A Year in the Life of an Elementary School: One School's Experiences in Meeting New Mathematics Standards

To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the

The author's main point in this article was focusing on the problems of standardized testing in the school system. Ronald Roach states how in the past decade since the no child left behind program was established that there was no sufficient gains in the overall student math and reading scores. The author then goes on to explain how the Obama administration has been criticized over the issues of no child left behind program and how they are not effectively improving the program.

The Washington Post published the story “2015 Superintendent of the Year: High-stakes testing is the ‘fool’s gold’ of accountability” by Valerie Strauss on August 27 about one superintendent’s discontent with constant “high stakes testing”. Strauss was covering the story of man who was named the “2015 American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year”, Philip D. Lanoue who is the superintendent of the Clarke County School District in Georgia, which is one of the most impecunious districts in the state. Lanoue believes that the constant pattern of standardized testing in schools is completely different from what he refers to as actual “meaningful assessment” and considers the tests to be unbeneficial for students.

The first area that I would like to address is curriculum standards. According to the National Council of Teachers of

Yet another flaw in the education system in this country is one of the biggest: Common Core. To put it simply, Common Core standards are “a set of broad, universal academic goals in math and English language arts for public school students of all ages” (Laura). With this Common Core system, particular standards are created and withheld, such as a form of standardized tests that are, in

“In 1995, Minnesota fourth graders placed below average for the United States on an international math test” (Ripley, 2013, p. 73). Two years after, Minnesota used international benchmarks to create and update their math standards. In 2007, students from Minnesota were performing as well as students in Japan. One major contributor of the math success story of Minnesota is they made their education system stronger by creating a set of clear and targeted standards. This allowed all students to learn the same content, there was less math objectives so teachers could spend enough time teaching one concept, and teachers only had to follow one set of standards opposed to state and local

The topic of Standardized Testing is not only critical to the lives of students but also to parents, educators and those in control - government officials. The public has voiced its displeasure with today’s education system and a subject being discussed in the government and also the very popular presidential debates is the Common Core Standards and No Child Left Behind Act of modern America. These government issued Acts are mired in controversy as they have led to an education system governed by politics, with opposers claiming that education is now more focused on a school's’ statistics than an individual’s knowledge. Those involved with the introduction of the Acts, although they may have thought it would have brought about positive change,

The purpose of this memo is to review and analyze the claims made by Diane Ravitch in her book, The Life and Death of the Great American School System, and to justly state if the authors claims are well-researched and based on facts or if her arguments and claims are biased and opinionated. More specifically, this memo will acknowledge the two central ideas of contemporary education reform today: choice and accountability. Advocates of school choice believe that it provides families with alternative options to choose their children’s education that works best for them while encouraging competition to better schools. However, opponents of school choice believe that it will erode the public school system until it is no more. Some argue that accountability is “the great cure” that will fix schools by testing and placing teachers accountable, this will encourage more effort and in turn promote student achievement. Others believe that too much accountability is the reason why our schools are failing. Ravitch seems to see choice and accountability as the main obstacles standing in the way of a thriving American school system. After much careful research, I have come to two conclusions. First, choice is not remedy to make education better; all that choice does is

Common Core State Standards Initiative caught parents and teachers off guard alike. Not many truly understand that concerns, consequences, and underlying issues that surround Common Core. It wasn’t until children were venting their concerns, teachers were frustrated with the statistics undermining their duties, and parents questioning Common Core’s teaching practices – that Common Core was put under the spotlight. An educational reconstruction sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers sought out to establish a unified education standard that would detail what K-12 students were to know in English and Math alike. Common Core’s mission is to

The 1980s brought a new reform movement in education, accompanied by a new emphasis on testing. The effort to improve education at all levels included the use of standardized tests to provide accountability for what students are learning. Minimum competency tests, achievement tests, and screening instruments were used to ensure that students from preschool through college reached the desired educational goals and achieved the minimum standards of education that were established locally or by the state education agency. As we continue in a new century, these concerns have increased.

[F]or more than a decade, research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have concluded that mathematics education in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country. To deliver on this promise, the mathematics standards are designed to address the problem of a curriculum that is “a mile wide and an inch deep.”

In an attempt to create educational reform, pieces of legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have been passed with the hopes of making schools “accountable” to the children within their walls. Although this piece of legislation was eventually overturned its effects are still being felt within Americas public schools and it is estimated that this generation will be less literate than their precursors (Kohn). Although well intentioned, the NCLB failed schools, teachers, and most importantly students all as a result of one key aspect of the law: high-stakes testing. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all states are required to give standardized tests to their students in the hopes of holding teachers accountable for their scores and ensuring all students become “proficient.” These tests have come to determine whether or not students can graduate, how and what teachers teach, as well as how much funding a school will receive. High-stakes tests can make or break a school, but with all this pressure are kids really showing sizable gains in areas like math, science, or reading? The answer is no and time and time again

Through the creation of the No Child Left Behind initiative in 2001, the government started requiring every state to set content standards for each grade level, as well as develop ways to assess student progress with meeting specified standards (Guide,22). The amount of standardized tests in schools have increased, but not everyone shares the belief that they are effective to students’ overall learning. Therefore, the purpose of this research, is to answer some of the toughest questions regarding standardized testing which include, is standardized testing an effective measurement of student ability? As well as, is standardized testing beneficial to students?

Countless of students are not being educated as well as they should be. The article argues, the wrong test can ineffectively evaluate quality of strong teachers. Therefore, those teachers become penalized. Whereas, the wrong test can fail to identify a weak teacher. As a result, the student is who suffers in the end. Secondly, the article discusses three primary purposes for the educational testing’s; compare, to instruct, and to evaluate. Comparison allows the educational system to identify score differences among students, whereas instructional testing is an ongoing evidence of a student’s level of achievements. Lastly, evaluation is to determine the quality of teachers. So, if the tests are appropriately implements, students can benefit. However, comparison has dominated the American education system.

The educational system in the United States has gone through many changes over the last century. These changes are a part of a constant movement toward educational excellence for every child in this nation. One of the most recent acts placed on public school systems by the government is to create more accountability for schools in order to ensure that all children are receiving the proper education. Part of this mandate is that public schools will require students to take tests in order to gather information about their academic achievement. Although educators and administrators claim that the mandatory ability testing programs being initiated in America’s public schools will hold students and teachers accountable for academic