Combine the words student and dying, and a new word emerges: studying. To many students around the world in school, this combination is not a surprise. Everyday, students endure high levels of stress and anxiety due to hours of studying. This comes from the immense amount of pressure they are under to do well on exams, such as standardized testing. The ACT, SAT, and achievement tests are all examples. Just like it says in the name, these tests are standardized, which means the students taking them need to meet certain standards to pass. If those standards are not met, students may not be able to move on to the next step in their education. Standardized testing is not beneficial to the academic success of students or teachers. They feel the intense pressure to pass, causing stress. When students are feeling this burden, they often do anything possible to do well, including cheating. Not only do some students cheat on the tests, teachers do it as well. They too, are under pressure to have their students complete the exams successfully. The cheating then leads to false results.

A November 2015 article titled, “Common Core tests giving kids anxiety, psychologists say,” by Joseph Spector on, Lohud, a website part of the USA Today network, affirms that Common Core curriculum state tests are causing students to be stressed. The stress comes from the pressure the school and state put the students under. School officials would be wrong to think that students can perform well, while they are under so much tension. The Glossary of Education Reform says, in a November 2015 article titled, “Standardized Test,” says that these state tests are used to determine what students need to be placed in special education programs, whether they are ready or not to move on to the next grade, or if they should be given diplomas. Students are aware of the reasons for the tests, and are determined to meet the standards, in any way they can. One way results in lack of sleep because they study excessive amounts for days before the test. Very few people can function correctly with very little sleep. If students don’t do well on the tests, they may fall behind their classmates because the tests incorrectly showed that the student didn’t understand the material they already learned. Standardized tests are not a beneficial way to determine what level students are at, when they are performing under so much pressure. The large amounts of stress on both the students and teachers, are causing them to do anything they can for valuable scores on these tests.

Cheating is often what happens to people performing under large amounts of stress. The radio station, KPCC’s, website has a March 2013 article titled, “Report: cheating on standardized tests in 75 percent of U.S. states,” by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez that talks about students cheating on standardized tests. Many of the 10,000 schools in southern California have been running into testing problems with the students. Cheating mostly happens in low income communities that have been known to have low test scores, states the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. Not only do students from low income communities cheat, thousands do it across the nation, no matter what city they live in. The only way to stop any cheating is to eliminate standardized tests. This way, cheating and stress will significantly decrease. To the surprise of many, another way of cheating on standardized tests has been discovered.

Teachers themselves have been caught multiple times filling in blank questions, forging answers, and answering test questions the students ask. An extreme case of cheating happened in April of 2015 in a New York school. In a July 2015 article titled, “NYC Grade School Principal Who Committed Suicide Had Forged Tests,” by the Huffington Post, reported that the founding principal of Teachers College Community School had forged answers on third grade students’ English exams. Once she was reported, the principal cracked. The amount of stress she was under for her students to do well caused her to do something terrible. Jumping in front of a moving subway train was her solution to end the burden of cheating. The principal then died in a hospital later that week. The amount of stress she was under for her students to do well, was so immense and unnecessary that she committed suicide. Getting rid of all standardized tests will not only decrease the amount of stress and students cheating, but it will also save lives. When students and teachers are under large amounts of pressure, they often turn to cheating to get the wanted scores. This is giving the wrong information and statistics to the state about the levels of education students have. Therefore, acts like, No Child Left Behind, are completely useless if students and teachers are finding countless ways around it.

Cheating leads to false results. This will not be useful to anyone if the wrong test scores are submitted. Students may have been under too much stress to think clearly during the test, so they are put in special education programs. In these programs, they will find the material to be easy and a waste of their time. On the other hand, students who cheated and did well on the tests, may move on to advanced classes that they don’t understand. It would be much more valuable to students to be in the appropriate classes so they get the best education. Some teachers go to big measures to make sure their class does well. An article titled, “Standardized test results: Are they true or false?” by Annie Oeth on the website Clarion-Ledger, said that a boy, who had taken a standardized test, came home and said, “Mama, don’t you know when the kids got the Scantrons they were bubbled in already.” The website found teachers responsible for filling in the answers. Even though students and teachers believe that handing in false test results will benefit them, the cons to doing so, outweigh the pros infinitely. There is a large chance that someone will get caught cheating. The consequences will not benefit anyone. If the student was behind in their education before the test, they will be even more behind in the advanced classes they may get put in.
The topic of standardized tests is a growing issue among students, teachers, and parents across the nation. Tests have proven to have false results and are not trustworthy. Students and teachers are both negatively feeling the monstrous amounts of pressure they are put under, which causes them to turn to cheating to get the desired scores. These disadvantages to standardized testing are a big factor of why it is not beneficial to the education of students or teachers. If the stressful standardized testing is taken out of students’ and teachers’ lives, it will add a whole new meaning to the word studying. Instead of students dying, it will imply a stress-free hour dedicated to learning new things, for fun.