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Persuasive Essay On Standardized Testing

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Nearly 70 percent of all 2016 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities this year. The majority of these students took the ACT or SAT in order to get into said college or university. The SAT was first administered to high school students in 1901. The American College Testing Program, or ACT, was created in 1959. Since then nearly all of the American youth partakes in one if not both of these tests in their academic journey. Colleges and Universities should place less emphasis on standardized test scores because these tests are biased against certain groups, add too much stress to student lives, and impede the assessment of other very important skills. For the last century America’s youth have participated in the gut-wrenching process of the ACT and SAT. The SAT, which stands for Scholastic Assessment Test, has been offered to students since 1901. Two faculty associates at the University of Iowa founded the ACT in 1959 in response to changing patterns in college attendance in the United States and a desire for a test that would more accurately judge a student's ability to perform well in college. For many years, the ACT's popularity grew slowly throughout the Midwest, while the SAT maintained strongholds on both coasts, including highly populated states like New York and California. However, in the 21st century, the ACT began to gain a larger share of the testing market, and expanded out of its traditional areas of influence. Today, the ACT tests a
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