In Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary the word accountability is defined as follows: “the quality or state of being accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one 's actions.” Currently teachers are being held accountable for their students’ test scores and the growth each student has achieved in one academic year. Teachers are hired to teach the material given to them. The student’s job is to study the material and seek help if they need a deeper explanation. A student should be held accountable for their own test scores. This also has unintentional consequences such as, the unbearable amount of stress teachers begin to have because their job relies and a student’s test score growth. One teacher …show more content…
Unfortunately, some students are not attentive during lessons and, a portion of students have no interest in being educated. Also, a few students do not have regular attendance, choose to be chronically tardy, and might attend school only because the government and parents force them to do so. Educators have to fight through an array of issues, just to be able to teach an effective lesson for each student to fully comprehend. Then, the students are to be tested on the material they may or may not completely understand. Teachers do need to have some sort of accountability system, but the accountability should not be a system that is fully reliant on their student’s test scores. If the education system chooses to hold teachers entirely responsible, it will inadvertently have more …show more content…
However it causes more harm than good. A large sum of K-12 teachers teach material that is not covered by standardized tests given to students. Luckily the education system knows many testing companies who would be more than to create tests for every subject, tests would even match with the curriculum taught. Surely schools could get these test for a steal (Glass and Berliner 31-32). Eventually the standardized tests become and business deal. A deal with a company that does not specialize in education, a company just looking for money. Once a “cost-effective” deal is made the teachers feel the backlash of new policies that have to be created and implemented. Getting support from citizens and parents is the simplest part because the idea of holding teachers accountable for their effective teaching skills, now they are responsible the students’ grades and scores in standardized tests. Unfortunately citizens and parents are not educated on the full policy. So, there is no surprise when parents become disappointed when the new strategies are proven ineffective. This might have something to do with the small parts of the rules are explained completely. Educators have to put in more extra time to help students, and it causes more concerns than
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
Teachers who lack passion and desire to teach what they are given can translate and manifest its way to students as they also lose aspirations to come to school and learn only what will be on exams they are supposed to take to show that they are “learning.” Students come to school to learn things they did not know prior and with the acquisition of knowledge it can many a times create a drive for students to expand upon a particular subject, which can ultimately determine their careers and goals, but this whole process is shutdown with standardized tests, as many topics and subjects are limited to a few basic ones that put out the fire students are expected to have.
Accountability….What does it mean? Well this past month e lost two soldiers who are a part of our unit and voice of our unit pass away. Accountability is important and should not be taken lightly… A soldier lost his life a couple weeks ago, due to lack of accountability, and it hurt a lot of people. For so many reasons accountability is important, for example. Knowing where your soldiers are at all times helps to know what they’re doing, and what their interest are doing so. In case something happens and someone needs t know where a soldier is accountability comes into play. Army Regulation 600-20 IAW Discipline. Why is discipline so important? Because to be accounted for is a part of disciplinary actions.
Standardized tests compare students in different states, districts, and schools. The comparisons lead to “unhealthy competition among the schools” (Pros and Cons 2). In the article, “Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing,” it is stated that “Federal funds are given only to those that perform well” (2). This makes the pressures in schools very high and makes the schools evaluate the performance of the teachers and students constantly. “Low scores can prevent a student from progressing to the next grade level or lead to teacher firings and school closures, while high scores ensure continued federal and local funding and are used to reward teachers and administrators with bonus payments” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Standardized tests give parents a good idea of how well their students are doing and learning. It also leads to exaggerated reports of success. In Jonathan Pollard’s article he says “Consider this passage taken directly from Kohn’s book:” Then it states how when a test is first administered and scores are low, headlines are bad. Then in a few years the scores go up and the headlines are good. Finally, the scores level off or they substitute a new test and the scores drop. Causing the headlines to be bad again. Kohn then states that “This is not due to a change in the competency of teachers, or level of instruction. This is simply the process of students and teachers acclimating to the tests” (Pollard 4).
A nationwide investigation also reviled school across the nation were involved in changing test scores. In order to stop this cruel and I think criminal intent on our children we must understand different learning habits. Also understand the environment of the child. The environment plays a strong role in how our children learn and are able to grasp what is being taught. Most importantly we must be patient. Every child does not learn one the same level. We are all different in so many ways. The teaching outline should reflect our unique characteristics. Let’s use the universalization test. What would the United States be like if every educator changed test scores? We would be a nation of inadequate uneducated individuals. We have an unwavering responsibility to our children.
Politicians claim that Accountability is needed. Dylan Wiliam wrote that “The logic of accountability is deceptively simple”(110) He goes on to say that “students attending higher quality schools will (by definition) have higher achievement than those attending lower quality schools, so that the differences in quality of schools will result in systematic differences in achievement between schools”(110). Yes indeed accountability is needed. It is needed for those who pay for education (tax payers) and the people who are educated (the students). The institutions that regulate education should be held accountable for the policies they enact as well as the government that approved those actions. “Of the total variance in mathematics achievement of 15-year-olds in the United States in 2004 only 8% was attributable to the actual quality of the education provided by the school, the results in science are similar” (111). This is an indictment of the American school system, it points out that standardized testing is in fact inaccurate and unnecessary.
