THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF “TOUGHER STANDARDS”: Challenging High-Stakes Testing and Other Impediments to Learning The main effect “of the drive for so-called higher standards in schools is that the children are too busy to think,” said John Holt in 1959. Today, an ill-informed version of school reform has been embraced by politicians, corporate executives, and journalists, all demanding “accountability,” which … Read More
Remember When We Had High Standards? Neither Do I (##)
December 10, 2010 Remember When We Had Higher Standards? Neither Do I By Alfie Kohn “In recent years, parents have cried in dismay that their children could not read out loud, could not spell, could not write clearly,” while “employers have said that mechanics could not read simple directions. Many a college has blamed high schools for passing on students…who … Read More
Debunking the Case for National Standards (#)
EDUCATION WEEK January 14, 2010 Debunking the Case for National Standards One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers By Alfie Kohn [This is a slightly expanded version of the article published in Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” issue.] I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does. Throughout the 1990s, one state after another adopted prescriptive education standards enforced … Read More
Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests (**)
EDUCATION WEEK September 26, 2001 Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests By Alfie Kohn A number of prominent educators are finally raising their voices against standardized testing—particularly multiple-choice, norm-referenced tests; particularly tests with “high stakes” (read: bribes and threats) attached; and particularly in the context of a federal mandate to force every state to test every student in … 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
The Trouble With “Back-to-Basics” and “Tougher Standards”
SCHOOL BOARD NEWS September 14, 1999 The Trouble With “Back-to-Basics” and “Tougher Standards” By Alfie Kohn How can we fix our failing schools? The question is heard frequently these days, but its premise is incorrect. Once we look beyond the scare headlines, we find that students in American schools are actually doing about as well as ever on standardized tests. … Read More