PHI DELTA KAPPAN January 2001 Fighting the Tests A Practical Guide to Rescuing Our Schools By Alfie Kohn Don’t let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered. Every empirical investigation … Read More
Standardized Testing and Its Victims (**)
EDUCATION WEEK September 27, 2000 Standardized Testing and Its Victims By Alfie Kohn Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole. (Of course, on “The Late, Late Show,” no one ever insists that the monster is really doing us a … Read More
Opposing View (editorials)
USA TODAY 2000-08 USA Today regularly invites guest writers to offer an “opposing view” to their unsigned editorials on controversial issues, although the writers are allotted only 350 words and do not get an advance look at the essays to which they are responding. 1. In “Phantom Claims Endanger New Graduation Standards” (May 8, 2000), the paper argued that “there is … Read More
The Case for Sondheim as Existentialist
THE SONDHEIM REVIEW Spring 2000 The Case for Sondheim as Existentialist By Alfie Kohn THE ONE DISADVANTAGE of Stephen Sondheim’s lyrical dexterity is that listeners may miss the substance behind the wordplay. His facility with the language, the way his songs are so perfectly constructed that they seem to rhyme by accident, has generated a following that helps to explain … Read More
Poor Teaching for Poor Students: More Reasons to Boycott the MCAS Tests
BOSTON GLOBE March 20, 2000 Poor Teaching for Poor Students More Reasons to Boycott the MCAS Tests By Alfie Kohn It is becoming increasingly clear that the MCAS is effectively hijacking the curriculum in suburban schools, forcing teachers to suspend innovative instruction in order to prepare students for the test. Still, the question remains: What about children of color and … Read More
Tests That Cheat Students
NEW YORK TIMES December 9, 1999 Tests That Cheat Students By Alfie Kohn The allegations that some New York City teachers may have cheated to raise their students’ test scores should surprise no one — partly because of similar accusations elsewhere but also because of the enormous pressure on educators to produce better results. We would do well to look … Read More
In Defense of the Progressive School
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL Fall 1999 Vol. 59, No. 1 In Defense of the Progressive School An Interview with Alfie Kohn By Kitty Thuermer A former teacher turned author and lecturer, Alfie Kohn was recently described by Timemagazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” We would add to this list “outspoken critic of our … Read More
The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement (**)
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR November 1999 The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement By Alfie Kohn Only extraordinary education is concerned with learning; most is concerned with achieving: and for young minds, these two are very nearly opposite. — Marilyn French I. Common sense suggests we should figure out what our educational goals are, then check in periodically to see how successful we … Read More
On Teaching Reading, Spelling, and Related Subjects
Excerpts from The Schools Our Children Deserve (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999) On Teaching Reading, Spelling, and Related Subjects Half Truths About Whole Language By Alfie Kohn “Kids aren’t learning how to read these days because ivory-tower ideologues have eliminated the teaching of necessary basic skills in favor of feel-good, PC fads like Whole Language. We’d do a lot better if we … Read More
What Works Better than Traditional Math Instruction
From Chapter 9: “Getting the 3 R’s Right” in The Schools Our Children Deserve (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999) What Works Better than Traditional Math Instruction Why the Basics Just Don’t Add Up By Alfie Kohn The still-dominant Old School model begins with the assumption that kids primarily need to learn “math facts”: the ability to say “42” as soon as they hear … Read More