In Alfie Kohn's "The case against standardized testing", Kohn examined the negative evolution in testing in the first chapter, Measuring What Matters Least. The chapter aided me in my query, is standardized testing the right solution to evaluating student's abilities and understanding in a course or objective? Kohn made some valid points on the institution of testing in the educational system. Most significantly, "the standardized test scores may not be significant in representing what a student has or has not not learned." He used plenty of examples of things that could affect the validity of test scores like test anxiety, test bias and the student's perception of the test as a whole. Kohn stated that any test influencing the reaction of testing anxiety are not providing good representations of what students know and can do in the classroom. From reading Kohn's book, I also realized that, in the beginning, testing was used to determine where to place children and what help they needed in the classroom (Kohn, 2000), however, now testing, in Kohn's perspective, has become the primary tool in judging children, teachers and schools as well as in failing students and deciding where money in the educational system should be spent. One of the most important points that Kohn made in his writing was that "efficient tests tend to drive out less efficient tests, leaving many important abilities untested and untaught." This connects to my inquiry because it reaffirms my opinion that standardized testing is actually not beneficial in the education system because it is not testing what really matters in these students. Kohn also went further on to say that "test scores are merely used to track, calculate and define success or failure."(Kohn, 2000) Also, Kohn made a point suggesting that in order to prepare students for the real-world they should not use standardized tests. He also suggested that SATs and ACTs aren't very effective as indicators of college academic performance or professional success. Kohn also suggested something that I truly agreed with and that is that standardized tests rely solely on right or wrong answers and not on how the students arrive at the right or wrong answer which is what matters the most because any student can memorize problem solving methods and get a right answer but not know how to correctly apply that problem solving method to real-world application. All of these points helped steer me and my inquiry in a positive manner. It actually caused me to pose more questions in my inquiry project to delve further into reasons why standardized testing isn't an accurate representation of a students comprehension or understanding. I definitely feel that my inquiry project is, currently, headed in the right direction.
Kohn, A. (2000). The case against standardized testing: Raising the scores, ruining the schools. (2 ed.). New York: Heinemann.
Kohn, A. (2000). The case against standardized testing: Raising the scores, ruining the schools. (2 ed.). New York: Heinemann.