Even with the inclusion of innovative test items that theoretically depart from traditional, text-based multiple-choice formats, large-scale standardized tests are still inadequate for assessing cognitive learning on a micro-level (Hursh, 2008). As such, they tend to be biased to the evaluation of isolated skill sets rather than complex intellectual capacities such as reasoning, decision making, critical thinking, or hypothesis generation. Schools emphasizing test preparation are likely to devote most of their curriculum budgets to test-prep materials rather than the enriched resources that students need (Hursh, 2008). In fact, it’s (paradoxically) possible that schools may expect less of their students as they prepare them to use the more basic skills required to pass standardized tests. In other words, rather than instructing students to write creatively and thoughtfully, teachers may focus on composition techniques and strategies that emphasis form over content in order to ensure passing grades on standardized tests, resulting in prose that is grammatically sound yet devoid of abstraction, critical evaluation, or elaboration of ideas (Hursh, 2008).…
