A position is an opinion on an issue that can be supported with evidence and reasoning.

For example, a position on coal might be "The United States should decrease its reliance on coal power."

2. Evidence is facts, data, experiences, and beliefs. In this class, we will focus on evidence pulled from reliable, external sources that we cite; however, we will have opportunities to use and discuss evidence based on personal experience as well as ethical and moral beliefs.

An example evidence for the above position on coal power is "Coal power plants accounted for 59% of the carbon dioxide emissions from US electricity generation in 2021 (EPA.gov)"

3. Reasoning explains why evidence supports a position. Often, people are unclear in their arguments and rely on the reader to make logical jumps of their own, which might differ from reader to reader. To avoid this problem, in this class, we will explicitly state why data, facts, etc. are important in our arguments.

An example of reasoning why the above evidence supports the position stated on coal power is "Because coal power plants contribute disproportionately to carbon dioxide emissions compared to other sources of electricity generation, they are an inefficient source of power and we should reduce our use of them in the United States."

Excerpts from "Can You Hear Us? Voices Raised against Standardized Testing by Novice Teachers" by Bhattacharyya et al. Bhattacharyya, Sumita, et al. "Can You Hear Us? Voices Raised against Standardized Testing by Novice Teachers." Creative Education, vol. 04, no. 10, 2013, pp. 633-39. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.410091. The standardized tests and to score well in them have become an all-consuming force in the schools. On the scores depend the school ranking, in the district, even in and funding region, and these are widely covered by the media. Persistent low scores may attract severe penalties for the school. Pressure builds up in the school board and percolates down to the teachers. The teachers under pressure concentrate on teaching to the test to better course as well as their own reputation (Wallace & Irons, 2010). Inevitably this leads to the neglect of other dimensions of learning beyond the testing areas. Since the tests are on reading, math and science other subjects come to be neglected. Citizenship inculcating "good" habits and development of a sustained capacity for learning are given short shrift. For our [interviewees] this is the most dispiriting aspect of teaching experience. The values they learned in college seem completely nave and idealistic in the "real world". A second line of criticism is that standardized testing (and scoring) is insensitive to the diversity of our student population. The diversity is not only in diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. Different socio ethnic backgrounds as well make a crucial difference (Hedges & Nowell, 1998). Students from educated families have an advantage. Their parents provide books and other educational paraphernalia at home. Such families' expectation of their children, and support for them (emotional, aspirational and in various other forms) set them apart from students of low socio economic and un- or ill-educated families (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Differently advantaged or disadvantaged students call for different approaches to teaching them. Standardized testing makes them impossible. Thirdly, standardized testing is insensitive to individual students' learning style. It is well established in learning theories (Sternberg, 1998) that there are great variation in the way students learn. The pressure to teaching to the test and improve scores disable the teachers to be attentive to such differences. Teaching to the tests results in standardized teaching. The resulting poor scores of such students may stigmatize capable students for the rest of their academic lives and the teachers as well for their "poor" performance (Sternberg, 1998). Fourthly, not all students do well in tests. Quite capable students may do poorly in tests, thus bringing blame on themselves as well as on their teachers (Wolf, LeMahiue, & Eresh, 1992). Standardized tests are one of many resources that can be used to evaluate student progress. When used alone, standardized tests do not present a clear picture of student knowledge and skills. One major problem is when teachers begin "teaching to the test". Most teachers would say that their main job is to foster a love for learning (Heubert & Hauser, 1999). Teachers accomplish this task by encouraging their students to think critically and take their knowledge and skills outside the classroom and into adulthood. Standardized test scores promote rote memorization at the expense of critical thinking skills, pressuring teachers to spend most of their instructional time teaching testing material (Heubert & Hauser, 1999). Because of the risk of lower test scores, teachers rarely deviate from testing curriculum even if they have to eliminate other important subject matter content. As a result those items in the curriculum are considered "unworthy" and remain uncovered (Ezer, Gilat, & Sagee, 2010; Hom, 2003).

