For my assignment one, the scholar I’ve been looking at is Arlo Kempf. He is currently a professor at the University of Toronto for education. One of his big focuses is the High-Stakes Standardized Testing (HSST) within curriculum. HSST is the portion in curriculum in Canada and the US recently that is the cause for so much testing so frequently and causing tests to be the be all end all.
Kempf’s viewpoint is that everything being tested is a stupid way to test knowledge and that HSST in the US and Canada should not be being used. The problem with HSST is that it causes too much emphasis on tests to be gauging comprehension. In certain circumstances tests are not a bad thing and can be a great way to benchmark where students are at. But having tests be the be all end all in all classes does not create a great way of teaching and learning.
What I’d like to learn and need to find out going forwards in the assignment is what other approaches can be taken to combat the current teaching methods. In some classes using HSST to a degree might still be useful. Not at the rate it is right now but certain classes like ELA for example, it makes no sense to have so many parts of the class to be tested.