Standardized Students: The Problems With Writing for Tests Instead of People

Abstract

The author questions whether literacy assessment is best undertaken in the form of standardized tests given to huge groups of students in high‐stakes situations. There is a growing sense that the point of literacy education—of all education—is to administer standardized assessments and provide rankings rather than learning. However, concerns about increasing reliance on standardized testing in literacy education are about more than questionable methods of assessment and measurement: What effect does the unrelenting emphasis on standardized literacy testing have on students' perception of the purposes and possibilities of literacy? By extension, what effect does such testing have on their perception of the possibilities for themselves as readers and writers?

Gifted Rural Writers Explore Place in Narrative Fiction Stories

“…The focus of school-assigned writing tends to be nonfiction narratives and expository texts (Dyson, 2013;Graves, 1994;Williams, 2005), but students, especially as they mature in their writing capabilities (Atwell, 1998), often express a desire to craft fictional stories as well. "In many classrooms, the child who has moved from writing her own personal narrative to composing an imaginary tale has become a 'real' writer" (Graves, 1994, p. 287).…”