NCLB set forth a certain criteria to be met, but allowed the states to determine how they would accomplish it. Therefore, each state handles assessment and accountability differently. This makes it hard to show success or failure of the programs. Supporters and critics alike can cite research that supports their opinion. My opinion of NCLB is it is flawed, developmentally inappropriate, ill funded, ←and→ leaving more students, teachers, ←and→ schools behind than ever before because The tests have turned into the objective of classroom instruction rather than the measure of teaching ←and→ learning.
They stress day and night over these overrated tests, like previously stated channeling out the imagination, curiosity and good will. Besides being an imprecise measure for students, they use them to judge a teacher’s performance as well, essentially used to either reward or punish them. Standardized test are not helping us very much right now. In conclusion, the usage of standardized tests should be discontinued or by the very least lessened. These tests are not helping people, it’s initially having a negative effect on students and teachers.
Cheating, fear of failure are just some of the examples that existing in the graded-oriented environment. Measureable outcomes are necessary but it doesn’t mean that teachers have to turn everything into numbers; in fact grades are the “least significant results of learning”. Although the absence of “assessment-based grading” is a necessary; teachers should consider these following grading techniques: replace numbers and letter with rubrics, prepare students to every test without fortify their knowledge, post grades online only add more destructive effects on learning, students are willing to read your comments about their works and finally
There are some major problems with using them. Students with high I.Q’s are expected to do better than the rest of their class, and on the flip side students with low I.Q.’s are expected to do worse. That is not always fair because students with low I.Q.’s might not get the attention needed simply because their teachers do not expect much from them. In the end there is no fairness to some. This leads to an ethical question of, is giving an intelligence test ethical?
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
Sydney Scott Mrs. Angela Lockhart English 100 9/23/2012 Refutation of “No Child Left Behind: Test-Obsessed Education Won’t Move Us Ahead Is standardized testing the key to a student’s success in education? This seems to be a common question asked by parents, students, and teachers. Education is a key part of life even though it has certain requirements that must be met, such as testing skills. Standardized testing is a common educational tool in today’s society. It appears that testing is a waste of time, but in reality, it prepares students for future success.
The ethical issues that regard the high stakes testing is that it could be unfair to some students. Students with disabilities, students who speak English as a second language, students who have testing anxiety, etc. could all do badly on the tests. If they cannot pass the tests, they wont be able to graduate. The testing should be equal for all students and their varying
Passing a standardized test is a skill that can be taught, but does not truly measure what a student has learned in the classroom; therefore standardized tests should not be used as a tool to measure students knowledge because students have more to offer than just filling in bubbles. Standardized tests don’t provide information that is useful in the future, resulting in students losing interest in learning because its not fun. The average student does not enjoy being cooped up in classroom for four hours filling in bubbles. This is when students think that the school is a reflection of standardized tests and they no longer want to learn. The information used in standardized tests has no importance in the real world.
It is fair to say that one cannot gain a complete understanding of a student’s capabilities from the results of only one test (Brookhart, 2009). This is where multiple measures comes in and allows teachers to make assumptions and conclusions based on more than one test result, hence achieving a more valid and reliable conclusion on students abilities. Through multiple measures Brookhart argues that we are also able to achieve decision validity (Brookhart, 2009). This allows teachers to determine if a student is displaying difficulties in all aspects of study or in one particular area. It is not fair to conclude that because a student exhibits difficulties with one area of learning that he or she will exhibit the same difficulty in other areas, in fact a student who displays difficult writing or reading may in fact excel in other academic areas such as mathematics.
The education system has become a monopolizing subject across the United States. So many questions have been raised about what is good to teach, and how those subjects should be taught. Many schools are the pressure of bettering their education system, but tend to find they are also dealing with the trials of having to drop certain subjects in order to focus more intently on the ones deemed most important. Unfortunately, in today's society, the fine arts programs of the school systems have been neglected and even underdeveloped. What many educator's may not realize is that a well-organized and well developed fine arts program can be the difference maker in a child’s learning ability and capability.