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I took my first standardized test thirty years ago. I was in third grade at Seele Elementary in New Braunfels, and it was the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS, test. Our teacher, Bunny Hollis—she and her cardigans were straight out of a heartwarming midcentury children’s novel—called for our attention one afternoon and briefed us on the upcoming exam with not a hair of her perfectly stationary coiffure askew. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I do remember the nonchalance. It was something to this effect: “There’s going to be a test tomorrow. Don’t worry about it; I’m your teacher, and I’m confident you know far more than you’ll need to know to pass. Please eat a big breakfast and don’t be…

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