Kiarra Crouch's Letter To Broward Superintendent Robert W. Runcie '

In Kiarra Crouch’s letter to Broward Superintendent Robert W. Runcie, Crouch successfully strives to persuade him to get rid of standardized testing in Broward County. Her use of criticizing diction, rhetorical questions, concessions, and analogies contributed to her effectiveness in convincing Runcie to repeal standardized testing for all Broward County students.

Throughout her letter, Crouch employs criticizing diction as she describes the standardized tests that students are forced to take. She regards the policy on standardized testing as “outrageous” and the test itself as “perpetual”, “strenuous”, and “bias” to convey her feelings and those of other students toward standardized testing. This allows Runcie to truly understand the point of view of students and how this policy truly affects them and their well being.

As she goes on, she also questions the effectiveness and validity of the standardized tests. She accomplishes this through the use of rhetorical questions like “can you really infer whether or not students deserve to move forward in their education because of what your test states?” and that if it is evident that the district policy is not accurate enough to make decisions on whether student should move forward with their education then “why is there a strict policy that forces the school

district to pass a test that’s arguably more bias than beneficial?” These questions forces one, and Runcie for that matter, to think about the actual purpose of the tests they impose on students and if they are actually as beneficial as they say they are.
After presenting her argument, Crouch acknowledges the correlation between high standardized test scores and high achieving student, then proceeds to build up on her argument with further evidence.

Her employment of concession by recognizing that she is “conscious of those who may argue that the students who practice such skills [hard work] are generally the ones passing the tests,” allows for the establishment of different opinions and approaches toward an issue, indicating an understanding of what causes the actual debate or controversy. It assures the audience, in this case Runcie, that she is a mature thinker, and has considered the issue from all

angles.
As she concludes her letter, she once again pleads her case by voicing the feelings of all students as a whole regarding the enforcement of standardized testing. She emphasizes that students feel unheard “as if [they] are the protagonist being punished by the antagonist, while the audience observes from afar.” This analogy where she compares students and standardized testing to the protagonist and antagonist of a movie, respectively, and Runcie himself as the audience, doing nothing for the students but sit back and watch, allows her to persuade Runcie by providing a more in depth point of view of a student with the use of something that Runcie can relate to. With this, Runcie is able to feel some empathy for the students to what they have to deal with and make them feel an urge to take action to change it.
In her letter to Superintendent Robert W. Runcie, Kiarra Crouch successfully attempts to persuade him to repeal the policy regarding standardized testing in Broward County schools. She builds an effective argument as she employs criticizing diction when describing the testing, rhetorical questions, concession, and analogies to convince Runcie to dismantle the policy.