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Kohn, Alfie. “Standardized Testing and Its Victims.” Alfie Kohn, 27 Sept. 2000.

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Kohn, Alfie. “Standardized Testing and Its Victims.” Alfie Kohn, 27 Sept. 2000.

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Keywords: Achievement gap, rich vs. poor, standardized testing, accountability, socioeconomic factors

Summary: Kohn argues that standardized testing has resulted an increase in the achievement gap between students. Wealthier families are able to afford better education for their children compared to less fortunate families. Furthermore, "raising the bar" in education isn't going to do much if less fortunate schools aren't funded properly. They will just fall behind wealthier schools even more.

Opinion: I think Kohn makes valid points about how standardized testing and the attitude towards testing affects the achievement gap in the US.

Reliability: I think Kohn is reliable. He is an author that writes about education, having several published works.

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Hursh, David W. “The Gates Foundation, Pearson, and Arne Duncan.” The End of Public Schools: the Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education. Routledge, 2016.

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Hursh, David W. “The Gates Foundation, Pearson, and Arne Duncan.” The End of Public Schools: the Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education. Routledge, 2016.

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Keywords: Pearson, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Arne Duncan, Standardized Testing, Privatization of Education, Race to the Top

Summary: Hursh talks about how large organizations and political figures have impacted the American education system in the 21st century. He talks about how there is immense pressure put on teachers to improve student test scores, which are used to evaluate teachers. They ignore the fact that a student's performance is affected by several socioeconomic factors. Additionally, he talks about how RTTT is being used to force states to using the CCSS and that students, teachers, and parents are being marginalized in favor for large corporations.

Opinion: I agree with Hursh that students are affected by more than just teacher quality and that teachers should not be the main focus of this issue. Instead, I believe that we should stop incorporating standardized testing that puts immense pressure on students and teachers.

Reliability: I believe this book is reliable. While it is opinionated against the privatization of education, Hursh uses reliable sources to prove his point.

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“A Nation At Risk.” A Nation at Risk, US Department of Education (ED), 1983.

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“A Nation At Risk.” A Nation at Risk, US Department of Education (ED), 1983.

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Keywords: Standards, American education, student achievement, school improvement

Summary: A Nation At Risk was created in order to address the supposedly failing education system in America during Nixon's era. It suggests that higher standards be enforced into the curriculum, creating a rigorous and challenging education for students. A Nation at Risk brought about several changes to the American school system, of which many can be seen today.

Opinion: I believe that the document doesn't fully represent what the education system of the country needed at the time. The people on the board who created the document were mainly school administrators, politicians, and businessmen. I think they needed to have education experts who properly represented the students and teachers in terms of race, social status, etc.

Reliability: The source is reliable as it was created through a government sponsored group of individuals and was archived by the government.

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Pulliam, John D., and Van Patten James J. “Developments in Modern American Education 1918-Present.” History of Education in America, Merrill, 2007.

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Pulliam, John D., and Van Patten James J. “Developments in Modern American Education 1918-Present.” History of Education in America, Merrill, 2007.

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Keywords: NDEA, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Child Study, Aptitude testing

Summary: Pulliam talks about how the government began their involvement in education following the launch of the Soviet satellite, Sputnik in 1957. Additionally, the chapter talks about how education and psychology combined for research and development to try and measure the ability of a child.

Opinion: I feel like government involvement in education is healthy until it starts going in the wrong direction (NCLB and RTTT). Also, I think the intelligence testing done was a good idea, however, it seems to have been exploited down the line.

Reliability: I think this source is reliable since the authors are re-telling the history of education in America.

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Urban, Wayne J., and Jennings L. Wagoner. “Organizing the Modern School System: Educational Reform in the Progressive Era, 1890-1915.” American Education: a History, Routledge, 2014.

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Urban, Wayne J., and Jennings L. Wagoner. “Organizing the Modern School System: Educational Reform in the Progressive Era, 1890-1915.” American Education: a History, Routledge, 2014.

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Keywords: Progressive education, reform movement, educational reform, late 19th/early 20th century education

Summary: Progressive education followed the larger reform movement going on at the time. It resulted in the expansion and reorganization of the curriculum, created junior high school, and improved the quality of schools.

Opinion: While education followed the larger reform movement going on, it's interesting to learn that progressive education led to several new changes that are in our current education system.

Reliability: I think the source is reliable in talking about how America's education system changed over the last 200 or so years.

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(3/3) Ravitch, Diane. "The Facts About Teachers and Test Scores." Reign of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. Vintage Books, 2014.

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(3/3) Ravitch, Diane. "The Facts About Teachers and Test Scores." Reign of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. Vintage Books, 2014.

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Keywords: Value-Added Measurement System, standardized testing, academic performance, teachers, socioeconomic factors

Summary: In this chapter, Ravitch addresses the problem in the United States that people are putting too much emphasis on improving teachers instead of trying to fix non-teacher related factors. The Obama administration and many other politicians and philanthropists also believe teachers are how students succeed or fail in school.

Opinion: Sure, having a good teacher is great and can boost student morale and participation, but socioeconomic factors play a huge role in the success of a student. If a student doesn't have a proper household, then they may not perform well in school due to stress carried over from what happens at home. Teachers cannot be ones to blame for the performance of their students. Teachers should be evaluated based on their own performance.

