CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF "WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD TEST?"
Chester E. Finn, Jr., has written an article that supports establishing national testing standards for schools. This is not a balanced article that considers the advantages and disadvantages of the issue and then draws a conclusion. Instead, this article is intended to persuade the reader that national testing is the solution to the problems confronting education, and that those who oppose such testing are interested in preserving the status quo, not in improving the quality of American education.
Finn suggests that in general, Americans support testing. We want our airplanes tested before we fly, and our gold tested to ensure that it meets particular standards. Certainly, according to Finn, the education of our children should be subject to no less scrutiny. He cites statistics that show that the vast majority of Americans also support national education testing. He admitsùbrieflyùthat there are some issues concerning who would develop the standards for such tests and that certainly the testing industry has its own self-interests to look after, but he quickly moves away from these concerns and focuses instead on the role that politics has played in preventing national testing from taking hold.
Those politicians who support national testingùand these are the only politicians discussed in the first few pages of the articleùare not identified with a political party. It is only when Finn begins to criticize those politicians who have raised concern about national testing that political party affiliation is included, and these are Democrats. There is no criticism of the groups that support testing, no identification of their bona fides, and no question that the issue of having a national test when education is funded and guided that the state level could be overcome.
Throughout his article, Finn focuses on the issue of accountabilityùthat schools, teachers an...