One reason a student should receive extra credit to pass, is that they have trouble with that one specific subject. If you don’t understand something it’s hard to get it right on a test. Many tutoring services arn’t free, and some families don’t have the extra cash laying around. Some students after seeing there failing grade just completely give up. Teachers should give them extra credit they can still have a chance at passing the class.
In schools cheating has become so socially acceptable that students think that it is okay to cheat. Schools lack a strong moral code that makes the student’s feel that they need to abide by it. With more people doing it, more people think it might be justified to cheat because others are doing it. Students “cheat because they see others who cheat and they think that they will be unfairly disadvantaged. The cheaters are getting 100 on the exam, while non-cheaters may only get 90’s”.
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.
Instead of learning some actual useful information, teachers fret over the test rather than about how much that student is actually absorbing into their head. It has become a practice to ‘teach the test’ in today’s teaching world. Tests like SAT, ACT and AP have you pay quite a bit and don’t even show you what you did wrong, blocking out the possibility of even trying to learn from your mistakes. It is believed to be a clever tactic used to gain more profit, students keep coming back to prove they are worth more with those silly numbers. They stress day and night over these overrated tests, like previously stated channeling out the imagination, curiosity and good will.
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.
If at any point they failed, they would see this as a big mistake and give up and have a lack of motivation. It can also be argued that working class children do not get the support of their parents, this is because many of the parents believe that they survived without an education, so believe that there children can do the same. Working class families can also lack in support in terms of if the child fails a particular exam, they would not give them positive feed back on how they could improve they would improve. Whereas, it can be argued that higher class families have more motivation and the parents also give the support to the children that is needed. This would have a positive influence on the child’s education as it would give them hope and not give them an opportunity of giving up.
It appears that testing is a waste of time, but in reality, it prepares students for future success. Another question that occurs is: What are students gaining from these different tests each year? Many people debate whether the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is considered to be pointless. Maybe these tests are teaching students accountability and responsibility, two vital tools for success in life. Within in the article, “No Child Left Behind: Test-Obsessed Education Won’t Move Us Ahead” the author, David Marshak, slashes the No Child Left Behind Act.
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 cases of that it might be best for scores to be kept private, known just to parents and the student. Intelligence tests can also mess with students self esteem. If a student is a poor test taker and does poorly on an intelligence test it can mess with their self esteem and make them feel horrible. Their grades might suffer and it could lead to depression. Precautions are needed so students are not harmed by a test that might not have been necessary to begin
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.