(John Salvia, 2010, p. 27) Instructions must be evidence based, (Powerpoint, 2010) meaning that there are studies to back up a teaching or intervention method that works. NCLB also grades schools based on the yearly-standardized test. If a school “fails” more than one year, parents have the right to move their children to a better preforming school. Assessments are done yearly using a standardized test, which all children take while the other laws have more individualized assessments based on the child’s plan. Federal funding demands that schools comply with participating in NCLB.
” Creative thinking and problem solving are the abilities that set one student apart from another. There are many different teaching methods that teachers use to give students the opportunity t... ... middle of paper ... ...etween students to accept and to deny, the look the student’s SAT scores. The student with the higher SAT score will be the accepted student. In life, I do not believe that knowledge and skills are the best way to compare two people. As humans we are always learning and acquiring new skills.
According to the Student Success Initiative (SSI) 2012-2013 manual, the 81st Texas Legislature in 2009 made changes to their 1999 policy, requiring 5th and 8th grade students to “demonstrate proficiency” on the reading and mathematics section of their tests by their third administration. Additionally, the Grade Placement Committee (GPC) can approve advancement based on grades, standardized test scores and teacher recommendation. With this in mind, the 2013-14 sixth grade students at an elementary school in Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) recently completed their fifth grade SSI mandated assessments. Approximately 55% of the 120 students successfully passed the math section of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) with three attempts. Accelerated instruction, as required per SSI policy, followed each of the three attempts, to include tutorials after school, on Saturdays and during the summer.
They are supposed to bring all students up to the proficient level on their assessments by the 2013-2014 school years. Rebora (2004) also observed that the academic content and achievement standards define what all children should know in order to be considered proficient in each state (p. 2). These state assessments are a mechanism for checking whether schools have been successful in teaching students the knowledge and skills characterized by the content standards. In an article, titled “test and punish” in NEA Today, “the number of schools that missed Adequate Yearly Progress for two or more years reached 6, 794 or 12 percent of the schools in those states” (Lochert, 2004, p. 10). Although former Education Secretary, Rod Paige believes that results show that No Child Left Behind is working and test scores are rising, other officials say that the credit associated with the rising scores go to other factors.
The State of Connecticut Legislature created a statue (Section 10-14n) that mandates statewide standardized testing for students in 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th grade. The tests assess performance tasks and a set of specific skills, which are aligned with the Connecticut Common Core of Learning and National Standards. Students are evaluated against that set of specific skills, not each other (Connecticut Mastery Test Program Overview 14). In 4th, 6th and 8th grade, students take the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) is administered in 10th grade. The movement for standardized testing began in 1985 with the CMT and the testing trend continued with CAPT in 1994.
Introduction - Professional development (PD) includes a full range of activities, formal and informal, that engage teachers or administrators in new learning about their professional practice (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999). Three major goals of PD programs are change in the classroom practices of teachers, change in their attitudes and beliefs, and change in the learning outcomes of students (Guskey, 2002). Achieving these goals is dependent on how teacher learning is conceived, and the conditions under which any change is introduced. This paper aims to discuss the factors that determine effective teacher learning in the context of change, by analysing findings from interviews conducted with teachers at Monfort Secondary School (MSS) in their implementation of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programme – a school-based initiative conceptualised to meet the desired outcomes of student-directed learning (SDL) and collaborative learning (COL). Equipping Teachers to Implement Change - When BYOD was piloted in 2013, it required teachers to adopt a mindset and pedagogical shift.
After almost 15 years of this act being enforced, NCLB’s requirements support a one-size-fits-all framework, create a dumbed-down curriculum in schools, allow impoverished community schools to weaken, and lessened the financial support for all schools in the United States. George W. Bush signed the “No Child Left Behind Act” in 2001 in hopes to improve education and opportunity for low-come families. It was believed that this reform of the public education system would increase student achievement (Altshuler). It was the first education reform in over 35 years. Under this act, achievement is measured annually on a multiple-choice test for reading and math.
Some rely on peer or administrator evaluations and staff development as additional measures of student achievement. For the purpose of this paper, I will focus upon those which reward individual teachers as this seems to be the direction in which current policy is heading. The Problem In order for a potential policy to be viable, it must address a perceived problem (Fowler, 2009). The need to retain effective teachers is evidenced by: • Most countries report difficulties in retaining teachers (Ingvarson, Kleinhenz & Wilkinson, 2007). • Only 2 states require teacher effectiveness to be considered when awarding tenure; all others award tenure more-or-less automatically (National Council on Teacher Quality, 2008).
President Bush quoted, “Clearly, our children are our future…Too many of our neediest children are being left behind” (www.ed.gov). The “No Child Left Behind” Act expands the federal government’s role in elementary and secondary education. The NCLB act was enacted January 8, 2002, and has four reform principles to the act: Accountability, flexibility, Researched-based reforms and parental options. Accountability begins with informed parents, communities and elected leaders so we can work together to improve schools. The states will measure the progress by testing every child in grades 3 through 8 in reading and math, states will implement fair and effective annual tests and Washington will provide funding to states to design and implement tests.
INTRODUCTION Traditionally, teacher development typically occurs through trial and error in the isolated confinements of each teacher’s classroom with some periodic whole-group professional development (Goddard & Goddard, 2007). Within the past few decades, many schools and districts, including ours, have considered and experimented with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as an alternative framework in guiding a more efficient development program for their teachers. PLCs are focused on enhancing student learning through developing teacher practices. The concept of PLC relies on using structured collaborative sessions amongst teachers within the school to build internal capacity. Through PLCs, teachers critically reflect on current practices, brainstorm solutions, and obtain help and advice from others in a supportive growth-oriented environment over an extended period of time (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008; Nelson, 2009; Scher & O'Reilly, 2009; Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005).