Higher Test Scores Less Creativity

• The United States has seen a significant decline in creativity among its youth over the past two decades, which coincides with its waves of educational changes to boost student test scores. Contemporary parenting styles may create overly programmed lives for children by overprotecting them and over scheduling them, which has the effect of denying children opportunity to discover for themselves. Teachers claim to value creativity in children, but in fact it is proven that they generally dislike creative behaviors and characteristics in the classroom because they are inconvenient and hard to control. The standardized testing movement created by NCLB has led to the elimination of content areas and activities, including gifted programs, electives, arts, foreign languages, elementary science, and recess, which leaves little room for imagination, critical and creative thinking.

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