The truth behind the standardized test lies
In “Teach the Books, Touch the Hearts,” an article published in the New York Times in 2012, Claire Needell Hollander argues for the right to teach whole books in her middle school classroom and against standardized testing restricting curriculum. Hollander uses her personal experience in her reading enrichment classes with students to convey their emotional connection to whole works of literature. Hollander finds that, due to the constant studying for the tests, the classic books she taught weren’t increasing the student’s scores. In place of the books the students connected to, she replaced them with short articles for the students to read and answer multiple choices questions. Not only did the students become bored, but the lower income students, who had less opportunity in life, were given more test preparation in place of books. Hollander expresses the solution is to get rid of multiple choice tests altogether. Hollander concluded with a heart wrenching sentence, “We cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that purposefully ignore their hearts.”(69) Hollanders experience with kids in low income …show more content…
Yes, it had become the way to evaluate schools, but it’s also the way students evaluate each other. In grade school it was common to go back to class after taking one of the state mandated tests and tell your scores. If you weren’t above average you were considered “stupid.” The kids with perfect grades in all their normal school subjects, who got a lower score on the tests were automatically discredited. What I find humorous looking back is the day before we’d take the test, our teachers told us to get good sleep and make sure to eat breakfast, knowing full well that some of the students would not get the opportunity to do either
In “Teach the Books, Touch the Hearts,” an article published in the New York Times in 2012, Claire Needell Hollander argues for the right to teach whole books in her middle school classroom and against standardized testing restricting curriculum. Hollander uses her personal experience in her reading enrichment classes with students to convey their emotional connection to whole works of literature. Hollander finds that, due to the constant studying for the tests, the classic books she taught weren’t increasing the student’s scores. In place of the books the students connected to, she replaced them with short articles for the students to read and answer multiple choices questions. Not only did the students become bored, but the lower income students, who had less opportunity in life, were given more test preparation in place of books. Hollander expresses the solution is to get rid of multiple choice tests altogether. Hollander concluded with a heart wrenching sentence, “We cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that purposefully ignore their hearts.”(69) Hollanders experience with kids in low income …show more content…
Yes, it had become the way to evaluate schools, but it’s also the way students evaluate each other. In grade school it was common to go back to class after taking one of the state mandated tests and tell your scores. If you weren’t above average you were considered “stupid.” The kids with perfect grades in all their normal school subjects, who got a lower score on the tests were automatically discredited. What I find humorous looking back is the day before we’d take the test, our teachers told us to get good sleep and make sure to eat breakfast, knowing full well that some of the students would not get the opportunity to do either