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"How Standardized Testing Damages Education," posted on, http://www.fairtest.org/facts/howharm.htm, the author talks about how standardized testing in schools today is damaging to students. The article talks about how the tests are biased but schools are still using it as a measurement of whether the student is ready for school or if they can go to the next grade. They also talk about how the tests have an emotional affect on the students. If a student is not able to go to the next grade, because of a bad test score, it's going to have a negative emotional affect and not necessarily improve their knowledge capabilities.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing in regards to how they believe that standardized testing has damaged our education system. They begin by discussing how school use the tests the determine if students are ready for school, track them once they are in school, and help to develop and guide our schools curriculum, even though they are incredibly biased and are limited in their ability to measure achievement or ability in the students whom they are testing. They continue by arguing that these tests are very inaccurate when it comes to determining if a student is ready for school because they are 'overly academic and developmentally inappropriate in primary schooling.'

COOOOOL article--loved it.

Rose Garrett writes an article called Is Standardized Testing Failing Our Kids? which is basically questioning the purpose for taking the test. It talks about how the test hurt the students who need the help the most and is adding a lot of pressure to both the students and the teachers. It states how teachers have to teach to the test instead of teaching in a way that will not end up on paper. This article says that we should have a different kind of testing that is called performance based assessments and it is based on the idea that kids should be evaluated on what they can do and not for the purpose to see how successful they are. It allows kids to be creative and to shoe us what they actually know instead of taking a test. It seems clear that a standardized test only shows wheatear a student got the question right or wrong not how well they know the material or how well they can answer a question. The author states that until we can decided what we want kids to learn than it is hard to give them a test on things they may or may not know.

The Great School Staff and its main focus in wrote testing in California on standardized testing in schools. The first part of this article talks about all the different kinds of test there are through out elementary school and high school. It examines how schools are given a target in which their student's scores should follow under. These targets are called API growth targets. After the testing is complete the schools will receive rankings comparing similar schools and also comparing schools within in state. It states that these test are mainly important for helping parents understand how well their child is learning, and also how well are schools preparing their students. The results of this test can affect the children, teachers and schools. I

High Stakes Testing, by Miriam J. Metzger, Andrew J. Flanagin, talks about testing, and the No Child Left Behind Act and how it has affected schools and their methods of teaching. It explains how because of the No Child Left Behind Act the children are no longer being taught to know the information, but they are being taught so they can pass the tests and get the schools more money. The tests the students are taking are focusing on Mathematics and Reading...

This is not the link to the actual chapter, but a link about the book. I got the book from the library... In Chapter 8, Testing, Trying, and Teaching, John Bruer argues that standardized testing is not a fair way to test students. He mentions that putting a student into a percentile based on the score they get on a single test does not give a fair representation of the students learning and understanding of the material.

In the book "Digital media, youth, and credibility" by Miriam J. Metzger and Andrew J. Flanagin, they discuss the impact of standardized testing in classrooms. Through their perspective the two main subjects of standardized testing are math and English, leaving other subjects neglected. The passing of "No Child Left Behind" is brought up as the beginning of the standardized testing phenomena.

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 favor by making its victims more "accountable.") But let's put aside metaphors and even opinions for a moment so that we can review some indisputable facts on the subject.

written by Terry Miller just recently this past August. The first part of the article talks about how well students performed on the test and the huge improvement they are making over the years. The results of the test rose at least eight percent over this last year. California's top executive educator, California State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell, visited Cleveland Elementary School in northwest Pasadena. O'Connell said, "The growth in achievement is evident among every subgroup of students. However, we must continue to pay close attention to the achievement gap that shows students of color and poverty are trailing behind their peers. He is concern for those students of the lower class and those of the African American race. O'Connell is trying to figure out a way to help this proficiency and narrow this academic chasm.

