It used to be that students had to take standardized tests every year. The results of these tests said what school districts would get more money or less money for the next school year. And it would also tell schools and teachers if some students needed to be put into higher level programs such as gifted and talented or advanced placement courses or if they were having problems and should be put in special education. Even way back then, the whole thinking of giving more money to schools that score higher than schools that score lower seemed like a really dumb way to do things. Now, students have to do testing every time they turn around.
But as uninterested as I was, I started to go deeper into my thoughts, nervously, I started worrying about my math AIMS since I didn’t pass that portion of the test last year. With just one test my whole High School career would be a flop, I need to pass all my classes with at least a D or better in order for that to be excused. I sighed in relief, trying to avoid getting too deep into the thought of not graduating, thinking I had everything planned relieved some stress and anxiety away. “Here”, getting interrupted in my thoughts, I saw my classmate handing back the final, it took me a minute to respond when I finally said “thank you” with a smile, taking the paper and placing it on my cold desk. Walking to the guidance counselor with a million thoughts in my head wasn’t exactly the feeling I was hoping for, the halls were empty, everyone was in class, and it was quite and peaceful.
I have a problem with this, I do not want to have another class to take in college since I already have to wade through the standard crap like history. The idea is sound, but the placement is wrong since in most Texas high schools students have a government class. The only problem is that many students take these classes with out learning much. My junior year in high school I took AP Government, a single semester course. My school offered both AP and regular government, I elected to go the extra mile and take in a college course, horrible idea.
Although I was a different person in high school, it is possible for people to truly change if they put their mind to it. In high school, I really did not care about my grades. My attendance was awful, skipping too many classes to count. I barely managed to pull off a 3.0 GPA by the end of my senior year. When I came to college, I knew grades were important but I did not realize how challenging it was to get above a 3.0 in college.
I and my parents had a big fight about the grades that I had and the school even had us sat in the parent center to reconcile our problem with a psychologist. After the talk between my parent, the psychologist, and me, my parents seems changed, they don’t restrain me anymore like before. Even though I still thought that education is not important, but I started working hard to make up all the classes that I failed to get my high school diploma because I realized the hope that they put on me and I don’t want them to be disappointed again. During my senior year of high school, I did not only take six classes, but also working on a program called Cyber High to retake all my failed classes with high grades, and also take extra class to average up my GPA in order to meet graduate requirements.
In the first place, Marty Nemko, a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education stated, “Majority of students dropping out from college admits that they are underprepared for college-level work” (1). These dropouts never anticipated that their new independence comes more responsibilities in their college schedule. They get burnt-out and discouraged, and so they quit. For instance, only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates in 2007 who took the American College Test (ACT) were ready for college work because they knew the basic subjects in English, Math, Reading, and Science. Also, the writer stated, “That the costs of tuition fees continue to increase, and scholarships or grants are not always readily available” (2).
Final exams have been given to students for many years. They are given at the end of the semester to show how much of the taught information has been learned by the student. When students are asked if final exams are beneficial to their learning the answer usually given is no. The students state that final exams are just used to ruin all the work that they have put into the class during the semester. They complain about the many hours before the exam of cramming information into their brain that will be forgotten in the next couple weeks.
A student from Paris (texas) High School said, "some people get testaphobia, I passed my math classes with flying colors, but I get to that TAAS test and my mind's like a blank, I have no idea why." (Kunen 62). TExas is one of the 22 states that requires a high school exit exam like the TAAS test. Every year many students are kept from graduating high school because of these exit exams. This makes students and parents very angry.
At havard school in May 2012 a teaching mate noticed that approximately half the entire class had been cheating (Buchmann,2014). If the most prestigious school in the world (havard) contains cheating it is normal to assume that cheating happens in every college more than we could think and what motivate students to cheat is lack of understanding and lectures pressure. Teachers may put a lot of pressure on student in a way that makes the material confusing. Or Students may have other things and so they are so busy far from the lessons. In all cases, classmates should not commit plagiarism in the exams so they feel more honest and capable of making the right
The book states that the CAI (The Center for Academic Integrity) found three out of four kids admitted to cheating on a test when interviewed in 2002. The book lists common excuses for use of plagiarism: “’I was in a hurry’, ‘I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to’, ‘There’s pressure to get good grades’, ‘Everybody else does it’, ‘I mixed up my notes by accident’, ‘Somebody else said it so much better’, ‘I’m not hurting anyon... ... middle of paper ... ...ies.” In other words, he found many papers that were cheated on. Many students now were facing expulsion from school. The book says the following statement: “After the committee investigated the cases, dozens of students were brought to trial. It should be noted that many of the cases were dropped for various reasons.” Bloomfield said that he was very disappointed in the students who were caught cheating.