User talk:Jacques Bermon Webster II

This user is a student editor in Boston_University/Public_Writing_Fall_2021_(Fall_2021) .

Welcome![edit]

Hello, Jacques Bermon Webster II, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with Wiki Education; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:50, 20 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

US centrism[edit]

The English Wikipedia has a significant problem with US-centric articles. I think that what you've got in User:Jacques Bermon Webster II/Standardized test (which I know is just a first draft, and you're still working on it) would probably add to that.

I wonder if you could find a way to center the perspectives of people living in China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa. Those three places represent half the world's population, whereas the US population is less than 5% of the world (and far more than 5% of the English Wikipedia's content on this subject). I don't know what their views are; perhaps they think it is a good way to reduce corruption in university admissions and hiring practices, or perhaps they think it is too stressful for students, or perhaps they think it is unfair. Whatever their views, it would be good to include them.

Alternatively, if you are primarily interested in the US, then you might consider editing Education in the United States#Standardized testing or College admissions in the United States#Test preparation courses instead of the article at Standardized test, which is supposed to cover the whole world (not just the US) and all forms of tests (not just college admissions).

Also, the first sentence in your current draft, about "recent years", would definitely require an Wikipedia:Inline citation, and it's probably factually wrong. There have been active debates about the role of standardized testing in US schools since at least the 1980s, and probably since the 1950s, with the publication of Why Johnny Can't Read and the changes to public education triggered by the Sputnik crisis. It's not even clear that people are more worried now than they were 15 years ago, when the No Child Left Behind Act brought a lot of public attention to standardized testing. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:40, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also: These talk pages are pretty difficult. If you'll click on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jacques_Bermon_Webster_II?dtenable=1 you will see a [reply] button that will make it easier. If you like it, you can go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures and turn on "Discussion tools" to see it on all the talk pages. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:42, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]