Standardized Tests Can Promote Rigor Their use should be watched, but they shouldn't be eliminated, writes Matthew Pietrafetta. By Matthew Pietrafetta Pietrafetta, Matthew. "Standardized Tests Can Promote Rigor." Inside Higher Ed, https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/24/defense-standardized-tests-opinion. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023. Well before the current outbreak of COVID-19, skeptics questioned the value of standardized testing as a college admissions requirement. Some argue this pandemic, however, will be the final nail in the testing coffin. As this outlet has pointed out, the majority of colleges are now test optional or test blind, and headlines proclaim "the beginning of the end" for standardized tests or (put more simply) "Kill the SAT." There is another side to this story, however, that should not be left out: standardized tests can -- when used constructively and administered safely -- drive higher standards in education and more rigorous, targeted instruction for students in essential college readiness skills. Too often, standardized tests are created as a single moment in students' lives: they take the test, they receive a score and they move on. Instead, we have found that college entrance exams can be used as powerful learning opportunities to help students master academic skills. These skills help students succeed both on and beyond the tests -- in high school, in college and in their careers. The conversation about college readiness and quality of instruction should include a careful and intentional review of student performance on standardized tests. Indeed, we believe that standardized tests can be a valuable tool for educators to better prepare students for college-level work. With continued remote learning anticipated well into the 2020-21 school year, we predict a continued amplification effect to extended summer learning loss. The increased time out of the physical classroom has led to research predicting increased losses in foundational skills for students returning this fall, a phenomenon now commonly called the "COVID slide." Current research predicts students may retain only 50 percent of the gains they made in math during the 2019-20 school year, which was abruptly cut short as the nation went into lockdown. In such a unique year, the value of standardized testing to assess year-over-year trends in student gains and losses may be a more valuable instrument to educators than ever. In its May research and policy brief, ACT shared its student performance estimates based on historical data and predicted the impact of remote learning on ACT performance. The table below summarizes the research on typical per-month gains for students in school versus out of school.

Per-Month Gain

ACT Score	Gain In-school	Out-of-school
Composite	0.218	-0.142
English	0.310	-0.159
Mathematics	0.193	-0.221
Reading	0.182	-0.023
Science	0.186	-0.164

Source: ACT Research & Policy Brief What does it add up to? Typically, an ACT composite score increases by 1.96 points over a school year and decreases by 0.43 points over the summer -- a net gain of 1.53 points per year. By shifting two months of classroom instruction to typical summer losses (to reflect inconsistent approaches to remote learning in the spring), students would instead see a net gain of only 0.82 points per year. This seemingly small decrease in ACT scores can in fact indicate a large effect on overall student achievement and college readiness, admissions and scholarship eligibility across districts and states. With months of remote learning ahead, the deficit may grow. Beyond just serving as a measure of current achievement, high-quality tests create gravitational pull toward higher achievement; a feature of higher performing education systems is a rigorous, common assessment. In our work with teachers and school leaders, we've found the rigor and challenge of the SAT and ACT to be important benchmarks in assessing the level of work provided to students in the classroom. We know it's essential to provide high-rigor tasks to students in the classroom, especially in lowerincome schools and communities. However, there are significant barriers to college readiness: Opportunity Myth found that while more than 80 percent of teachers supported standards for college readiness in theory, less than half had the expectation that their students could reach those standards. This gap in expectations has a real impact on what students see in the classroom: though students were successful on 71 percent of assignments given to them in the classroom, they met grade-level standards on only 17 percent of those same assignments. Though the ACT and SAT are certainly only two of many sources teachers can use to design instruction in their classrooms, we know rigorous assessments can lead to more rigorous instruction. At the very least, they provide some insight into the level of difficulty expected by high school students across the country. These tests offer important reference points against GPAs that vary from school to school, provide ambitious standards against which to measure, drive skills-based instruction and motivate students to learn. High-quality tests serve positive instructional ends: they shed light on mastery of college-readiness skills, help students identify important gaps in skills and understanding of material, and afford instructors insights to better individualize their curriculum to the needs of their students. However, it's important to recognize that these tests are not unimpeachable. There are legitimate concerns about their content and validity, and we support efforts to improve the ACT and SAT and assure they are assessing important skills for college success. We believe that high-stakes tests should trend more in the direction of formative assessments, designed to measure student growth while students are still actively learning the material. They are aligned clearly with grade-level curriculum and more directly drive student learning through ongoing feedback and reassessment. The ACT and SAT -- when used for ongoing data analysis -- can serve this same role. Though we believe the primary role of the ACT and SAT is to help diagnose and improve teaching and learning for students, they still can and perhaps should have a role in college admissions. A strong score can be important for many students because -- even this year -- most colleges are not test blind, meaning they do take scores into account when scores are submitted, but rather test optional, allowing students the opportunity to submit test scores should they believe they will strengthen their application. Providing access to the SAT and ACT for all students does allow more students to access higher education. Ultimately, however, we must address the reasons why scores often correlate so strongly with income by addressing inequities throughout our K-12 education system that lead to gaps in test performance. For those who lack opportunity or access to standardized tests during COVID-19, it is positive that test-optional policies afford them the opportunity for a holistic review. Standardized tests should not be the be-all, end-all of a student's college application. They should count as one metric among many, in a proper, holistic evaluation of a student, and, ultimately, they should serve students. In other words, the scores need to be considered in context with other admissions standards, especially given the inequities in our current educational landscape. The National Association for College Admission Counseling recently released a task force report strongly encouraging colleges to review the impact of standardized testing on their process to ensure that it doesn't worsen inequity, and we agree. Improper use of standardized testing can have a grave impact, and it's essential that we as educators strive to use them as fairly and equitably as possible and approach them as a valuable means to an academic end: improved teaching and learning. Especially now, when the importance of high-quality assessment of learning (and learning loss) is so essential for our neediest students, we support the use of rigorous assessments like the ACT and SAT in driving toward more ambitious teaching and learning.

