What Is The Importance Of Student Achievement In The Educational Environments?

In educational environments today, the only factor that students and teachers are concerned is grades. Throughout elementary and intermediate years, the ability to learn and build off that knowledge was the main priority. However, once a student gets into his or her middle school and high school years, the main priority becomes academic grades. The reason for the change in priority is due to requirements colleges expect of their enrollees. Teachers begin to explain the importance of academic grades rather than the importance of gaining knowledge; not just for a test but to gain knowledge and build off of it. Students look at teachers as their guidance and key to college, so if teachers are beginning to only care about grades then the knowledge

Student achievement measures the amount of academic content a student learns in a determined amount of time (NBPTS). A student needs to learn information for an upcoming exam or test; however, a student needs to be taught how to learn the information and then build off that information to remember over time. Today, teachers are mandated to instruct the basic skills of a course, but teachers need to find time to teach their students how to gain information and to learn without forgetting the subject over time. Each State has different instructional standards for teachers. For instance, in Alabama teachers are required to: be able to design and develop instruction to address the scope and sequence of the curriculum, to modify and adapt curriculum to meet the needs of all learners, and to also help students make connections to promote retention (ALEX). The only way student achievement can increase will be based upon quality teaching. The instructional

Classroom instruction is the “purposeful direction of the learning process” (Huitt, Dr. William G). Having teachers set up classroom instruction throughout the semester is essential toward to them and the students. Athens High School requires teachers to have essential questions and plans made before the course even starts. This is required to help students prepare for upcoming assignments in the future. From a personal experience with teachers doing this procedure, being able to plan accordingly for upcoming assignments helps tremendously with organizing a busy schedule like mine. The board of education for Athens City Schools requires teachers to attend monthly meetings and workdays about classroom instruction. For instance, pre-AP teachers attend the Laying the Foundation program for extra instruction to come up with ideas of improvement of student instruction within the classroom. Teachers from Athens High School have publicly mentioned the importance this program. Ms. Stacy Kirby, pre-AP English teacher at Athens High School, said this program has “taught me numerous ways to engage students in discussion.” She also mentions that due to the active discussion she gets in class, thanks to the Laying the Foundation program, her students grades have all trended positively in recent weeks. Although this is a small sample size of results, the program, teachers are using is not