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

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

Education & Teaching

Alfie Kohn

Schools & Teaching

Heinemann

While educators want their students to grow into thoughtful and curious people, the overriding objective of corporations is to maximize their own profits. From that fact alone we can predict what is likely to happen to the nature and purposes of our schools when business becomes involved in the education of our children. This unique and timely anthology chronicles the extent of that involvement, along with the troubling consequences it has already brought. Author Alfie Kohn and professor of education Patrick Shannon have assembled a provocative collection of articles, including 
<ul>
<li>an analysis of the racial implications of voucher programs</li> <li>vivid accounts of how schoolchildren are targeted by advertisers</li> <li>descriptions of how corporate propaganda is insinuated into classroom curriculums</li> <li>an expose of the political connections enjoyed by giant textbook and test publishers</li> <li>a critical look at the process whereby teachers are turned into grant writers.</li> </ul> This book builds a convincing case against those who see children as "customers" or "workers"-and those who would turn learning into a business. As Kohn notes, "[Corporations] are not shy about trying to make over the schools in their own image. It's up to the rest of us to firmly tell them to mind their own businesses."

Education, Inc.: Turning Learning into a Business

Literature & Fiction

Patrick Shannon

Dramas & Plays

Criticizing a system of motivating through reward, a persuasive argument for motivating people by working with them instead of doing things to them uses the latest psychological research to emphasize its theory. 15,000 first printing. Tour.

Punished by Rewards

Self-Help

Motivational

Houghton/Mifflin

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A'S, Praise, and Other Bribes

Paperback: 290 pagesPublisher: Jossey-Bas (1998)ISBN-10: 0787528390ISBN-13: 978-0787528393Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inchesShipping Weight: 10.4 ounces

What to Look for in a Classroom: And Other Essays

Jossey-Bas

Faced with increasing numbers of children who are difficult to manage and the pervasive presence of high stakes testing, many teachers feel frustrated and compelled to reduce their attention to building relationships with and among their students and their focus on social and ethical development. In Learning to Trust, an educational psychologist and a classroom teacher collaborate to demonstrate through an in-depth case study of an inner-city classroom the power and importance of caring, trusting relationships for fostering children's academic growth as well as their social and ethical development. Marilyn Watson explains and describes the ups and downs of Laura Ecken's classroom through the lens of attachment theory, while Laura describes in vivid detail the ongoing life of her classroom, revealing throughout her challenges, thoughts, fears, failures and successes. Together they explore a fundamentally new approach to classroom management and present many practical strategies for helping all children develop the social and emotional skills needed to live harmonious and productive lives, the self confidence and curiosity to invest wholeheartedly in learning, and the empathy and moral understanding to be caring and responsible young people.

Learning to Trust: Transforming Difficult Elementary Classrooms Through Developmental Discipline

Marilyn Watson

Laura Ecken

Jossey-Bass Inc Pub

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (Chinese Edition)

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

Tian Xia Za Zhi/Tsai Fong Books

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Books by Alfie Kohn