The No Child left Behind Act has triggered a tremendous amount of controversy throughout the nation. Since its ratifications, the No Child Left Behind act has caused an uproar within the education system. One of the controversial issues causing pandemonium is the absence of schools meeting expectations. The No Child Left Behind Act has established goals parents and educators believe are unattainable. As a result, institutions are eliminating art, health, physical education, social studies, science and foreign language and concentrating on math and reading proficiency. in efforts to achieve academic standards, Teachers are beginning to construct lessons in accordance with the state test and parents have expressed concern that their children…
Lets first start by explaining what the Act entails. As defined by Wikipedia, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), more commonly known as NCLB, is a United States federal law signed on January 8, 2002 by George Bush, that reauthorizes a number of federal programs that aim to improve the performance of primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for state, school districts and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. NCLB is built on four principles: accountability for results, more choices for parents, greater local control and flexibility, and an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research. Additionally, it promotes an increased focus on reading and re-authorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). NCLB is the latest federal legislation which enact the theories of standards-based education reform, which is based on the belief that high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all students. Under the new law, every racial and demographic group in each school must meet rising goals on English and math tests to make "adequate yearly progress." This Act tests reading and math skills of…
The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to close the achievement gap and to make sure that all children learn their math and reading by 2014. The law tries to accomplish this hefty goal by implementing different tactics. One of them is to have stronger accountability in the schools. In order to achieve this goal they use standardized tests to see how well the schools are teaching all of the students, with specific emphasis on students who are disadvantaged, like poor students or minority students. They divide the students into subgroups according their ethnic backgrounds and wealth and give them the tests. The tests are supposed to show how well the students are doing learning their basic skills such as math and reading. In theory, the school can then identify those students who are falling behind and focus more attention and resources on them. The schools then test the students again in order to determine if there was any improvement in their basic skills. If there is no improvement in two years the school system must provide other alternatives for the children. For example, the school system must pay for the…
Michelle Obama once said, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I would not be here. I guarantee you that.” Standardized testing began a long time ago in China. It was a basic form to determine the eligibility for positions in the government of the ruling class. A standardized test is an analysis that is overseen and scored in a scheduled manner. In 2001 President George W. Bush passed the ‘No Child Left Behind’ education reform which expanded the state mandated standardized testing and assesses the schools performance. Standardized testing is not a proper way to measure the abilities of students. Students will take so many standardized tests that they become…
Standardized testing is one of the most passionately debated educational topics in America. As a student within American school system, thoughts of my own are formulated on such topics. Standardized testing is a debate on whether or not they are useful in improving instruction and performance. While some believe that standardized test such as EOG (End of Grade), SAT, or ACT are great ways to strengthen a student’s instruction and performance, I. myself have to disagree for many reasons.…
Albert Einstein once said, "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." How, though, may teachers follow these wise words, when they must constantly worry about educating their students so they can pass just one of the many standardized tests thrust upon them? John Dewey, an American philosopher, also said, "The real process of education should be the process of learning to think through the application of real problems." How, though, can students possibly learn critical thinking if they are forced to learn through relentless memorization and worksheets in order for them to pass one test upon which their futures so highly depend? This phenomenon of accountability testing and holding teachers accountable for scores has swept across the country, creating a negative approach to educating the youth of America. Due to the lack of validity of these tests and the negative effects on teachers and students, standardized testing is ruining the public education system.…
The chief problem with U.S. schools apparently isn’t high dropout rates or underqualified teachers but standardized testing. This is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the push by parents and teachers in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Seattle and elsewhere to help students opt out of taking standardized tests.…
Opponents say the tests are neither fair nor objective, that their use promotes a narrow minded curriculum and drill-like "teaching to the test," and that excessive testing undermines America's ability to produce innovators and critical thinkers. Studies have also shown that standardized tests can not accurately measure academic capabilities because racial and gender stereotypes interfere with the intellectual functioning of those taking the tests.…
With this emphasis on getting good testing results, many teachers decided to sacrifice teaching critical thinking and advanced problems, and instead substitute the minimal knowledge that is needed on a standardized test. For example, a seventh grade teacher will try to perfect students' ability to use the Pythagorean Theorem in order to obtain the measurement of sides and angles of a right triangle. But on the other hand, real life applications and word problems of how the Pythagorean Theorem can be used to find unknown distances and heights, as well as angles of elevation, will be less of a focus because there is less of a focus on longer and wordy problems on standardized tests. An educator needs the freedom of having time…
Standardized tests have existed in America since 1800s. The tests are ubiquitous attempt to measure students’ performance based on his or her ability to come up with a singular answer to multiple choice questions. A major problem with this is that all students learn differently and their ability to take the standardized test is not a valid representation. The “No Child Left Behind Act” caused a surge in the amount of standardized tests required throughout the nation. The results of these standardized testing showed that America was in the 31st position in the world in the level of education. This is reflected in our school system, which is most likely caused by the misunderstanding of the standardized testing. Standardized testing limits…
The use of standardized tests became very popular after the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) was passed in 2001. The NCLB required yearly testing starting in the 3rd grade, in all 50 states. US students fell from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st in 2009, with a similar drop in science and we haven’t had any changes in reading. One argument is that standardized tests are a fair and measure the ability of students, they make sure teachers and schools are held responsible for the performance of students. Others say the tests are not fair, the test narrow curriculum "teaching to the test," and that unnecessary testing doesn’t help produce innovators and critical thinkers. Many of these assessments result in significant consequences for students, teachers and schools. Low scores can prevent a student from progressing to the next grade, teachers getting fired, and schools closing. While high scores will get schools federal and local funding, and are used to reward teachers and administrators with bonus payments.…
In today’s world, there are many social issues that are present. My group has decided to take action against one of those social issues. In particular, the social issue of standardized testing. Examples of standardized testing include the SAT and ACT. It’s a social issue because it affects millions of students every year. It’s a problem because it’s an inaccurate representation of a student’s knowledge. As a result, action needs to be taken to solve the issue. In this case, my group did a social action to raise awareness about the issue. Standardized testing is an ongoing dilemma and needs to be solved.…
The tests really aren’t a valid reflection of the students performance and it needs to be stopped. Standarized testing evaluates a students performance based off one day and not off what they actually really know. There are also many people who just don’t perform well on tests. There are plently of children who are intelligent and understand the content completely,but it isn’t going to show on the test. There is also kids who develop test anxiety which hinders their performance.…
A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and "caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning..." Standardized testing is becoming a more prevalent debate in society due to the fact that people are realizing it is unable to fairly judging a student's academic ability. Standardized testing is inequitable because it does not properly determine a student’s full academic ability, discriminatory of minority races and lower income families, and also places too much pressure on students to succeed on the test.…
In the land of education however, the same cannot be said. Standardized tests are discriminatory against non-native speakers and students with special needs. Special needs students and foreign students are expected to take the same tests as normal, native students. While standardized tests are one the biggest deciding factors for education, non-native students have to take them when they have yet to master the language. Those kids are already left behind in the school system while they cannot read or write in english well and even their own language fluently (Morner-Ritt). Experts say that they have to ensure the content is equal for all students, so if alternate tests or exempting people from taking the test kinds of methods are used, then it is unfair for all students (“Standardized Tests…”). They also say that it helps to see how the races can be compared and what they need help on (Morner-Ritt). An article said that the administrators do not have sufficient plans to help the students besides separating them from the other students (Goodale). Also, creating a test that is meant for fluent students and giving them to people that can barely read them is already not fair itself. Standardized tests are very baseless, because they neglect the other factors to testing teenagers of all different backgrounds and…