Schools around the U.S. have taken a different route in their teaching and evaluation requirements, making it worse for students in the long run. “As deadlines approached for schools to start making passage of the exams a requirement for graduation, and practice tests indicated that large numbers of students would fail, many states softened standards, delayed the requirement or added alternative paths to a diploma.”
Wouldn’t it make more sense to better prepare students for college, rather than making it easier to pass a test, which may or may not even be useful to them. A true or false question, or a multiple choice question answered right, doesn’t make for better performance in college. Professors, teachers, parents and students need to step it up. Standardized tests have never been anyone’s favorite exam, but if it has gotten too difficult for students now, instead of making it easier for them, why not take a different approach. Essay questions and presentations might be a better way for getting kids to actually understand what they are learning and not just memorizing for the sake of an exam. Standardization of school material means that kids learn how to increase their memory for specific data, and soon after the exam is over, they are quick to dispose of the info. This is how schools teach kids to believe, rather than to think. Is this truly the best way to prepare kids for a college education? Or is watering down the tests to make it easier for them a better way? If test scores are down it might also mean that children have no interest or desire to try their best, and the economic situation as of late may have catapulted their apathetic view of education. For them it is something forced upon them, for teachers it is a job and their lack of pushing their students to reach their potential may also be a problem.
So, if standardized tests don’t really show how prepared a student is for life after high school, then what do they show? Or rather, why are they used? Is it a mechanism used for separating the weak from the strong? Who will be moving forward and who will end up working at a gas station? Or is it a way for the government to make more money? It makes no sense, we are all different, we learn differently, we express ourselves differently, so what if a multiple choice test is not our forte, but we might be a genius if you would just let us tell you what we learned and how it works? Will the school board listen, categorize the child as lazy, lacking knowledge or logic? How in the world is this fair?
When applying to a college, your SAT scores are important, I get that. But, what the admissions office really looks at are your essays, and the way you differentiate yourself from the rest. Any kid who is applying to a college is smart, they know that. What’s important is how they have used their knowledge, how their experiences have affected who they are and how they’ve handled themselves in life. Shouldn’t this type of expression and learning also be included in a child’s education?
The No Child Left Behind Act “calls for every state to set standards in reading and math, and for every student to be proficient at those subjects by 2014.” It was meant to be a motivator and potential mover. In reality it hasn’t done all that much other than ironically leave kids behind. It was meant to lift up the test scores for minority groups, but now it seems that kids in general are having a hard time with these tests, and making them easier won’t get them anywhere.
The Obama administration is set to use a “Congressional rewriting of the federal law later this year to toughen requirements on topics like teacher quality and academic standards and to intensify its focus on helping failing schools.” Let’s hope that by increasing educational quality all around will help get these kids motivated, interested and capable of taking on life after high school – it’s not easy, and by making it seem like it is will only jeopardize their futures.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to better prepare students for college, rather than making it easier to pass a test, which may or may not even be useful to them. A true or false question, or a multiple choice question answered right, doesn’t make for better performance in college. Professors, teachers, parents and students need to step it up. Standardized tests have never been anyone’s favorite exam, but if it has gotten too difficult for students now, instead of making it easier for them, why not take a different approach. Essay questions and presentations might be a better way for getting kids to actually understand what they are learning and not just memorizing for the sake of an exam. Standardization of school material means that kids learn how to increase their memory for specific data, and soon after the exam is over, they are quick to dispose of the info. This is how schools teach kids to believe, rather than to think. Is this truly the best way to prepare kids for a college education? Or is watering down the tests to make it easier for them a better way? If test scores are down it might also mean that children have no interest or desire to try their best, and the economic situation as of late may have catapulted their apathetic view of education. For them it is something forced upon them, for teachers it is a job and their lack of pushing their students to reach their potential may also be a problem.
So, if standardized tests don’t really show how prepared a student is for life after high school, then what do they show? Or rather, why are they used? Is it a mechanism used for separating the weak from the strong? Who will be moving forward and who will end up working at a gas station? Or is it a way for the government to make more money? It makes no sense, we are all different, we learn differently, we express ourselves differently, so what if a multiple choice test is not our forte, but we might be a genius if you would just let us tell you what we learned and how it works? Will the school board listen, categorize the child as lazy, lacking knowledge or logic? How in the world is this fair?
When applying to a college, your SAT scores are important, I get that. But, what the admissions office really looks at are your essays, and the way you differentiate yourself from the rest. Any kid who is applying to a college is smart, they know that. What’s important is how they have used their knowledge, how their experiences have affected who they are and how they’ve handled themselves in life. Shouldn’t this type of expression and learning also be included in a child’s education?
The No Child Left Behind Act “calls for every state to set standards in reading and math, and for every student to be proficient at those subjects by 2014.” It was meant to be a motivator and potential mover. In reality it hasn’t done all that much other than ironically leave kids behind. It was meant to lift up the test scores for minority groups, but now it seems that kids in general are having a hard time with these tests, and making them easier won’t get them anywhere.
The Obama administration is set to use a “Congressional rewriting of the federal law later this year to toughen requirements on topics like teacher quality and academic standards and to intensify its focus on helping failing schools.” Let’s hope that by increasing educational quality all around will help get these kids motivated, interested and capable of taking on life after high school – it’s not easy, and by making it seem like it is will only jeopardize their futures.
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i think is a great point of view and i understand your frustration into the system, but i think you must understand that the system is what it makes our country a power. college is not for everyone,imagine if the 80% of the high school graduates went to college and graduate, all the professions (doctors, engineers, lawyers etc.)they will lower the cost of their services, and that will affect the economy. a good examples is Europe, most of the people are college graduates and there is no work for all. this is our sad reality and we must learn to live in it.
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