Article 1: “Leaving Tests Behind” by Haley Sweetland Edwards
This article discussed the never-ending debate on the emphasis on standardized testing in the United States. It also addressed the idea that some states are eliminating several of the required standardized tests in public schools. Instead the states expected teachers to assess students’ progress through “alternative assessments” including performance-based projects. The principal from Abingdon Elementary School expressed that these “alternative assessments” allowed for teachers to see “more authentic” way to view their students’ growth (Edwards, 28). According to the article, “the trend in federal, state, and local education-policy circle has been to require more and more standardized
…show more content…
The five educational trends that are discussed in this article include the use of more technology in K-12, the idea of more competition for federal funding between school districts, personalization of students’ instruction, the use of more evaluation of every aspect of the school, and the trend of research-based practices. The trend of technology’s shifting role in K-12 discusses the idea of determining “what technology purchases support instructional goals for improving student achievement and teacher and leader quality” (House, pg. 1). However, the trend of competing for government funding expressed that this trend involves “massive amounts of coordination, delegation, articulation, and communication throughout the grant-writing process” (House, pg. 1), and this demonstrates the need for teachers to collaborate and work together for better funding for their schools. The other trend, the desire to personalize, demonstrates the desire to “demonstrate the effective use of technology to assess individual student needs, deliver personalized instruction that adapts to the learner’s abilities and interests, and monitor performance through extensive data tracking and analysis” (House, pg. 3-4). All of these trends mentioned in the article, if pursued by teachers and administrators, will eventually lead to better funding for the …show more content…
It also discussed three specific trends that range from short-term to long-term including the trends of blended learning, growing data on students, the measures of learning, shifting to deeper learning, and promoting diversity in our schools. After it addressed the concept of the short-term and long-term trends, the article then debated the challenges of the different trends that were previously mentioned in the article. The biggest challenge that stood out from the article was related to the trend of the measures of learning, and the article posed the questions, “What is the value of a college degree? Do you need a college degree to be gainfully employed? What are the drawbacks of not having a degree? (Skiba, pg. 183)”. After addressing the trends and challenges of these trends, this article discussed several new uses for technology in the classroom. Both affective computing and robotics have made a long-term appearance in the classroom, and the article said, “We have all experienced some interactions with affective computing through the use of our virtual assistants Siri, Cortana, and Alexa (Skiba, pg. 184).” This familiarity with the use of affective computing should make its incorporation into the classroom a much easier transition than the use of new, unused
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Standardized tests have been used to see how much a child has learned over a certain period of time. These tests have been a highly debated issue with many parents and just people in general. In the article “Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer,” the author Michelle Rhee argues that people should not be trying to opt out of standardized tests because it allows the country to see how much a child has learned and the things they need to improve. On the other hand, in the article “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” the author Kristina Rizga argues that standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence.
Although there have been legitimate arguments supporting the benefits of standardized testing, such as their ability to successfully measure students’ proficiency, in recent years there have been concerns and disadvantages regarding how their misuse poses a serious threat to the American education system. Despite the belief that standardized tests should be used to measure students’ proficiency, there are more reasons outweighing this statement regarding why they shouldn’t be used for this purpose. Not only is this a particular issue with standardized testing, but the tests are becoming more high stakes and are being used unfairly to determine things such as graduation, or placement in a school, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Testing corporations are also profiting from the design of these standardized tests, while standardized testing is also forcing teachers to all teach the same thing, leading to a lack of creativity in the students. Aside from these arguments, standardized tests have been found to be becoming flawed and have poor design.
Standardized has become a major issue in the United States. The No Child Left behind Act made it so that regardless of reading, math, and English proficiency all children would be pushed to the next grade. The documentary showed that children across the fifty states only about 30 percent of the children were actually on grade level. Guggenheim blames teachers, but the blame truly falls on policy makers. Even though a teachers main goal is to prepare children for standardized tests it is impossible if the proper resources aren’t
Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools and society have taken a different perspective on how to assess the student‘s progress. Schools are forced to make decisions based on assessments and how to show adequate yearly progress (AYP). Alfie Kohn points out that, in some cases, our students have become victims of standardized testing. In his article, Standardized Testing and Its Victims (2000), he demonstrates how testing has become detrimental to our students instead of helping them. He outlines these detrimental issues with eight facts.
tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...
Standardized tests such as the MEAP, ACT, SAT, PLAN, AND MAP tests are quickly becoming more common in school systems, and they are even being taken at younger ages. These tests have moved from being used to evaluate current skills and concern areas of students in determining the effectiveness of teachers and school districts in general. The kinds of tests that are being used in school districts now are referred to as “high stakes tests” where the outcome of the test determines the fate of a student or a teacher. The thing to realize about high stakes testing is that students, teachers, and schools should not be defined by the score on the test, and there are more problems with the tests than there are benefits. One of the main issues with
In today’s education schools spend most of their focus on Standardized Testing. Standardized testing is limiting the education student are receiving. . “Standardization reduces the quality and quantity of what is taught and learned in schools” (McNeil 36). Standardized testing is having a negative effect on schools because they do not measure achievement adequately, Teachers are being forced to teach to the test, and students are struggling with test anxiety.
Standardized testing has become a wide-spread problem to numerous school systems. Many schools have become reliant of tests given at the state level for most students in elementary, middle, high school, and college. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Testing (ACT), Advanced Placement (AP), and many other state tests have become an inadequate way of measuring a students’ achievement. The state does not have as much concern for the other necessities of a child’s learning. Students need further types of evaluation, not only the knowledge and skills needed for one test.
And, with outcomes in every arena difficult to measure, the surrogate metric for judgment of success for teachers and learning institutions has landed on student performance on standardized tests” (Cox, 2015). Teachers are quitting the profession because preparing for standardized tests is becoming the focus in education and eliminating the time to engage students in
Walberg, Herbert J. “Standardized Tests Effectively Measure Student Achievement.” Standardized Testing. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. of “Stop the War Against Standardized Tests.” Defining Ideas: A Hoover Institution Journal. (20 May 2011). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 7 March 2014.
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.
The current trends in improving educational achievement address specific concerns that focus on increasing student’s achievement. Teachers, administrators, parents and community stakeholders want the educational environment conducive for learning. The use of technology will assist students in the workplace and increase their high order thinking skills needed to effectively function in our global society. Harvey –Woodall (2009) suggests that educators of the 21st century must become knowledgeable of different facets of technology available for the classroom to enhance instruction. It is important to note that the use of technology in the classroom can foster learning and improve student’s critical and reflective thinking skills. Teachers and administrators should select materials and technology that are developmentally appropriate and designed to engage the interest in learning. An effective leader has a vision of learning and allows students to set individual goals and plans to reach these goals; the use of technology can increase students’ success.
Today, schools are being pressured more and more to improve the technology they use and teach in the classrooms. Parents are placing this pressure on schools so that their students have the skills needed to compete in the real world job market. Students are placing pressure on the schools to improve technology by having more knowledge of
"Technology has a crucial role to play in our schools. Unfortunately, it has little to do with the integrated learning systems, Internet access and technology courses that are usually provided to our children. In fact, most independent studies of the effects of those additions during the last 10 years can't find any. The best role of technology in our schools is to help our children's teachers and administrators do their jobs better. Teachers need measurement tools so that they know who needs to learn what. They need databases that track progress from the assessments in real time, not just at the end of the year. When students work on skill development applications instead of workbooks, their teachers receive reports that highlight problem areas and track progress. The databases generate reports that highlight skill acquisition at the level that teachers teach, rather than in terms of grade level.”