Test for speed, Not for Aptitude?
A Harvard educator named Howard Gardner wrote this essay arguing his side of abolishing timed tested overall. He bases his claim off of the fact that SAT scores come along with their time accomplished and are being viewed by universities. He felt it was unfair for people with the need for time to be below people that finished on time. The didactic and subjective tone in Howard Garden’s article ‘Test for Aptitude, not for Speed’ exemplifies the inadequate strategies that were used to convey Howards bias and rational argument. The structure and strategy used in his article are clearly not the most effective for his target audience. As a result, Howard Gardner ineffectively uses personal evidence, organization, and tone to reach his intended audience (Gardner 795). Howard Gardner utilizes a very instructive voice inequality implying a
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He begins his article by describing a timed test such as the SAT to help support his claim. Howard organizes his paragraphs by stating his topics otherwise known as his grounds. Next he describes his backing with somewhat of a very little piece of his warrant. But Gardner overall does not support his backing or warranty with much of actual evidence or data, resulting in an off balance of the rest of the argument. For his grounds, though he simply states reasons that he thinks. Now for his rebuttals he does make good points and backs them up through his own points. This is shown in the lines “My own guess is that most people would not take much extra time, but the decision would be theirs, not that of a screening body” (Gardner 795), as shown the author uses very weak rebuttals. He does somewhat use qualifiers to help the readers be more lenient with his reasons. Overall the effectiveness of his organization would most likely be improved if added stronger concepts and impressions (Gardner
In her article, “The Case Against GRADES”, Alfie Kohn discusses the grading system and its faults. She opens her argument with information from an older psychological study that proves the negative impact of the current grading system, and she reinforces this with the proof that “no” research has contradicted this statement. Also, she gives many key reasons including: “Motivation”, “Achievement”, “Quantification”, and “Curriculum”. Kohn supports these topics with other reasearch for why the system is failing the students. She asserts that, “… the absence of grading is a necessary condition for promoting deep thinking and a desire to engage in it.” As support, she offers other solutions and then debunks them by proving that they would not solve
However, the good is outweighed by the bad in that this article has almost no factual support. Worley seems to be venting her thoughts without any outside factual support. It is difficult to label this article as effective due to the lack of any factual support and evidence to back up her arguments. That is exactly what needs to change in the article. Worley must use more sources for information to back up her points, then the article may be more convincing and worth
In conclusion, I felt that this column was written as a piece of trickery. It was devised to fool average people into agreement. I also felt that anyone with mild intelligence and critical reasoning skills could easily punch an incalculable number of holes in his arguments. So, did he achieve his goal? I believe that this piece of writing could easily win over half of the U.S. population, but that doesn’t speak well for his writing necessarily.
Since this test has been devised, the number one question everybody is asking is, “ isn’t it unfair to base a student’s entire future on one test, when he or she simply could have had a bad day when taking the test”? The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test.
She explains how standardized tests, such as the one her students took, were designed with numerous interference techniques, included questions which were above-grade material, and were administered with inadequate time to answer the questions being presented. Stahlman goes on to express her frustration with a standardized test which was administered to her students by saying "I watched in horror as my precious students, who were gifted poets and writers, inquisitive scientists and mathematicians, lovers of books, remarkable artists, and caring learners, were forced to silently attempt to master a test that was designed to trip them up." (Stahlman 242) The author also states how these standardized tests seem to be high-stakes in nature due to schools being labeled and ranked according to their scores and teachers being rewarded due to their students achievement in these tests. This article serves as one of my stronger arguments for my case compared to my other sources, due to its exemplification of how the proliferation of such tests is alarming and how the standardized testing of students at such a young age is not appropriate due to their cognitive development. The article is also useful in the sense that is provides a valid and sound argument for the opposition of standardized testing. I will be implementing this source into my argumentative essay by providing examples from Stahlman's text on how bizarre standardized testing might seem when it comes to the assessment of students, especially at such a young age. It will also serve as a good source for proving how much of a bearing standardized tests hold on the assessment of not only students but teachers as
...achieving high scores on standardized tests” (Solley).Because of this, teachers take more time to teach test preparation skills than valuable information (Neill, 165). Although standardized tests have been trusted for years to assess the progress of students, there is little evidence that they measure progress accurately.
