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
Everything academic revolves around the year-end state testing to the point that other subjects are usually neglected. Reading, math and writing are the main thrusts of schools, and are obviously important. However, critics state that children are not receiving well-rounded educations because of the emphasis on these subjects
Academic achievement is devalued because of its association with the dominant and oppressive white culture. A contrary view notes that while both black and white adolescents may sometimes exert (or experience) peer pressure against being "nerdy" and working hard in school, this anti-intellectual norm is not usually racialized. Fordham and Ogbu reported on their observations from a single school. Several studies based on representative national surveys of high-school students have reached contrary findings. These have demonstrated that the differences between black and white students are negligible with respect to the value placed on education.
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.
The eye of the storm When reading the article on how interracial roommates can reduce prejudices, it seemed to me that the researchers were inferring that African-American students cannot do well academically without being accompanied by white students. Even though these are actual results from a study, I do not believe this to be true. To me it’s almost like saying that when African American students are amongst each other in a predominately black school that their academic standings are poor. I am not saying that this is the case, but I am entitled to my opinion. At Indiana University, “the study found that whites pre-existing negative racial attitudes predicted which roommates arrangements would break-up.” I seem to find to this finding true.
Results of Research After receiving back 80 completed copies of our surveys our group started to look at the figures, first by each grade then as a whole. Our first major result was from the question, “Do you believe cheating occurs in Perry Hall High School?” Our subjects’ response was a whopping 97% believe that cheating does occur at our school. This showed us that the students, who see a different perspective from teachers and administrators, are pretty positive that Perry Hall High isn’t exempt from this academic integrity epidemic. The next significant question that we asked was if the student had ever done any of the following which included copying or lending homework, cheating on tests, plagiarizing, and also the option never
Imagine your child who is a 4.0 student who has made outstanding grades their entire life sit down to take one test that dictates their future. How heartbreaking would it be for that child to make a score on their ACT that doesn’t truly dictate their intelligence due to test taking anxiety? The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) recognizes test taking anxiety as a serious disorder. Some of the physical symptoms that can come from test anxiety are, “Headaches, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, light-headedness, and feeling faint can occur” (ADAA 1). In a test that only allows an average of one hour per section, any of these symptoms could destroy all self-confidence as well as opportunity to do well on a standardized
Knowledge of one’s own culture and the cultures of different people is key in creating active, caring citizens, and schools play a huge role in constructing that knowledge. Stereotypes must be targeted and exterminated. Teachers must be careful when expanding a lesson with real life examples, so as not to show unconscious bias. In the French film “Entre Les Murs” which was released in 2008, a high school teacher was scolded by his class, which was predominantly black, for always using “white” names in his examples. He hadn’t been purposely using “white names,” it was simply a product of unconscious bias, but he unknowingly hurt the feelings of some of his students by making them feel left
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.
People in poorer communities tend to face harder obstacles like a bad home life, hard economic times, and influences that push dropping out of school. These students also have to deal with old, out-of-date school supplies like textbooks-even their teachers tend to not be as qualified as teachers in wealthier school districts. Furthermore, due to standardized testing, teachers in these poorer school districts tend to teach to the test by teaching with the drill-and-kill method where kids are being taught by memorizing certain multiple choice questions and answers (Neill 29-35). Surprisingly, high-stakes test like promotion tests are the main contributors to retention of students- most of which have learning disabilities. Retention, though, has proved to not help students academically.