The article "Using Instructional Technology in Transformed Learning Environments: An Evaluation of Project CHILD," by Sarah Butzin, claims that students are able to learn more and are more motivated when they are able to use technology and implement the Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development (CHILD) project. Butzin studied the effects of technology by comparing two schools that were both technology-rich. One school implemented project CHILD and the other school implemented a more traditional design. According to the author, the CHILD method involves a cluster of three grades that are broken into smaller groups and remain with the same teachers throughout those three grades (K-2 and 3-5.) The more traditional learning style still involved the use of technology in day to day learning, but every year the students changed teachers and only worked within their grade level. The CHILD implementation makes it so that children can learn at their own pace and switch stations that include bookwork, one on one or small group time with the teacher, working with technology, and hands-on experience. Butzin claims that this style of learning showed positive outcomes for testing scores, classroom motivation, improvement in behavior, and increased parent involvement.

In the chapter called "High-Stakes Testing," the author is talking about the role of standardized testing and bench marks in schools. Later goes on to also talk about the roles of teachers and how it effects them.

In 1983, Howard Gardner developed the multiple intelligences theory. There are supposedly eight different styles of learning and they are all independent of each other. It is said that the theory "has never been empirically tested" but this raises the question as to how you can possibly test such a thing. Another part of this article talks about IQ tests.

This article by Amy Garmer, talks about how society is all about digital literacy and improving test scores and every thing through text but how this is a big problem because many students with parent who lacks in knowlegde with technologies aren't able to help their students study. So instead they go online and use computers for entertainments instead. She comes up with an idea about having gov. funded institutes for parents to learn and become skilled with digital literacies so that they can, therefore, help their kids do better in school and on tests.

The Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College did a study based on the "Use, Support and Effect of Instructional Technology" otherwise known as USEIT, in 55 classrooms in nine Massachusetts school districts. They were trying to research if student usage of technology would affect their tests scores on standardized tests.

In the article "Debate: Not Child Left Behind" put together by "Debatepedia" the pros and cons of standardized testing resulting from the 'No Child Left Behind' Act are discussed.

This article shows us what this new thing "race to the top" is all about. In this article you will read about how much money the government is putting into this program for "incentive" to help schools be reformed and gain better test scores. It is a great article to read to get you started on knowing what is race to the top, but it makes you also question, why are we spending all this money just to make test scores higher? is the problem deeper than this? This is what i will be looking more into and hopefully getting some answer to post of here relating to this topic.

The Future of Thinking, Cathy Davidson argues our world is no longer taking learning seriously. Teachers are teaching so that students are passing tests. She argues the No Child Left behind Act leaves old forms of learning behind. How is it improving the way children are learning if the focus of learning is changing?

In the book The Trouble With Boys, author Peg Tyre discusses boy's problems at school and what parents and educators must do. By interviewing hundreds of parents, children, experts and teachers, Tyre offers diverse explanations and facts on why the educational system is failing boys. This book is written in 20 informative chapters that provide important facts on ADHD, the necessity of recess, the vanishing male teacher, single-sex schooling and boys and literacy. In Chapter 11: Boys and Literacy, Tyre begins with scary statistics showing that boys have consistently scored less well than girls on tests measuring reading and writing. She also argues that the "male literacy gap" is not a new problem and may be spawning a national crisis. This is becoming a national crisis because "high-level reading and writing skills are essential not only to economic success but to economic survival" (135). Tyre then asks who or what is to blame for "the male reading deficit." Is it biology? Is it culture? The only clear answer is the "small differences get amplified by the careless, and sometimes crushing, messages that boys often get about the importance of reading from their parents, teachers and communities" (142). Boy's conclusions about reading and writing are shaped through schooling and home attitudes towards literacy.

In "The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption" by various authors, the authors discuss that 21 states are reviewing the textbooks usage in schools.

Boys, masculinities and literacy: Addressing the issues This article is from the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, written by Wayne Martino. Through interviews, gathering data and reading over 30 books on boys, masculinity and literacy, he discusses these problems while offering solutions for the "underachievement and lack of engagement" with literacy for boys. (9). Right away Martino explains that not all boys are underachieving but overall test scores have shown a general pattern of boys struggling in literacy practices. He offers many reasons that may be causing this literacy crisis for males, as well as solutions that need to being in schooling.