Standardized Assessment Technique and Immigration for Quite

Standardized Assessment Technique and Immigration

For quite a long time, immigration and crime have been closely linked with some pointing out that immigrants tend to have a particularly high rate of criminality. There are those, however, who feel that an increase in immigration rates has no impact whatsoever on crime. Based on my review of literature on this particular topic, greater immigration rates do not result in more crimes. In an attempt to get tough on immigrants -- in the mistaken belief that doing so could help reduce crime rates - states like Arizona have in the past enacted anti-immigration laws. Other states that have sought to implement anti-immigration laws include but they are not limited to South Carolina.

To begin with, although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Camarota and Vaughan (2009) point out "estimates that immigrants (legal and illegal) comprise 20% of inmates in prisons and jails," this particular claim is not backed up with data that can be independently verified. According to the authors, DHS does not provide any explanation on how it generates the estimates. There have also been claims that a high percentage of those in the nation's prisons are foreign-born. Indeed, according to Camarota and Vaughan (2009), in a 2004 study, a firm contracted by the DHS to review the state prison systems found out that "22% of inmates were foreign-born." The said review did not, however, cover all the jails in the country.

Research findings conducted in the past did not find any clear link between high immigration rates and an increase in the rate of crime. According to Siegel (2011), some of those who have conducted intensive inquiry on this particular topic including but not limited to Robert Sampson, a sociologist, are of the opinion that "immigrants are actually less violent than the general population" (p.51). For instance, as the author further points out, native-born citizens have a higher rate of violence than Mexican immigrants.

Answer 2

From the onset, it is important to note that young children can successfully be exposed to either standardized or informal, non-standardized assessments. In basic terms, standardized tests comprise of consistent questions as well as scoring and administration procedures. In that regard, a standard test is administered in a way that exposes all the test takers to similar specifications and rules. One of the key benefits of standardized tests "is that it allows for some precision in comparing a particular child with other children of the same age" (Wachs & Sheehan, 1998, p.289). It is also important to note that standardized tests allow "for repeated measures of the specific behaviors of children at different times" (Wachs & Sheehan, 1998, p.289). As the authors further point out, repeated measures are in this case deemed beneficial when it comes to not only monitoring but also measuring and assessing normal growth as well as development.