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A hot button issue in today’s American society is standardized testing. Standardized testing is a test given to students to test what they have learned, thus, giving teachers and government officials a better understanding what needs to be done and what is being done. This is what standardized testing is supposed to do in a perfect world. But, of course, we don’t live in a perfect world. Standardized testing does not work and the article by Alfie Kohn right about how standardized testing should not be used anymore.
Kohn makes many arguments about how standardized testing is not good. One is that standardized testing is not even testing what it should.
What generally passes for a test of reading comprehension is a series of separate questions about short passages on random topics. These questions rarely examine how students interrelate parts of the text and do not require justifications that support the interpretations”; indeed, the whole point is the “quick finding of answers rather than reflective interpretation.” (Kohn 5)
It looks like to me that Kohn is saying that really the test is just there to give quick results and not accurate results. Reading comprehension should test what kids are reading and how they get what they just read. It shouldn’t be a quick way to get a grade for a student to determine pass or fail.
Kohn also talks about multiple choice is a terrible way to test a student because it doesn’t really test anything.
“I don’t think there’s any way to build a multiple-choie question that allows students to show what they can do with what they know,” says Roger Farr, professor of education at Indiana University—a statement all the more remarkable given that Farr personally helped to write a number of standardized tests. The reason should be obvious. Students are unable to generate a response; all they can do is recognize on by picking it out of four or five answers provided by someone else. (
I also find it interesting that a standardized test maker is even critizing standardized testing.
Kohn is not the only one who thinks standardized testing is bad. Laura-Lee Kearns also thinks it is a bad thing.
The majority of youth I interviewed were surprised and even shocked to find out that they were not up to the government standard of literact. Tammy, a first timer test-taker stated: I was excited to see what I would get and I was shocked because I thought I was going to be happy…have a smile on my face, but I was kind of disappointed…I just don’t understand how I failed. (Kearns 118)
When someone takes a test, they should be able to get a general idea of how well they did because it test on what they know. If a student gets something that they don’t think they got, it means there was a game in the test were it wasn’t test what it was intended to test. Again, standardized testing is not testing what it is supposed to test.
Laura-Lee Kearns also said that standardized testing makes students feel embarrassed or humiliated. (119) Learning is supposed raise self-esteem, not lower it.
Other youth found the whole experience of failing demeaning. Bob said he did not perceive school any differently after failing the test, but found the test “was kind of degrading. It makes me feel a little less smart, knowing that I failed.” (119)
This shouldn’t happen.
David Hursh also think that standardized testing is not a good thing. Hursh think that testing is inaccurate. “At Rochester’s Wilson Magnet High School, a school ranked forty-ninth in the nation by Newsweek, all 300 students who took the examination failed” (Hursh 612) How do you explain this? If Newsweek, a credible magazine, ranked a school 49th, you would think that everybody would pass with flying colors right? This just goes to show how inaccurate standardized testing is.
Standardized testing is bad and I am not the only one to think this. Countless studies have been done to show that standardized testing is not accomplishing what it is setup to do. Alfie Kohn, Laura-Lee Kearns and David Hursh all agree, standardized testing should be eliminated. These people are all educated individuals and should be listened to.
Questions
1. My essay is really short, how can I make it longer?
2. How is my thesis sentence and how can I make it better?
3. My conclusion is a little weak, do you have any suggestions?
Kohn makes many arguments about how standardized testing is not good. One is that standardized testing is not even testing what it should.
What generally passes for a test of reading comprehension is a series of separate questions about short passages on random topics. These questions rarely examine how students interrelate parts of the text and do not require justifications that support the interpretations”; indeed, the whole point is the “quick finding of answers rather than reflective interpretation.” (Kohn 5)
It looks like to me that Kohn is saying that really the test is just there to give quick results and not accurate results. Reading comprehension should test what kids are reading and how they get what they just read. It shouldn’t be a quick way to get a grade for a student to determine pass or fail.
Kohn also talks about multiple choice is a terrible way to test a student because it doesn’t really test anything.
“I don’t think there’s any way to build a multiple-choie question that allows students to show what they can do with what they know,” says Roger Farr, professor of education at Indiana University—a statement all the more remarkable given that Farr personally helped to write a number of standardized tests. The reason should be obvious. Students are unable to generate a response; all they can do is recognize on by picking it out of four or five answers provided by someone else. (
I also find it interesting that a standardized test maker is even critizing standardized testing.
Kohn is not the only one who thinks standardized testing is bad. Laura-Lee Kearns also thinks it is a bad thing.
The majority of youth I interviewed were surprised and even shocked to find out that they were not up to the government standard of literact. Tammy, a first timer test-taker stated: I was excited to see what I would get and I was shocked because I thought I was going to be happy…have a smile on my face, but I was kind of disappointed…I just don’t understand how I failed. (Kearns 118)
When someone takes a test, they should be able to get a general idea of how well they did because it test on what they know. If a student gets something that they don’t think they got, it means there was a game in the test were it wasn’t test what it was intended to test. Again, standardized testing is not testing what it is supposed to test.
Laura-Lee Kearns also said that standardized testing makes students feel embarrassed or humiliated. (119) Learning is supposed raise self-esteem, not lower it.
Other youth found the whole experience of failing demeaning. Bob said he did not perceive school any differently after failing the test, but found the test “was kind of degrading. It makes me feel a little less smart, knowing that I failed.” (119)
This shouldn’t happen.
David Hursh also think that standardized testing is not a good thing. Hursh think that testing is inaccurate. “At Rochester’s Wilson Magnet High School, a school ranked forty-ninth in the nation by Newsweek, all 300 students who took the examination failed” (Hursh 612) How do you explain this? If Newsweek, a credible magazine, ranked a school 49th, you would think that everybody would pass with flying colors right? This just goes to show how inaccurate standardized testing is.
Standardized testing is bad and I am not the only one to think this. Countless studies have been done to show that standardized testing is not accomplishing what it is setup to do. Alfie Kohn, Laura-Lee Kearns and David Hursh all agree, standardized testing should be eliminated. These people are all educated individuals and should be listened to.
Questions
1. My essay is really short, how can I make it longer?
2. How is my thesis sentence and how can I make it better?
3. My conclusion is a little weak, do you have any suggestions?
