ARE STANDARD EXAMS IMPORTANT IN EDUCATION?
In her article " In Defense of Testing," Diane Ravitch discusses the importance of
standard testing. Good exams are an efficient way to tell the public officials whether new
school programs are working or not. That is, a test with essays or show all work is the
best way to evaluate a student's performance. Diane tells about how it is important to
take standard exams so teachers and parents know where the student is in his or her
In the third paragraph, Diane tells that for most of this century educators use
intelligence tests as a standard scale to determine a student's learning capacity. She points
out that IQ tests do not cover the important subjects such as science, math, history,
literature, or foreign languages. Therefore, IQ tests cannot absolutely determine the
student's talent in the classroom. The tests should cover subjects that are learned in the
classroom at the student's grade level and with some information on higher learning for a
In paragraph #5, Diane discusses how the state test results have been used to point
out weaknesses in school programs, and that by using these test scores, states and school
districts can better allocate their resources to the places where they are best needed. For
all their flaws, standardized testing has helped a great many students by helping them to
get more resources, such as money, learning support, or grants. Moreover, the states are
testing new teachers to make sure the students are getting a teacher who knows the
Ms. Ravitch states that the state standard tests are written incorrectly. The tests
are all multiple choice, which allows the student to guess instead of thinking about the
question and solving it. Here, Diane expresses both fact and opinion. She demonstrates
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