The following is the concluding paragraph for my final paper for the Full Sail EMDT ARP. I welcome any and all comments and critiques:
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Conclusion
There are many poignant opinions about high-stakes testing and whether or not it has done more harm than good for the students who are subjected to these testing situations. But, no matter what the opinions are, for teachers and students in today’s educational system, standardized and quantitative testing are a reality that cannot be ignored, circumvented, or avoided. For this reason the research conducted in this project focused on two areas of concern in assessment of state writing tests. The first area of concern was in the shortcomings of the many students at the Middle School level who are failing to achieve a proficient score on state writing tests. "Why are our students scoring so poorly? Certainly there are a number of factors out of our immediate control (e.g., second language issues, poverty, lack of parental involvement). Dwelling on these issues, however, is counterproductive and a waste of time and energy. We are better served by focusing on what we can control—namely, our teaching" (Gallagher, 2003, p. 26).
There are many poignant opinions about high-stakes testing and whether or not it has done more harm than good for the students who are subjected to these testing situations. But, no matter what the opinions are, for teachers and students in today’s educational system, standardized and quantitative testing are a reality that cannot be ignored, circumvented, or avoided. For this reason the research conducted in this project focused on two areas of concern in assessment of state writing tests. The first area of concern was in the shortcomings of the many students at the Middle School level who are failing to achieve a proficient score on state writing tests. "Why are our students scoring so poorly? Certainly there are a number of factors out of our immediate control (e.g., second language issues, poverty, lack of parental involvement). Dwelling on these issues, however, is counterproductive and a waste of time and energy. We are better served by focusing on what we can control—namely, our teaching" (Gallagher, 2003, p. 26).
Despite a high proficiency rating, one of my biggest problems with these scores is that they are proficient, but not advanced. The original goal of this Action Research Project was to flush out ways to increase motivation and improve writing proficiency, but also to find ways to make students who were already proficient want to achieve advanced. Alber-Morgan, Hessler, and Konrad (2007) wrote that “written expression is difficult to teach because it is the most complex form of communication; however, it is critical because it is a common mode of communication” (p.124). This is what I feel the next step is for this project. Helping the students write proficiently requires motivation and a formula like the formal outline, but obtaining advanced is more trivial as it requires a passion for writing and an evident voice from the writer.
Works Cited:
Alber-Morgan, S., Hessler, T., & Konrad, M. (2007). Teaching writing for keeps. Education and Treatment of Children, 30(3), 107-128. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Gallagher, K. (2003). Righting our writing wrongs: Ten concerns about writing instruction. California English, 8(5), 26-28. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
I give you great credit for grabbing the bull by the horn and really seriously attacking the problems presented by high-stakes testing. Wonderful. It is so important that we do meet the challenge and find solutions, like you were working towards. I'm thinking that there might be a typo in your last sentence: "but obtaining advanced is more trivial as it requires a passion for writing and an evident voice from the writer." I'm thinking that you meant "but obtaining advanced is non-trivial..." Great job.
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