Alfie Kohn Literature Review

1111 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Diversity in classrooms

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools and society have taken a different perspective on how to assess the student‘s progress. Schools are forced to make decisions based on assessments and how to show adequate yearly progress (AYP). Alfie Kohn points out that, in some cases, our students have become victims of standardize testing. In his article, Standardized Testing and Its Victims (2000), he demonstrates how testing have become detrimental to our students instead of helping them. He outlines these detrimental issues with eight facts.

Standardized testing has gotten out of control and has become more of a detriment to our students. Students are being forced to follow a curriculum that prepares them for only major tests and leaves out vital instruction for things such as social skills. Kohn (2000) tells us with fact 1, that our students are being tested more than any other nation. Is this testing providing prominent information to our schools or is it just for show? Not only is the United States over testing our students but we are the only nation that uses a multiple-choice format for our tests. Research from the UPI.com in 2008 ranked the United States 18 out of 38 industrial nations based on the quality of that Nations educational system. If testing is suppose to be helping our students, should we not be ranked higher?

Kohn (2000) describes his second fact as noninstructional factors that explain variances among test scores when compared with other schools. This information was based on the poverty level, family life, educational backgrounds in the house, and community. Testing is not the same across the nation. There are schools that can provide a richer curriculum and test preparatio...

... middle of paper ...

...with the excuses and stop looking to blame someone and find a solution to our students’ failures and build from there. Congress needs to reevaluate the NCLB act and find alternative possibilities to our struggling educational systems. We need to look at assessments and take into account all things that our students do instead of examining only one set of assessments to determine if progress is being made.

Works Cited

Kohn, Alfie. (2000). Standardized Testing and Its Victims Retrieved from:

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/staiv.htm

Kohn, Alfie. (2004). The Case Against “Tougher Standards” Retrieved from: http://www.alfiekohn.org/standards/rationale.htm

UPI.Com (2008, November 18). U.S. Slipping in Education Rankings. Retrieved August 7, 2010, from http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/19/US-slipping-in-education-rankings/UPI-90221227104776/.

Show More
Related

  • Testing is Overrated

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing Has a Negative Effect on American Youth

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of No Child Left Behind

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another major criticism of the “No Child Left Behind” deals with the implications of using a standardized test as means of assessing achievement.

    Read More

  • Why America's Educational System is Failing

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.

    Read More

  • The Shortcomings of Standardized Testing

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the U.S. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind program, standardized testing has become the norm for American schools. Under this system, each child attending a school is required to take a standardized test at specific grade points to assess their level of comprehension. Parents, scholars and all stakeholders involved take part in constant discussions over its effectiveness in evaluating students’ comprehension, teachers’ competency and the effects of the test on the education system. Though these tests were put in place to create equality, experts note that they have created more inequality in the classroom. In efforts to explore this issue further, this essay reviews two articles on standardized testing. This essay reviews the sentiments of the authors and their insight into standardized examination. The articles provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that standardized tests are not effective at measuring a teacher’s competency because they do not take into account the school environment and its effect on the students.

    Read More

  • Standardized Tests

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    Standardized tests are very common throughout the United States. They are used to measure students’ academic performances in school. These tests vary from state to state in all grade levels. However, these tests are believed to be biased towards those students who come from higher-class neighborhoods, simply because they have more educational resources. “The absence of standards virtually guarantees stratified resources and access to knowledge, based upon income, color of skin, and the community and neighborhood in which one lives” (French, 2003). The resources in the suburban areas differ from those in the urban areas, because of the gap within the difference of incomes. Families living in suburban neighborhoods have a bigger income, which enables them to have more resources than those living in urban neighborhoods. Most educational resources come from taxes, which plays a big part in the gap between urban and suburban neighborhoods.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing Informative Essay

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Students are taking between ten and twenty standardized tests, depending on the grade. A total average of one hundred thirteen different ones by graduation.”(Locker) A few years ago the United States, along with other nations, was given a test to assess the academic strengths and weaknesses of each nation and rank them accordingly. When the results were released and the United States was ranked near the bottom, it was decided to start incorporating more testing through school. Between benchmark, TLI, PARCC, and common core standards, teaching technique was forced to change. Standardized testing has had a negative effect on teachers and students, implementing inadequate grading standards and the common core curriculum, such testing has made

    Read More

  • Diane Ravitch's The Essentials Of A Good Education

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Almost state has gained federal funding from accumulating the test data from all of their schools (Ravitch 107). Data collected from multiple choice questions determines the intelligence of every student and their teachers. The test data is tracked throughout their lifetime in relation to their test scores, graduation dates and other statistics companies such as Amazon and Microsoft use to evaluate different groups (by age, ethnicity, etc) as a whole (Ravitch 107). Ravitch claims there are many problems with this, mainly, tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, and potential (112). Not everyone is the same, and just because one may be weak in math or writing doesn’t mean they’re not smart, resourceful individuals with much to share with the world. For schools to be even seen with a slight amount more than just their test scores, they have to be in great standings with their students’ average test results. The government’s intense focus on test results hurts schools’ ability to be a well-rounded school immensely. In contrast to federal’s pinpoint focus on what students learn, educated consumers desire their kids to have a full, balanced, and rich curriculum (Ravitch 108). Schools need to be more than housing for test-takers. The Education Board may claim students’ proficiency in their testing makes them better people, prepares them for college, and ultimately, the workforce. What they are

    Read More

  • Standardized Tests: Do They Really Work for Raising the Rank of the US in World Education?

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    The United States has persistently been ranked at the bottom when it comes to education among developed countries. They have tried to come up with strategic ways to change their ranking, like standardized tests. This is an administered test over certain subjects like Math, English, History, and Science, and the form is the same for all test takers. They were not the first country to develop this method; in fact, this method was inspired from other countries that appeared to be doing better than them and still remain ranked at the bottom.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing a Failure in Education

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.

    Read More

  • It's Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the release of the report by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December of 2010 many in the government and community are searching for ways to reform the American education system to give American students the greatest opportunity to succeed. According to the report, American students are not testing as high as other nations in the world (Duncan, 2010). There are many contributing elements that have brought America to her knees in the education system, however, the obsession with standardized testing is found to be one of the most influential downfalls.

    Read More

  • How Standardized Testing Effects the Education

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing is NOT Effective

    2388 Words  | 5 Pages

    Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.

    Read More

  • High Stakes Testing Research Paper

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    The impact I have seen is not a positive one and there is a sumptuous amount of supporting evidence that suggests these test do more harm than good. The affects of these tests stretch to every member of a community whether they realize it or not. These tests put pressure on students to do their best, make teachers teach to the test instead of what is best fitted for their individual students, affect local real estate based on the scores the surrounding schools receive, which in turn affects the opportunity of low-income families, are not accommodating to those with disabilities or ones that are not proficient in English (Spring, J., 2000). The list goes on and on about the wide range of influence these tests have, and not in a good way. This is why this subject is very serious to me for I believe these tests will eventually change school as we know it, eliminating any creative thinking or individuality in student’s work. This paper will discuss in-depth the affects of high-stakes testing on local communities versus what they are intended to be used

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.

    Read More

More about Alfie Kohn Literature Review

Open Document