EDUCATION PUNDIT TAKES ON TEST SCORES posted 10/14/03
Alfie Kohn Describes ‘Deadly Effects’ Of Tougher Standards

Educator and author Alfie Kohn – who Time magazine recently called “perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores” – is the next speaker in the Adrian College Convocation speaker series.

His talk, titled “The Deadly Effects of Tougher Standards: Challenging High Stakes Testing and Other Impediments to Learning,” is scheduled at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22 in Dawson Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Kohn is the author of eight books, including “The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and ‘Tougher Standards’” (1999). His most recent book is “The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools” (2000).

Kohn’s criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators – as well as parents and managers – across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the Today show and two appearances on “Oprah.” He has recently been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and his work has been described and debated in many other leading publications.

Dawson Auditorium is located on Charles Street. (campus map)