Another Post About Standardized Tests

Standardized tests are universally used in the United States to measure a child's intelligence. This measurement is then used to put kids into boxes: above average, average, and below average and depending on what box they are put in their education track is completely altered. This change in an education path can then negatively or positively impact them for the rest of their K-12 years leading to large gaps in learning between students.
When I was in the 3rd grade me and my friends were given a test to see if we were eligible for the Athenaeum program, a program for "gifted" kids located at another elementary school in the district. As one could possibly glean just from the fact I am writing this post I did not get into the program, but the majority of my friends did. This saddened me as it made me think that I was less intelligent than my friends and this sadness turned to jealousy when I got to hear about the activities they were able to do in class. While I was doing multiplication tables they were doing grassland experiments and while I was drilling for vocabulary tests they were dissecting sheep brains. This hardly seemed fair, why should they get the more enriching curriculum just because of one test, would this just not widen the supposed gap between the Athenaeum and non Athenaeum students? After a year of this I was tired of not being with my friends (although I had not neglected to make new ones) so when the testing period rolled around again I told myself to take it seriously and try my best and what do you know I passed! I was able to join my friends for the rest of elementary school and then when we got to middle school (grades 6-8) we were all automatically put into the honors classes while the non Athenaeum kids were put into the "normal" classes with not even a choice to try an honors course.
This persisted throughout middle school and when we got to high school the choice was opened up to all students to take AP or regular curriculum classes. This time everyone had a choice as AP was said to be open to all students, but when I arrived in my first day of AP US history I saw the same people I had been in classes with for the past 5 years with not one single new face. I thought this was odd so I asked a few of my friends that had not been in honors classes or Athenaeum why they opted out of AP. The short version of there answer was "we are too stupid to even try classes like that, they are for you Athenaeum kids". That's how it was all four years of high school same kids in every class with maybe one or two brave souls who said "I'm going to give this a shot" . Those people were able to adjust to the different class structure and were then able to do well despite the negative preconceptions they may have had about their own academic abilities.
The standardized test I took in elementary school determined the education track for me and hundreds of students putting up barriers for those who did not do well. These barriers presented themselves in several ways such as a less enriching curriculum to emotional factors such as less self worth and motivation to do well in school. This prevented these students from ever reaching their full potential as they were written off before they even had a chance to say otherwise showing clear flaws in the practice of standardized testing.