Students are expected to become well-educated, thoughtful and creative citizens. When teachers are expected to teach according to a state-guided curriculum, students are limited to standards and content knowledge. Students all take the same multiple-choice test, on the same day and at the same time. Students do not have the opportunity to show the extent of their knowledge. Schools must decide how to teach the standardized curriculum. Schools must figure out how to integrate standardized and non-standardized curriculum. Can students guide their own curriculum and achieve good test scores? Standardized Curriculum and TestsA standardized curriculum comes with standardized tests. A standardized curriculum limits what students learn. Students master content areas (Cole, Hulley, & Quarles, 2013). Students are not encouraged to deepen their content knowledge. According to Adler (2013), school goals should be the same for the entire school. To achieve these goals, teachers use lectures, textbooks, coaching and supervised practices. Students do not explore content beyond what is expected. Teachers teach to the test because that is what is expected of them. Students do not grow and explore with knowledge. The content is watered down and vague for students (Noddings, 2013). By having a standardized curriculum, schools do not challenge students. They create students who don't question what they learn. Holt (2013) believed that the standardized curriculum destroyed students' freedom of thought, right to ask questions, and freedom to disseminate ideas. Every student is the same in some way. Each student is tested in the same way. The problem is that every student is not the same and every student...... middle of paper ...... winners.ResourcesAdler, M. (2013). The paideia proposal: Rediscover the essence of education. In J. Noll (Ed.), Taking Sides: clashing Views on Educational Issues, seventeenth edition (pp. 17-23). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Cole, H., Hulley, K. and Quarles, P. (2009). Should evaluation guide the program? In Public Policy Forum: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA21668 2645&v=2.1&u=pres1571&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1Holt, J. (2013 ). Escape from childhood. In J. Noll (Ed.), Taking Sides: clashing Views on Educational Issues, seventeenth edition (pp. 24-28). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Noddings, N. (2013). Standardized curriculum and loss of creativity. In From Theory to Practice, 52(3), p. 210-215. do I: 10.1080/00405841.2013.804315