Another major criticism of the “No Child Left Behind” deals with the implications of using a standardized test as means of assessing achievement.
Through the use of credible sources, an explanation, and connection to thesis Rizga is able to back up her argument. Rizga provides many credible sources; one of the many is Robert Glaser, “the godfather of standardized testing.” Rhee, however, although providing evidence, does not cite her source. Rizga writes about how Roberts Glaser warned people of the dangers of emphasizing on standardized testing. Rhee, on the other hand, states “Out of 34 developed nations, American kids rank 26th in the world in math, 21st in science and 17th in reading.” Rizga then explains her evidence by elaborating on Glaser’s warning by saying: “He called them ‘fallible and partial indicators of academic achievement’ and warned that standardized tests would find it ‘extremely difficult to assess’ the key skills people should gain from a good education.” Rhee, however, never explains her evidence. Rizga’s evidence clearly connects with her thesis because it supports her argument of how standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence. Rhee’s evidence supports the idea of how standardized test should be used to see how the United States ranks in the world, but this is not Rhee’s thesis. Through the use of credible sources, an explanation, and connection to the thesis, Rizga is able to clearly support her
Although there have been legitimate arguments supporting the benefits of standardized testing, such as their ability to successfully measure students’ proficiency, in recent years there have been concerns and disadvantages regarding how their misuse poses a serious threat to the American education system. Despite the belief that standardized tests should be used to measure students’ proficiency, there are more reasons outweighing this statement regarding why they shouldn’t be used for this purpose. Not only is this a particular issue with standardized testing, but the tests are becoming more high stakes and are being used unfairly to determine things such as graduation, or placement in a school, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Testing corporations are also profiting from the design of these standardized tests, while standardized testing is also forcing teachers to all teach the same thing, leading to a lack of creativity in the students. Aside from these arguments, standardized tests have been found to be becoming flawed and have poor design.
Lee and George attacks the credibility of Thomson by disputing her argument with a logical
Standardized tests are a tremendous part of most schools’ curriculum in the United States today. These tests are assessments of students’ knowledge on either one or more subjects. Standardized tests are a performance evaluation of students, teachers, and schools due to their importance. A standardized test is distinctive from other tests in two ways. One, it has common questions being answered in the same way and two, it is being scored in a consistent style allowing for comparative performance. Through extensive research Oliver’s and Visone’s statements and overall research have several key differences that shape their own separate arguments. Though their thesis and hypothesis have the same underlying idea that there is a problem with` standardized
... trusted statistics and carefully worded statements did not appear as though the author was pushing excessively for his own viewpoint but instead wished to share as many factual statements so the reader could come to their own logical conclusion along with the author giving no room for a reasonable argument that he had not already approached at some point in the chapter.
He just disputes the conspiracy theory claims by stating what makes logical sense. Due to the writer’s bias towards the subject, the opposing views are stated in a way that sounds illogical or uneducated. He does, however, include a fair amount of arguments of the believers. Although the author takes a condescending attitude throughout the article, his approach is reasonable. The perspective of the believers is recognized and explained in a fair-minded way.
Overall it is evident that standardized testing has affected the education in the United States negatively. The main flaw is that policymakers made standardized testing the center of our education system, which intern led to vast changes in curriculum where educators were forced to teach to test rather than teaching materials that fosters creativity, and enhances knowledge. Howard Gardner, famous for his work on multiple intelligences, stated he was unconcerned that American children were ranked last among the major industrial nations in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. He reported that tests measure exposure to facts and skills not whether or not kids can think (Ritter 5).
Standardized testing in the United States is not always a common practice. In the Mid-1800s, Horace Mann, an education reformist, developed a test to administer to a group of students. Its purpose was to determine how students were performing at their current level and whether they were capable of proceeding to a higher level of education, although the student’s success on the test had no negative repercussions. These tests were a necessity at that time because the idea of public education was still being molded and these tests were the only means by which student progress could be measured. Within 35 years of the first recorded examination in 1845, testing became the factor which determined whether students were able to be promoted to the next grade.