The Most Common Issues in American Education

Nowadays, the problem of testing in American education is extremely important because often the existing system of tests is severely criticized and, what is more important, as a rule, this criticism is justified. In this respect, it is worthy to refer to the article by E.D. Hirsch Jr. “Using Tests Productively, where the author researches the problem of tests and their effectiveness. In fact, the author is very skeptical about the existing system of tests which, as he believe, are far from perfect.

Probably, one of the most important problems the author raises in his article is the problem of uselessness of the existing tests. To put it more precisely, E.D. Hirsch argues that both teachers and students are rather more concerned on the successful passing the tests than on the knowledge they receive. By the way, it is worthy of mention that it is not only teachers and students that are involved but the problem of effective testing also concerns the parents of students for, basically, tests are supposed to assess students academic successes and evaluate the effectiveness of their learning.

At the same time, the author underlines that often students that are practically of the same level of education, learning in the same class often show absolutely different results in testing. Hirsch mainly focuses on reading tests and, critically evaluating them, he underlines that they are quite ineffective because they are not testing comprehension strategies, as they are supposed to, but, instead, they are just testing comprehension that is obviously insufficient and ineffective.

Furthermore, the author also points out that, as a rule, students are directly prepared for the reading tests that is totally unacceptable. Instead, Hirsch insists that students should be prepared for a reading test indirectly and that is necessary to develop broad reading skills and abilities. Students should be able to work and comprehend a wide range of text on the basis of broad knowledge which is not only directly linked to reading. This knowledge should be wider, more universal involving not only literature but also art, science, logics, etc.

Naturally, on criticizing the existing system, it would be logical to offer some alternative and Hirsch underlines that content testing could be much more effective if they were specifically tied to the broad knowledge goals of a sound education in literature, science, history and arts. The broad knowledge from different spheres is essential because they form the background information which is of a paramount importance for reading comprehension. Eventually, the author concludes that such broad knowledge would increase the effectiveness of testing as well as education at large because it contributes to the progress of students academic achievements and their cognitive competence.

Obviously, the problem of testing is really important because tests actually define the whole process of education because often they are the final goal students and teachers strive to achieve and pass successfully. At the same time, the changes offered by Hirsch are really important because they help refocus education process from preparation to a particular and not perfect tests to more effective and useful acquisition of broad knowledge, skills and abilities which can not only help pass some tests but could also be useful in students personal and professional life making them really educated and intelligent personalities.