It was funny to read NCLB described as the new federal education act (63). However, it immediately called my attention to the date of this article and how much may have changed. In particular, I wonder if teachers are not doing more to fight back.
I feel better armed now to discuss the negative implications of standardized testing after reading this article. Hillocks’ argument regarding writing prompts was enlightening. In made clear to me that far too complex tasks are being asked of children.
Hilocks writes, “…when students have been subjected to this instruction for eight to ten years, they come to see the five paragraph theme and the shoddy thinking that goes with it as the solution to any writing problem” (70). Hilocks continues by saying that this type of writing instruction “shuts down thinking” and makes college level writing even more challenging. So not only are teachers teaching to a bad test, the instructions they do deliver has no further use and, in fact, hinders learning.
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