Unfortunately, the FCAT does not evaluate student’s performance correctly due to students that fall under pressure. The pressure that student’s feel and encounter is also known as test anxiety. According to Channel 7 reporter Erica Rakow’s in the article “FCAT Stresses Students Out, she claims” The responsibility of passing both reading and math portion of the FCAT in 10 grade adds a stressful ambiance to students who really do not want to retake it as a junior (par.2). Rakow also points out “That responsibility includes promotions to the next grade, and future funding for their school. Some students get so worked up about the test they can’t even get through it (par.3).
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.
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.
Anything in life should not be given to anyone it should be earned or suffer the consequence. The fear of failing for some students is scary, he or she does not want to fail and if there motivated the student would most likely try harder and pay more attention in school. In example, when I was in high school I would never concentrate on social studies thinking it was important to me and one day my teacher came up to me telling me I would fail and not graduate this year because of my lack of effort in his class. From there on it got me thinking of my future and I didn’t want to fail and be back in high school for another year for stupid mistakes I made, so the next semester I work harder then ever and passed the class with an A. Sometimes a little motivation and being afraid of failure can motivate someone to work
Goodman seems to believe it is the students and their parents, as Goodman states, “Perhaps the chief objectors to abolishing grading would be the students and their parents.”(p.213). I think parents main concern with abolishing grading would be the fact that they cannot see how their kids are doing in college. And I think a student’s main concern with it would be that they do not really know how they are going to be judged as far as knowledge of the subjects they are studying. Plus you have to take into consideration that they are the ones who are paying tuition (the reason the school runs in the first place). And in our society, testing has become the means for everything, even getting an entry level job.
Passive communication by definition is not expressing honest feelings thought or beliefs. (, 2014). They often communicate in an apologetic and self-effacing way, allowing others to disregard them and often eventually shoulder the responsibility or end up handling other’s issues. In this scenario this is exactly what Pamela did. She concluded Brigit might not have done the tests accurately because of the previous reading.
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.
We blindly accept that we must go through a twelve year schooling program, but Gatto asks us why this is necessary. His word choices are obvious to the point he is trying to make. Using phrases such as “deadly routine” and “forced confinement,” Gatto suggests that school is not the ideal way to educate. He asks whether we really need forced schooling, this seemingly endless—although only twelve-year long—pattern of so many classes per day, five days a week. Gatto compares school to a factory or prison which, generally speaking, are not fun places to be.
Many teachers do not like “catching plagiarists and bringing them to academic justice.” As she states, it is not hard to just cite the author that originally had the information you are using (Bojar). Plagiarism is becoming a big problem in the school system. Many students do not understand what needs to be cited and what does not. The school system should teach students the proper way to cite, and they should teach them that copy and pasting is not writing a paper. According Bojar to students at the community college have a hard time juggling classes along with his or her family and a job.
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.