Reliability: Ravitch is reliable source as she is a professor in education and served as the Assistant Secretary of Education during the Bush and Clinton presidencies from 1991 - 1993. Ravitch has also served on several education boards and has many works published that address the education issue in America.

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"Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing." Columbia University. N. p., 2013.

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"Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing." Columbia University. N. p., 2013.

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Keywords: Standardized testing, stress, accountability, evaluation

Summary: This Pro/Con list gives several reasons why standardized testing is beneficial and harmful. It talks about how standardized tests provide guidance and accountability for teachers and students as well as how it causes stress on students, teachers, and the like.

Opinion:  I find this document to be very helpful as it provides points for both sides of the spectrum.

Reliability: While there aren't any links to studies, I think it is reliable as it is published by Columbia University.

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Broussard, Meredith. "Why Poor Schools Can’t Win At Standardized Testing." The Atlantic. N. p., 2014.

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Broussard, Meredith. "Why Poor Schools Can’t Win At Standardized Testing." The Atlantic. N. p., 2014.

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Keywords: Pearson, textbooks, data science, education funding, standardized testing

Summary: Broussard talks about how major corporations (Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin) produce textbooks and standardized tests as well as the education funding problem in Philadelphia schools. She talks about how instead of testing a student's general knowledge, standardized tests issued by these corporations, they test the information found within the book. This means that if a student learns about a topic using a "non-mainstream" textbook and took a standardized test from Pearson, they would score less than a student that used a Pearson textbook because they didn't know information contained within the textbook that was tested. Additionally, Broussard talks about how cuts to education funding is negatively impacting Philadelphia public schools. Most schools only have a small fraction of necessary textbooks for their students, don't have a proper book filing system, nor the appropriate amount of staff to monitor such a system or administration tasks in school.

Opinion: I think that Broussard hits the target when she says students shouldn't be taking standardized tests tied to a specific set of textbooks. I believe that if I understand the knowledge of a topic, I'm good to go. I shouldn't have to tailing my learning to what a textbook has to say for specific test. Also, I think that rather than cutting the education budget, we should increase the budget so proper staff can be hired for management and textbooks can be bought for students.

Reliability: Broussard is a data scientist who essentially conducted a mini-study about the education issue in the state of Philadelphia. I believe that her data is fairly accurate (even though it is an estimate).

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LastWeekTonight. "Standardized Testing: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)." YouTube. N. p., 2015.

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LastWeekTonight. "Standardized Testing: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)." YouTube. N. p., 2015.

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Keywords: Value-Added Measurement (VAM) System, policies, Pearson,  standardized testing

Summary: John Oliver talks about how standardized testing is negatively impacting students and teachers as well as the policies and companies that support standardized testing. The video talks about how students are unwilling to take standardized tests that improperly gauge their aptitude. Additionally, teachers (with several degrees and years of experience) who took tests similar to the ones students took are scoring fairly low. As a result of standardized testing, teacher ratings are dropping because of a faulty system. This issue was a result of Bush's No Child Left Behind and Obama's Race To The Top policies that promoted "accountability" for teachers. Unfortunately, instead of decreasing the amount of tests students have to take, the number of tests students take have increased. The increase in tests is positively impacting education companies like Pearson and McGrawHill that create material and tests for schools to use.

Opinion: I personally love John Oliver and his show. It's humorous, talks about interesting topics, and informative. Oliver addresses some of the modern causes of the education crisis in America to a detailed extent. However, he does not talk about any solutions, rather just points out the issue with the current system, backed with facts.

Reliability: While Last Week Tonight is a satirical show, it is fairly reliable as they use facts and statistics to back up their claims. John Oliver has been used by several of my teachers in high school for various topics. If teachers with degrees on subjects he talks about use his content for class material, I believe he is pretty reliable.

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Standardized Testing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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"Relying On High-Stakes Standardized Tests To Evaluate Schools And Teachers: A Bad Idea." The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas (2017).

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"Relying On High-Stakes Standardized Tests To Evaluate Schools And Teachers: A Bad Idea." The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas (2017).

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Keywords:  Texas miracle, Value-Added Measurement (VAM) System, academic performance, policies

Summary: Hani Morgan talks about how using standardized testing to  evaluate teachers is harmful for both students and teachers and some possible alternatives. The article talks about how low test scores in under performing schools results in teachers altering student test scores, reducing collaboration between teachers, and resulting in teachers being subject to critique by education experts. Morgan adds that policies such as the NCLB and RttP result in students being forced into a "recall and memorization" learning method instead of one that promotes higher-level thinking. He concludes by talking about how other countries do not use student standardized testing scores to evaluate their teachers. Instead, they use standardized tests for teachers  to show their teaching proficiency, and judge the performance of teachers as a whole.

Opinion: Morgan's article focuses on one thing, which is why I like it so much. He provides several negative impacts of using teacher evaluations, and also provides alternatives to them at the end. I agree with Morgan on the point that using ineffective standardized test scores negatively impacts both student and teacher performance. As someone who has taken a plethora of academic tests for school, I can confidently say that they do not represent my capability as a student.

Reliability: Hani Morgan has graduated from Columbia University's Teacher College with two masters degrees (the first in curriculum and teacher, and the second in international education) and has a doctoral degree from Rutgers University. He published articles in several journal articles, and specialized in the foundations of teaching at Rutgers. I believe that Morgan knows what he's talking about and is a reliable source.