Entire curricula have been reshaped based on the question “Is this on the standardized test?” rather than the more important “How does this apply to real life?” or “Will students be interested in this subject?”

As a result, the public education experience has, for many, turned into something of a factual boot camp. Minds are stuffed full of facts and figures, with underlying concepts and deep questions being cast to the wind. Rather than being a place where students discover their potential future calling and a lifelong love of learning, high school has turned into a cutthroat, competitive environment where students jostle with their teachers, the state and each other to get ahead. Fights over grades and funding among students, teachers and the state are so common it’s rare not to hear a student or teacher complain about one or the other.

That’s a sad thing. The day when education reform that focuses on learning for learning’s sake over any other reason is implemented can’t come soon enough.

Zach Goldaber of Los Altos is a sophomore at Homestead High School and an editorial intern at the Town Crier.