Dear Mr. Karl Fisch –
After your article “The CSAP is Dead. Long Live the CSAP (err, TCAP)” I began to think deeply about standardized tests and my true feelings about them. My decision? Standardized testing is a completely necessary part of schooling. My reasoning for this is that colleges need to compare applicants side by side. GPA’s do not tell nearly as much because an A in a class could reflect a student’s knowledge, but also could reflect an easy class. Also, I felt like Will Richardson’s quote was not very well thought out and I disagree with his views. I agree on the fact that students need to be able to handle “real problems” and “the ability to make sense of the world as they experience it” but these things can be achieved just by living, and schools should never have to teach students this and therefore would have no reason to test students on it. Also, I think that instilling a “love for learning” in students is just flat out unreasonable and will most likely never be achieved. In the future, I would hope to see standardize tests used more for decision making on class placement and college applications.
