Before the 19th century there were very few standards for education. A persons ability to receive an education was directly based on their status in life and their ability to pay for privet tutors or private academies. Of course this only applied if you were male and white because females, blacks and other immigrants were not simply discouraged from getting an education, in most cases they were expressly forbidden to get one. In the later part of the 19th century, this changed in a few ways. Many realized the importance of an education for all, regardless of gender or race, and education was seen as a way to bring more equality to the masses, as well as a way to "Americanize" immigrants and other "outsiders" of society. A public school education was introduced, and was offered to every child, for free. These public schools would be responsible for answering to local, state and national boards, and specific standards and requirements were put in place regarding testing, attendance, and curriculum. Setting national standards for education, allows an equal opportunity for an education for all students. Whereas at one time teachers would set their own standards, a common standard was established for both teachers curriculum, and students instruction to keep education consistent across the board. Standards allowed a clear look at what each student should be learning at different levels of their education, such as universal subject requirements, and testing by grade. Teachers once held the position of being able to simply teach what they knew and at times learned along with their students. With standards, teachers must be educated and trained in their subject/s, and have a good understanding of their state's standards. They must also le...
... middle of paper ...
... officials and other educators agree that a standardized curriculum, instruction and assessment is pertinent to our nation keeping up with or exceeding other countries educational standards, as well as being an imperative part of maintaining a fair, challenging and most importantly, available to all, school system.
Works Cited
1. History of Education in America 2008, http://www.chesapeake.edu/library/EDU_101/eduhist_20thC.asp
2. Implementing curriculum, instruction and assessment standards, 2008 - http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/sc300.htm
3. Standards and Curriculum Overview 2008, http://www.edsource.org/edu_sta.cfm
4. Incoporating asessment into the learning process 2008 - http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/sc3asses.htm
5. Standards Based Reform, 2008 - http://www.aft.org/topics/sbr/curr.htm
Many of the school reforms were resulted from the laws and ideas that became presented by the presidents or other political officials during that time. The presidents pushed for the educational system to accomplish the ideas that they had. Which would have increased the quality and successfulness of the nation’s schools
According to Fyona Rose, “Not only do these tests belittle students' and teachers' hard work, they also leave them with negative feelings toward school and drain their love of learning” (Rose, 2015). This means that standardized testing can ruin the enjoyment of learning for both students and teachers. The reason standardized testing still happens is because it has become a standard for schools each year. But if the standard is bad something should be changed. Many who do not like standardized testing to do not believe that testing should be done away with, but rather be changed to accommodate the growing needs of society as a
The American school system is no stranger to criticism, but everybody seems to have a distinct idea of what should be done to improve it. It was not too long ago that we had no public schooling system at all. A man would change that forever, immortalizing himself as the “father” of American education. It was surprising to me that I had never heard of this man, especially considering I had finished my journey through free and compulsory education two years ago. The man who went on to change American education, was Horace Mann, the first Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusetts. Horace Mann tirelessly campaigned for the public to be educated, heralding it as a “great equalizer.” So why is the gap between social classes rising exponentially? There are fundamental issues holding us back from fulfilling Horace Mann’s dream of an education system which empowers citizens by leveling the playing field for everyone, including pedantic policies, a limited curriculum, and standardized testing.
An institution that is large has a group of individuals or situations that shapes what it becomes. Without a doubt the American education system has had multiple examples that have shaped what it is today. There have been individuals that have placed emphasis such as Mann that brought the common school concept to light. In addition, there were landmark court cases that allowed minorities to also receive equal educations. Furthermore, there has been strong political influence over the years of American education development. This paper will focus on the importance of Horace Mann, John Dewey, the Science and Math Education Movement, and the No Child Left Behind Act.
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
● The children who were receiving a high quality education before the national curriculum is being used to work out the bends in this new system. If we were going to have national standards, there should have been some effort to design a baseline curriculum to be used in the first design of textbooks and testing materials. But I would guess a mix of things, but mostly political pressure and the threat that standardized testing would use common core as its guide and those tests could affect educational funding.