Instructions:

• Look at the two longer versions of the provided excerpts from the short-form writing assignment: Can You Hear Us? Voices Raised against Standardized Testing by Novice Teachers and Standardized Tests Can Promote Rigor The two above sources are your starting points for positions and evidence to use in Prompts 2 and 3 below.
• Find another news article or journal article on standardized testing to use as a third source (try to avoid editorialswe already have one opinion piece as part of our starting sources). If you find it helpful, you can include more than one additional source. If you are having trouble finding a source, reach out to the instructor!
• Download the attached template and respond to the prompts below using the formatting of the template and your 3 sources. Note that Questions 1, 4, and 5 are not present! We will be adding those questions when we do our first full Issue Review Paper in our second module. We are formatting our writing as we will in the Issue Review Papers--we are focused on the content of our writing, rather than the flow a Language Arts class might encourage.
• Cite your evidence by including (Author, Year) at the end of any sentences where you use material from any of your 3+ sources.
• Include a bibliography for the outside source(s) you used in your work
• Most of us have experienced standardized testing as a student, parent, and/or teacheryour personal beliefs, feelings, and experiences are an important part of your lens. You may use personal evidence as AT MOST one of your three pieces of evidence when discussing your own position in Prompt 6.

Prompts: Issue: How should the U.S. proceed with standardized testing?

2.a. In a sentence, summarize one possible position on the issue. Each position should be a statement of action (or inaction) on the issue that can be supported with evidence.

Clear, supportable position that calls for an action (or inaction) on the issue. (3 points max)

Maximum score

3

2.b. List three facts or ideas (evidence) from the readings that support the position (cite readings). Explain your reasoning of how the evidence supports the position.

Lists 3 facts or ideas that clearly support position. Clearly explains how each fact/idea supports position (reasoning). (18 points max)

Maximum score

18

2.c. What are the implications of this position? In other words, if this position were enacted, what could happen next?

Clearly explains at least 3 positive and negative implications of the position in Q2a that extend beyond statements from sources. (4 points max)

Maximum score

4

3.a. In a sentence, summarize another possible position on the issue.

Clear, supportable position that calls for an action (or inaction) on the issue that is distinct from Q2a. (3 points max)

Maximum score

3

3.b. List three facts or ideas (evidence) from the readings that support the position (cite readings). Explain your reasoning of how the evidence supports the position.

Lists 3 facts or ideas that clearly support position. Clearly explains how each fact/idea supports position (reasoning). (18 points max)

Maximum score

18

3.c. What are the implications of this position? In other words, if this position were enacted, what could happen next?

Clearly explains at least 3 positive and negative implications of the position in Q3a that extend beyond statements from sources. (4 points max)

Maximum score

4

6.a. In a sentence, summarize your position on the issue. (may be similar but not identical to either Q2 or Q3)

Clear, supportable position that calls for an action (or inaction) on the issue that is not identical to Q2a or Q3a. (5 points max)

Maximum score

5

6.b. List three facts or ideas (evidence) that support your position. Explain your reasoning of how the evidence supports your position.

Lists 3 facts or ideas that clearly support position. Clearly explains how each fact/idea supports position. (15 points max)

Maximum score

15

7. Check your writing for clarity, grammar, and spelling.

Clear and legible writing. Grammar and spelling mistakes do not inhibit understanding. (5 points max)

Maximum score

5

8. Use at least 3 sources as instructed (2 provided sources and a third you find through research). Appropriate citations are used in paper. Bibliography.

Appropriate citations used throughout for ideas and quotes. Bibliography for external articles. Used at least 3 sources. (5 points max)

Maximum score

5

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Issue How should the US proceed with standardized testing 2a Position Standardized testing should be minimized or eliminated from the US education system 2b Evidence 1 Standardized tests dominate the ... View the full answer