Parents and advocates of education can all agree that they want their students to be in the best hands possible in regards to education. They want the best teachers, staffs, and schools to ensure their student’s success. By looking at the score results from standardized testing, teachers can evaluate effectively they are doing their job. On the other side, a proponent for eliminating standardized testing would argue that not all students care passionately about their education and will likely not perform to expectations on the test. However, receiving the numerical data back, teachers can construe the student’s performances and eliminate the outliers of the negligent kids. Teachers can then look at the individual scores and assign those outliers to get the help they need in school. This helps every student getting an equal chance at education. Overall, taking a practice standardized test can let a teacher look at individual questions and scores and interpret what they need to spend more time on teaching. A school also can reap the benefits from standard testing to ensure they are providing the best possible education they can. The school can look at the average scores from a group and hold the teacher accountable for the student’s results on the test. The school can then determine the best course of action to pursuit regarding the teacher’s career at the school. By offering teachers and schools the opportunity to grow and prosper, standardized testing is a benefit for the entire education
The issue of standardized testing has been a highly debated issue in the United States for many years and shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was an effort to standardize and improve our education system, but 13 years later it is still in shambles. While many people agree there is a need for some sort of measure for quality education, there is much disagreement about the effectiveness of standardized tests. Some even say federal programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have gone too far in using test scores to evaluate teachers (Gordon 2013). Unfavorable results from these tests seem to generate more punitive consequences for the teachers and schools than help for the students. The words “high-stakes” are used often in numerous sources to describe the current testing system and refer to decisions that will make a significant impact on both students and teachers. These decisions include repeating a grade or not receiving a diploma for the student and possible loss of a job for the teacher. Standardized testing is an ineffective and expensive way to measure student achievement.
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.
One time I heard a teacher at my old high school tell a new teacher that their job is to teach to the test and nothing else. I did not really know what she meant, but I knew something about what she said sounded very wrong. I thought why are they just teaching us how to pass the test instead of just teaching us what we need to know? Later I found out that whether or not I graduate depends on passing the test. The idea of standardized testing to say whether or not students graduate is a bad one. Not just bad for schools, principals, and teachers, but it can mean the end of a student’s future before it begins. That means not only does schools suffer, but everyone in our communities, states, and country suffers. 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.
All students must pass standardized tests in order to graduate. Standardized tests are not going to make us smart, so why is the government spending all their money on those tests? According to Quinn Mulholland, Author at Harvard Political Review "Teaching to the test" is replacing good teaching practices with "drill n ' kill" rote learning.” Students learn better if they’re being taught by a teacher who teaches a subject that he or she is passionate about. On the other hand, if teachers are told to teach students in order for students to pass tests then students are not learning, instead they are memorizing. Standardized tests won’t make students ready for college. Standardized tests will not improve student achievement, it is an unreliable way to measure student success, and they are not objective. Standardized tests are also unfair to students whose English is their second language as well as students with special
Accountability defined as the responsibility of an individual in a position of an employee or student. In this section, I am going further to mention some situations and how does this situation demonstrate the responsibility that reflected from the dimensions of my personality, including conditions from communication, diversity awareness, decision-making and problem solving. First am going to point at some of my situation that I experienced as a student and then build it up to the situation that I faced in the work placement program as an employee.
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
Layton explains in her article that “a typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and 12th grade.” (Layton) Children that are as young as three or four in pre-k should not be required to take standardized testing. These young children are expected to take around “4.1 standardized tests” (Layton). They are little children so they should not be expected to know all the information on the standardized tests and how to apply it. Layton also explains how “most countries that outperform the United States on international exams test students three times during their school careers.” (Layton) The fact that we are testing students around thirty-seven times more than those countries show that there is too much pressure on standardized testing. Every student is expected to do well with standardized tests and in their classroom. This can cause students to stress about school and grades at an early age. Layton explains that “the heaviest testing load falls on the nation’s eighth graders, who spend an average of 25.3 hours during the school year taking standardized tests” (Layton). These students should not have to be required to test for that many hours in a year. For students to become well-rounded, emotionally, socially, and academically, they should be tested less and allowed to have time for extracurricular
Assessment is a tool used in the classroom every day. It is used to measure a student’s mastery of a skill or knowledge of a given subject. It is also what demonstrates to the teacher what the students have learned. Educators use that information to determine if they need to re-teach to a specific student, group, or the entire class. They can also use that information to determine the rate of their teaching. Assessments are important because, as teachers, we need to know what difficulties our students have and what needs to be refined for them. While I do believe in assessment and feel that it is one of the key components of teaching, I am more concerned with a child’s process of learning rather than the overall product that comes from it. This is where grades come in for me. Grades determine the students’ level of mastery on a subject, nothing more. Grades should not be the exclusive indicators that a student has learned the information that is presented to them. It is the things a student learns along the way that truly matter and sometimes cannot be measured.