Throughout the course of history, students have been subject to endless waves of educational reform. However, none so drastic and far-reaching as the adoption of Common Core State Standards in 2009. Common Core started shortly after President George W. Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind" act, which aimed to ensure that all kids in public schools had a fair chance of graduating with their age group. The act required states to adopt a set of academic standards that forced rigorous learning objectives on students. During the Obama administration, the "Race to the Top" act was signed into legislation. This allowed the United States Government to impose a set of requirements on state-run schools. The most prominent mandate was for states to adopt
You may not think about it but Standardized testing is quite expensive. According to Huffing Post and edweek.org Standardized testing cost 1.7 million dollars annually. That is a LOT of money with that we could be doing much more productive things. Also Standardized testing is very timely. According to wbur.org kids takes about 20-25 hours. With this time students are only reviewing things they ALREADY learned when they could be learning something new. Standardized Testing is also a bad situation that can be changed with a little bit of effort. If we stop standardized testing many good things will happen. For Example teachers will stop feeling pressured to teach to the Standardized test so they do not get fired. According to LAtimes.com Standardized tests do not help evaluate teachers. people are actually already trying to change this according to Radio,inc Republicain senate aids are drafting a bill to eliminate standardized testing. With the immense cost of standardized testing we could be putting money toward extra-curricular activities or better supplies. The possibilities are endless. That means that standardized test is something we could change and could make a better situation out
Do standardized tests really improve the quality of public education? For years they have been used to judge schools' academic performance and assess the needs of students. No longer can illiterates be graduated from high school. No longer can teachers pass a student from one grade to another without having taught that student anything (Spellings). While these advances are beneficial, standardized exams often hurt already disadvantaged schools, promote states to lower their standards of education, and cause schools to focus more on the exams themselves rather than on their students' actual learning (Karp).
With a standardized curriculum comes standardized testing. A standardized curriculum limits what students learn. Students master content areas (Cole, Hulley, & Quarles, 2013). Students are not encouraged to go in depth of content knowledge. According to Adler (2013), objectives of the school should be the same for the whole school. To obtain these objectives teachers use lecturing, textbooks, coaching, and supervised practices. Students are not exploring the content beyond what is expected. Teachers are teaching to the test because that is what is expected of them. Students are not growing and exploring with knowledge. Content is watered down and vague for students (Noddings, 2013).
There are many current educational issues. The lack of Parent involvement and support is definitely one. This is especially the case at our title 1 schools. It is a struggle to get many parents to be involved in their child’s education. Another current educational issue is the lack of support and assistance for classroom teachers. For example, there are some schools where each kindergarten and first grade has a full time assistant. I teach first grade but share an assistant with two other first grade classes. We have reading teachers, however they only serve 3-5 students at a time out of 60+ students. With class sizes increasing, it becomes more and more difficult to meet each students needs without proper assistance.
...e educators and a happy environment for students instead of spending so much time and money on standardized tests that will only worry students more. There are certainly ways to improve the system without the use of standardized exams.
Going to school and getting a great education is important for a successful future in today’s world. Years ago, many children did not go to school and many young adults opted to work instead of attending college. In today’s society, gaining a high level of education is almost always mandatory for many jobs. There are many changes being done to the education system along with new items and ways of teaching in the classroom. There is a growing amount of changes in the classroom such as technology, teaching time, teaching styles, and freedom of space.
...the pressure of keeping up with other students. Here, they can work at their own pace and figure out a solution that best works for them to understand or solve a problem. One last idea school reform should address in creating an equality of opportunity in public schools would be to set standards and spend more time in the classroom on these important tasks. These standards are put into place to help evaluate one’s progress. It’s important to have some standards in place, but they need to be feasible. To make such standards feasible, the teacher will be able to tailor it so that the standard can be met by the student. Spending a decent amount of time to get students to reach these standards is imperative. Without a sufficient amount of time, students may not be able to grasp and fully understand what is being taught to them resulting in standards not being met.
In America, everyone has the right to a free public education. States set standards for schools in an attempt to ensure all students get the same quality education. No matter how many standards are set, students will not have equal schooling. Schooling is larger than the lessons taught in the classroom. Each student’s school experience is different, not only because of the quality of their education, but because of things like school location, demographic, teachers, participation, and other personal experiences.