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theses

Modern education relies on standardized testing as a quantitative tool to validate the quality of education in the United States today. From as early as the 1800s standardized tests have been a part of the American fabric after they were first administered to immigrants trying to enter the United States, and as observed by W.J. Popham, “when the government administered the Army Alpha intelligence test to about 1.75 million U.S. Army recruits in an effort to identify the most suitable candidates for officer training programs” (47). Since then, standardized testing has been employed to asses individual skill levels across a variety of social, industrial, and educational platforms. According to economist and author Peter Sacks, “the case against standardized mental testing may be as intellectually and ethically rigorous as any argument made about social policy in the past twenty years, but such testing continues to dominate the education system, carving further inroads into the employment arena as well, having been bolstered in recent years by conservative backlash advocating advancement by merit” (25). This study will identify the impact standardized testing has on student education and describe the limitations on critical thinking found as a result of performance testing in schools from elementary school to college. Specifically, it will speak to the phenomenon of a teach-to-test methodology that inhibits students’ abilities to adequately apply critical thinking skills when facing real-life problems. This phenomenon, teach-to-test, is due to a major obstacle that educators face because they are forced, because of testing, to focus on specific topics in a fixed amount of time. Educators may not have enough time to teach students that more than one solution is available. It is here that the teach-to-test methodology does the most damage to students, as they rely on a singular approach when addressing problems. Residual effects of a teach-to-test methodology include potential threats to higher education as standardized tests are often used to identify potential candidates for admission into colleges and universities. Furthermore, a reliance on standardized testing may inhibit students’ ability to apply critical thinking skills in the workforce, where our future leaders will face new and challenging issues daily. Lastly, this study will explore how using the literary works of Dr. Seuss can be a viable option to combat the teach-to-test methodology found in both the classroom and in the workforce as everyone will soon learn about the hidden messages that can be found in every Dr. Seuss story. Using literature that requires critical analysis to understand the entire text can help harness critical thinking skills that can be applied to learning both inside and outside of the classroom.

ETD_7797

M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

by Anthony M. Rapps

doi:10.7282/T37W6FMZ

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.