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Our students are tested to
an extent that is unprecedented in American history and
unparalleled anywhere in the world. Politicians and
businesspeople, determined to get tough with students
and teachers, have increased the pressure to raise
standardized test scores. Unfortunately, the effort to
do so typically comes at the expense of more meaningful
forms of learning.
That disturbing conclusion
emerges from Alfie Kohn's devastating new indictment of
standardized testing. Drawing from the latest research,
he concisely explains just how little test results
really tell us and just how harmful a test-driven
curriculum can be. Written in a highly readable
question-and-answer format, The Case Against
Standardized Testing -- which includes some material
previously published in The Schools Our Children Deserve
-- will help readers respond to common questions and
challenges. It shows, for example, that:
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high scores often
signify relatively superficial thinking
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many of the leading
tests were never intended to measure teaching or
learning
-
a school that improves
its test results may well have lowered its standards
to do so
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far from helping to
"close the gap," the use of standardized testing is
most damaging for low-income and minority students
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as much as 90 percent of
the variations in test scores among schools or
states have nothing to do with the quality of
instruction
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far more meaningful
measures of student learning - or school quality -
are available.
Kohn's central message is
that standardized tests are "not like the weather,
something to which we must resign ourselves. . . . They
are not a force of nature but a force of politics-and
political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and
ultimately reversed." The final section demonstrates how
teachers, parents, and students can turn their
frustration into action and successfully turn back the
testing juggernaut in order to create classrooms that
focus on learning. |
