Nowadays, the problem of testing in American education is extremely important because often the existing system of tests is severely criticized and, what is more important, as a rule, this criticism is justified. In this respect, it is worthy to refer to the article by E.D. Hirsch Jr. "Using Tests Productively, where the author researches the problem of tests and their effectiveness. In fact, the author is very skeptical about the existing system of tests which, as he believe, are far from perfect.

Probably, one of the most important problems the author raises in his article is the problem of uselessness of the existing tests. To put it more precisely, E.D. Hirsch argues that both teachers and students are rather more concerned on the successful passing the tests than on the knowledge they receive. By the way, it is worthy of mention that it is not only teachers and students that are involved but the problem of effective testing also concerns the parents of students for, basically, tests are supposed to assess students academic successes and evaluate the effectiveness of their learning.

At the same time, the author underlines that often students that are practically of the same level of education, learning in the same class often show absolutely different results in testing. Hirsch mainly focuses on reading tests and, critically evaluating them, he underlines that they are quite ineffective because they are not testing comprehension strategies, as they are supposed to, but, instead, they are just testing comprehension that is obviously insufficient and ineffective.

Furthermore, the author also points out that, as a rule, students are directly prepared for the reading tests that is totally unacceptable. Instead, Hirsch insists that students should be prepared for a reading test indirectly and that is necessary to develop broad reading skills and abilities. Students should be able to work and comprehend a wide range of text on the basis of broad knowledge which is not only directly linked to reading. This knowledge should be wider, more universal involving not only literature but also art, science, logics, etc.

Naturally, on criticizing the existing system, it would be logical to offer some alternative and Hirsch underlines that content testing could be much more effective if they were specifically tied to the broad knowledge goals of a sound education in literature, science, history and arts. The broad knowledge from different spheres is essential because they form the background information which is of a paramount importance for reading comprehension. Eventually, the author concludes that such broad knowledge would increase the effectiveness of testing as well as education at large because it contributes to the progress of students’ academic achievements and their cognitive competence.

Obviously, the problem of testing is really important because tests actually define the whole process of education because often they are the final goal students and teachers strive to achieve and pass successfully. At the same time, the changes offered by Hirsch are really important because they help refocus education process from preparation to a particular and not perfect tests to more effective and useful acquisition of broad knowledge, skills and abilities which can not only help pass some tests but could also be useful in students personal and professional life making them really educated and intelligent personalities.

Misbehavior or Misinterpretation?

Unquestionably, the discipline is one of the key conditions of the successful and effective learning but often teachers face a lot of difficulties while attempting to sustain the discipline and organizing effective learning process. However, these problems may be provoked not only by misbehavior of students but by simple misinterpretation of their behavior by a teacher. In fact, Carla R. Monro, in her article "Misbehavior or Misinterpretation?", attempts to trace the difference between these two notions and underlines that a profound knowledge of cultural background of students can really help teachers avoid situations of misinterpretations of students behavior.

Basically, the article indicates at the substantial cultural gap that exists in many urban schools between teachers, who are mainly representatives of the white middle-class group, and African-American students originating from lower class families. The author underlines that their misbehavior is often predetermined by their socio-cultural background and, in actuality, for students it is not a violation of certain rules or regulations undermining the discipline in the classroom but rather a norm of behavior, while teachers are simply unable to properly interpret peculiarities of students behavior because of the lack of knowledge about students cultural heritage and social norms accepted in their community.

In such a way, there appears a great problem of socio-cultural gap that leads to misinterpretation of students behavior by teachers. As a result, Monro underlines the importance of closing this gap. She offers different solutions to this problem but, in general, they may be briefly summoned up as the strategy aiming at the teachers’ focus on students socio-cultural background. To put it more precisely, the author recommends the development of teachers’ cross-cultural competence that would make them more conscious of students culture and, consequently, teacher would better understand their behavior. In order to achieve this goal, teachers should get more integrated into students community, for instance, they could visit students’ homes, religious centers and community organizations.

In fact, the author underlines that teachers should modify their behavior through synchronization of their culture with that of their students that would help better distinguish real misbehavior from erroneous interpretation of students’ actions by a teacher. Moreover, teacher should create familiar environments to students so that they could feel more comfortable and natural in the classroom that would minimize the risk of intentional misbehavior from the part of students. The author underlines that it is necessary to celebrate rather than penalize students’ cultural heritage.

Obviously, it is hardly possible to disagree with the author’s conclusion that cultural synchronization between teachers and students may improve their relations because the risk of misinterpretation of students’ behavior would be substantially lower. This is particularly important in the modern world when the society is growing to be more and more diverse and teachers as well as all people need to be culturally flexible and tolerant.

Bullying

In recent years, the problem of bullying is getting to be increasingly more important to the extent that a large part of students are afraid of or suffer from bullying, as the recent research "Build a Bully-Free Classroom" shows. Obviously, the problem of bullying is very serious as it involves practically all students but one of the main reasons why children suffer from bullying is the lack of effective strategies that could help them avoid or resist to bullying.

Basically, this problem involves not only bullies and bullied but teachers as well because, to a significant extent, they can really help students resist bullying through teaching them effective models of behavior in the classroom. Morover, bullying decreases substantially the effectiveness of learning and, what is even more important, contributes to the development of negative attitude of students to school at large.

The article "Build a Bully-Free Classroom" analyzes several strategies that are particularly effective in making bully-free classrooms. The firs strategy is ‘be your own cheerleader’ which stimulates students self-esteem through positive self-talk. ‘Say ‘So?’ strategy may be also quite effective because very simple responses can make bully bored and uninterested in bullying. The similar to ‘say ‘So?’ strategy is ‘be a broken record’ which has the similar effect on bullies and increases students self-esteem.

Also, the article underlines the importance of the use of their bodies and voice in ‘stand tall’ strategy which can define the way other students will treat them. Another strategy related to physical state of students is ‘breathe deeply’ which helps students to avoid looking scared, nervous, or angry.

On the other hand, the article offers some bullying avoidance strategies. For instance, the authors recommend using humor in order to avoid bullying and conflicts between students that can be really effective since it helps defuse the situation. Also, the strategy ‘slip slidin’ away’ encourages students to move away from a bullying situation and not to get ‘hooked’. At the same time, the article recommends being constantly aware of what is going on around students in order to get in a bullying situation.

Anyway, one of the most important strategies but, probably the least used, is the ‘ask an adult for help’ strategy which implies that students ask an adult, namely a teacher for help. In order to make this strategy more widely used, teachers should clearly explain students the difference between telling and tattling.

Obviously, the problem raised in the article is very important and the strategies offered by the authors may be really effective. At the same time, it is extremely important avoid underestimation of the problem of bullying because it affects students’ psychology and can influence their psychological development and even their adult life, for they also acquire certain models of behavior that can be extrapolated on their adult life. Anyway, bullying significantly decreases the effectiveness of learning and its elimination is vitally important for creating a positive attitude and motivation of students to learning process.