In addition to what Lang Wood believes, Stephens claims, students who are taking the test suffer from stress in result of worrying about passing it. Stephens points out “negative results more often than not yield low-self-esteem, higher incidents of seclusion and lower academic progress. Children who pass the test are just happy to be done with it and really do not gain sense of achievement” (par.4). It is clear that the pressure and anxiety
(“States Seeks to Block ‘No Child Left Behind’”). Even gym and recess are being reduced in schools around the United States due to teaching being pointed towards the test. This has only caused a negative effect as the number of obese children has risen. Standardized test and the NCLB Act are only harming the health of children- mentally and physically. Furthermore, United States needs to follow the following guidelines that countries more advanced in education than the United States have been following.
Erica Goldson Valedictorian Speech Response Erica Goldson brought up a very controversial and very interesting topic about our current education system in the US. She states that students are so focused at memorizing data and getting good grades, that they miss out on the whole idea of learning and being educated. I agree with her, students should be learning and absorbing the material, instead of memorizing for the next big test and just forgetting about it later on. Graduating seems like the top priority in students nowadays, and to me that is just upsetting. And the students who are very talented and are very motivated to learn and be driven in a non-academic subject seem to have a more negative image than the people who are driven by academics.
Of course you’re going to get teased, picked on, and called stupid. Not saying it’s right, but you control your own destiny. Meaning you control the work you do because you do it and turn it in. Also being over age for their classes can result in dropping out. Studies show that students who are over-age for their class was held back a grade level.
NCLB was established so that students were not held back in a grade and were promoted to the next grade. I think this is a political aspect that is failing our students. If a student is not understanding the material or doesn’t pass the tests showing that they understand and can retain the information, I don’t believe that they should be promoted. I believe that it only hurts the students because they get more behind as they advance through the levels. The ethical issues that regard the high stakes testing is that it could be unfair to some students.
Flunking students can be used as a positive tool by our education system. The consequence of flunking and holding students back alone can be used to motivate and encourage students to put full effort into class work. Most students fear flunking only because they’re afraid of what friends, peers and society will say or think about them; this is all wrong, the real fear should be failing and not being
This whole cut and dry teaching, what is wrong and what is right in education. But is this to say we are “dumbing down education” to meet standard test and better scores and rankings. The slang expression of “dumbing down” describes the deliberate diminishment of the intellectual level of the content of literature, film, schooling and education, news, and other aspects of culture. I believe that there are many factors why Americans rankings are so low. Education has dumbed down but there are so many different aspects of the situation, fingers pointed on why this has happened.
Welsh’s article discusses the difference between American students and Asian students. The Asian students identified that their biggest factor behind academic success was “studying hard”. I believe that many American students have lost their internal drive and motivation to study hard, including myself, with technology now and it being so easy to cheat it becomes almost unnecessary. Insufficient teaching is not the major factor to blame nor is poor study skills or the lack of there of. I believe that the problem behind American students not studying is solely due to the lack of determination to study and excel in schoolwork.
The ideal was to establish a set of basic academic standards that all students should achieve, hold the schools accountable for meeting these standards for all students, ←and→ then give educators the choice of how to meet the standards. The way NCLB is currently being administered must be fixed, otherwise we will have both new ←and→ seasoned talented teachers leaving the profession in droves. Although reading ←and→ math tests would remain in the administration's proposal, schools could also include student performance in other subjects as part of overall measurements of progress. Critics say that the current education law has narrowed the curriculum for students:→ Many teachers zero in on math ←and→ reading at the expense of other subjects to help students prepare for the required tests. (Douglas) Students need a well-rounded education," the blueprint declares, and it cites disciplines including history, civics, foreign languages, and the arts.
If they are labelled as being ‘stupid’ early on in their career then they will be placed in the lower sets and streams. This means that they will not have access to the full range of courses available to them and this an effect their A level or degree choices. Sociologists would also agree by explaining that anti school subcultures may occur. These are groups of students who feel that they have been failed by education and stop trying or