Tyranny of the Test

Tyranny Response:
[1. What are the focusing questions?
2. How are scenes used? (What do you "see"?)
3. How are research/editorializing used? (Elements of literary journalism include scene/narrative, research, and editorializing)]

In Tyranny of the Test, Jeremy Miller focuses on a few things, including (1) how the No Child Left Behind Act has affected students, teachers & school staff, and test-prep companies such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review; (2) how test-prep companies affect students, teachers & school staff, and test-prep companies; and (3) how testing procedures affect students, teachers & school staff, and test-prep companies.

Miller uses scene to provide the reader a concrete image of what he dealt with on a day-to-day basis as a Kaplan coach in different schools. His descriptions of the schools themselves, the students, the teachers, and what he experienced give the reader a clear picture of the kinds of impoverished communities in which Kaplan is employed, the kinds of personalities he dealt with, and the discourse between students, teachers, and Kaplan coaches. Miller uses scene to personify different elements of the issues he is examining, and follows the scene with a more encompassing narrative and editorial. The author uses research in combination with editorial to prove the existence of a larger trend or phenomenon. Narrative and scene allow the writer to express more specifically what this trend or phenomenon may look like on a more personal level.