Evaluation of General Sources

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Public Domain Dedication Liscence 

In the blog post below, I will be analyzing two general sources found on a basic google search pertaining to the English-Education discipline, specifically common core and the debate over standardized testing, which has been an ongoing debate for the last several years. These sources are those I feel most valuable of the ones I came across and will be analyzed for their usefulness to understanding the issue and their credibility.

The first source I found to be useful to my research was found on about.com and was a 5-part summary and analysis of the current school system and different aspects that compose it, including standardized testing, common core, and No Child Left Behind . The URL of this article is a .com, which is much less credible than a .gov or .edu. This is because it is a primarily public access sight. However, it is from a credible educational web sight, which is more than a .org or .net can typically indicate, due to their accessibility to all readers and editors.

The author, Derrick Meader, is referred to by the teaching expert of about.com and is linked to multiple pieces of his writing for the sight under his name on my article. The article was updated in 2015. This is a concern in terms of reliability due to the fact that I can't find an exact date of update, but that is likely because the document is a compilation of different articles related to one another written at different times.

The article is aiming the inform the reader of the general conflict of standardized testing, it's definition. It aims to enlighten the reader of all general information that makes up the foundation of the debate, including the rise of the debate (No Child Left Behind) and the influence standardization has had on teaching principles and formatting: common core. The article does not hope to promote any idea or product, simply inform the reader of the basic foundation of the standardized testing debate and it's causes.

The piece does not contain any graphics to elaborate on the statistics or claims it presents, however, it contains countless hyperlinks to other articles from about.com that can add additional understanding to the mentioned topic that was hyperlinked (Note: if you click a hyperlink, you will not be able to return to the original article provided above; you must use the hyperlink I provided to access the specific article I used). The author takes a very objective approach to presenting the information. It is his intent to enlighten his reader to an impartial understanding of the issue regarding standardized testing. The claims made in the article can often be validated by links to other article which address the specific topic in further detail. These specific articles use more statistics and reliable details compared to this article, which is more summary focused.



The second source I found in my general google search was from usnews.com. It was a brief objective report on a study released by Teach Plus in regards to the time teachers from 12 districts dedicated to the implementation of standardized tests administered by the district. Like the previous source I found on the web, this URL is a .com, which is representative of a semi-reliable general web sight for public use. However, it is from a reliable new source which helps credit the source.

The author, Allie Bidwell, can be traced to other articles on usnews.com, most of which are related to academics and education, and her personal twitter account, which includes both professional and personal insight the her credibility. She is regularly writing about educational topics, showing that she is familiar with what she is talking about.

The article was published on February 5 of 2014, showing that it is not outdated information. The links on the page are articles directly related to the topic on usnews.com, such as other studies and analysis of similar topics. All of these links are still functioning and lead to articles all published within a year of each other and all written by Ms. Bidwell. The article provides a video from CBS about a specific Colorado school and how their cut back on standardized testing has influenced their school.

It is the goal of the article to familiarized the reader with statistics regarding the standardized testing debate in an informative, objective way. She expresses a neutral feeling toward the topic and only uses quotes that fairly represent both perspectives on the debate. However, the quotes themselves are hardly even representative of a side and only serve to provide statistics and interpretations of that data. This is not a detrimental aspect to the usefulness of the article, it only enforces the objective approach of the author.