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.
More so, it is being done internally by teachers (Falk, 616). The stakes are so high they manipulate test results by keeping certain students out of the testing environment. It has been reported that kids were purposely held back so that their performance will not bring down the test scores that the more intelligent students submit. I agree with that Lindsay Jillson argues about how standardized testing has jeopardized a student’s future because of the sanctions that are given to them for being less intelligent. I just do not understand why the main focus of our education has to be all about test.
In the article Stop the Madness, written by Diane Ravitch, she elaborates on the issue of exceptionally high test taking. Teachers teach towards their test and as a result, are lazy. These faculty members, especially the teachers, worry more about the final test scores their students receive than if their students are grasping and fully understanding the educational topics. This is because the test grades that the students earn is how teachers are judged and ranked in the system. Therefore, in order to achieve these ideal scores, they are using the same tests and classwork every year.
Persuasive essay Don’t Teach the Test Students all around the world are subjected into giving ‘standardized tests’ to evaluate their place in this world. Standardized tests have come to a point where they run the lives of students and teachers alike. The point here is to convey the misuse of today’s standardized testing and its impact on young minds. Standardized testing has come to be known as a “core issue in education” (Silverstein 1). Students are shown to have increased stress levels due to testing, for them it has become the ill fate of ‘all or nothing’.
“A Minnesota teacher of seventh and ninth grades says that she has to spend extra time in class editing papers and must 'explicitly' remind her students that is is not acceptable to use text slang and abbreviations in writing” (Cullington 89). Also, “many complain that because texting does not stress the importance of punctuation, students are neglecting it in their formal writing” (Cullington 89). These points are valid, but the evidence is limited because it is based on a few personal experiences, rather then a large study with much more research.
The Board of Education wants the best for students by closing schools, a lot can’t be accomplished by establishing closures across the country. A different approach must be met to help the education system. The budget crisis represents that the world of capitalism will do anything to find money by raiding the public education in pursuit of profit. With a proof of databases of students failing conducted by the Board of Ed., and schools lacking performance, gives the public facts of school
Also, explaining that companies turned around and sell teaching materials designed to raising scores on their OWN test. The author also describes how the test disregards the students’ creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, and other valuable dispositions and attributes. The author suggests that test is not designed to meet the needs of the students; rather yet, the students must all rise to meet the same standards. As a reader, one can conclude that not all students learn the same materials, through the same techniques. Furthermore, the
The No Child Left behind Act of 2001 is the proverbial ball and chain on today’s public schools. Its creation had a noble concept which was to ensure the education of all children in the United States regardless of race, class, or economic status; but because of the strict requirements and rigid guidelines, the NCLB act restricts educators in many ways and encourages, even rewards, teachers to teach their students to score well on tests instead of teaching to learn. As parents and educators know from firsthand experience, uniformity of any kind when it comes to children is not possible, but the NCLB expects all schools by the year 2014 to have a 100% of their students pass their state assessments in math and reading, a daunting task with
To receive funds the states and schools have to give assessments to students in certain grade levels (No Child Left Behind Act). These funding changes give better flexibility with how budgets are spent in schools. Now with the economy falling, school funding is not what it used to be. Congress is now trying to cut 70 percent of educational programs including the all fine arts programs(11ME). Schools have to choose what they fund and how they are going to spend the money they are given.
Due to this significant drop in learning, students are often at different intellectual levels and teachers have to be creative in coming up with solutions to combat this. Teachers use multiple methods such as one-on-one teaching, peer tutoring, and starting the learning material quicker in the beginning of the school year (Von Lunen, 2011). Yet according to the article, the surest way to keep students’ skills sharp is to keep them in school as much as possible (Von Lunen, 2011). Many schools are looking into schedules that model year-round schooling. Information of Interest Through my years of schooling, I have always noticed how difficult it was to retain information from one year to the next.