The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools [Paperback]

Alfie Kohn (Author), Lois Bridges (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000 | ISBN-10: 0325003254 | ISBN-13: 978-3250032540

Our students are tested to an extent that is unprecedented in American history and unparalleled anywhere in the world. Politicians and businesspeople, determined to get tough with students and teachers, have increased the pressure to raise standardized test scores. Unfortunately, the effort to do so typically comes at the expense of more meaningful forms of learning.

That disturbing conclusion emerges from Alfie Kohn's devastating new indictment of standardized testing. Drawing from the latest research, he concisely explains just how little test results really tell us and just how harmful a test-driven curriculum can be. Written in a highly readable question-and-answer format, The Case Against Standardized Testing will help readers respond to common questions and challenges-showing, for example, that:

• high scores often signify relatively superficial thinking
• many of the leading tests were never intended to measure teaching or learning
• a school that improves its test results may well have lowered its standards to do so
• far from helping to "close the gap," the use of standardized testing is most damaging for low-income and minority students
• as much as 90 percent of the variations in test scores among schools or states have nothing to do with the quality of instruction
• far more meaningful measures of student learning-or school quality-are available.

Kohn's central message is that standardized tests are "not like the weather, something to which we must resign ourselves. . . . They are not a force of nature but a force of politics-and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed." The final section demonstrates how teachers, parents, and students can turn their frustration into action and successfully turn back the testing juggernaut in order to create classrooms that focus on learning.

Also available on Audiotape: The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools, read by Alfie Kohn.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The more we learn about standardized testing.the more likely we are to be appalled. And the more appalled we are, the more inclined we will be to do what is necessary to protect our children.”–Alfie Kohn

About the Author

Alfie Kohn was recently described by Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores." He is the author of seven previous books on education and human behavior, including Punished by Rewards (1993), Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community (1996), and The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards" (1999). A former teacher, Kohn now works with educators across the country and speaks regularly at national conferences. He lives (actually) in Belmont, Mass. and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325003254
• ISBN-13: 978-3250032540
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alfie Kohn is the author of nine previous books, including Punished by Rewards and The Schools Our Children Deserve, that have helped to shape the thinking of parents and educators across the country and abroad. He lectures widely and lives (actually) with his family in the Boston area.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We've got it in Canada, too. . ., June 23, 2001

By 

Sigrid Olsen (Salem, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools (Paperback)

High stakes testing is the foot and mouth disease of both the United States and Canada. This fall I'm heading back to teach in Oregon after 15 years in Canada. I was hoping that I would be able to have a respite for my kids (not for me!) and my brother tells me that they are doing the same thing in Oregon.

High Stakes testing closes the door on our middle of the road kids, the late bloomers, and of course the others discussed in Kohn's book.

But the sad thing is is that the parents who should spearhead the effort to end this modern day gristmill--the dismal paper chase of childhood--are the very ones who say "only for my child," or openly brag about their children's test scores.

He's right--those test scores only measure the square footage of the homes that surround the schools. And worse, teachers participate by earning their blood money by marking the tests! I've had kids give up hope when faced with the test at the end of the tunnel, things are so bad that in Calgary, in my daughter's middle class high school, only 52% of the students graduated. They flood the adult education centre in efforts to "upgrade." Finally they renamed the centre to Chinook College.

I love Kohn's book, and heard him speak, the only depressing thing is that in two combined nations of over 300 million, I am the fourth review!

Forget about making teachers accountable. I'd trade my tenure anyday in an effort to get rid of these tests. . .

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Standardized Testing--A Call to Action, December 20, 2000

By 

Gregory D. Trombly (Baldwinsville, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools (Paperback)

Death and taxes are often quoted as givens in our society. In the world of education, one might add standardized testing to this grouping. If we examine the current call for educational standards in this country and the accompanying emphasis on high stakes standardized testing, one may immediately recall the discomfort of sitting in a room of silent test takers, usually a gymnasium with only the sounds of the proctors and their wing-tipped shoes creaking up and down the rows as answers are feverishly bubbled in with number two pencils. Alfie Kohn, reseracher and an outspoken critic of our public school system and its emphasis on competition, brings to light in this book, a need for a modern day "call to arms." For Kohn, establishes a strong framework from the start, as he characterizes standardized tests as having "swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies to the point that it now threatens to swallow our school whole." Over the course of just 94 pages, Kohn writes a deftly crafted text, with chapter titles that in and of themselves provoke, such as, "Measuring What Matters Least," "The Worst Tests," and "Burnt at the High Stakes," just to name three of the six section titles. This book is a must read for every parent and educator. Kohn aptly sets the stage for his final section, entitled, "Fighting the Tests," a call to action by teachers, adminstrators, parents and students to resist in any way possible the onslaught of standardized testing and standards. Kohn, puts forth very concrete ways to resist current efforts that are being imposed by various government agencies throughout our country. Sixteen very specific strategies are delineated from just talking with friends and neighbors about inherent dangers of focusing on standardized test scores, to actually forming an organized boycott against having one's child or student take the exams. Kohn's provocative, yet extremely well researched and documented style should make the most zealous promoter of high standards and high stakes testing, sit up and take notice.

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon should stock this surefire potential bestseller!, October 12, 2000

By 

Gary S. Stager (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools (Paperback)

This is an extremely important book written by a courageous thoughtful and articulate spokesman for children. Kohn explains to citizens, school administrators and parents punch-drunk with an insatiable quest for tests and test scores just how much their simplistic efforts at school 'improvement' damage our schools and the learning potential of kids.

The costs are just too high for this national obsession and escalation of educational violence to go unchecked. The testing war is financed by textbook publishers, corporations and dubious politicians, like George W. Bush, who equate learning with measurement, the casualties are children and creative teachers.

Those advocating nutty ideas like annual (or even more frequent) mandatory standardized testing are transforming our public schools from social institutions where intellect and creativity are socially constructed into corporatized sterile test-preparation centers.

Alfie Kohn's new book should be purchased in quantity and distributed at school parent nights, school board meetings, cocktail parties and teacher lounges. Alfie Kohn is a 21st Century Patriot whose timely book should be a clarion call to all concerned with children and the future of our schools.