Chris Piper's Essay 'A Is For Absent'

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he is fed for a lifetime. In today’s society, education is very similar to this statement. Schools are commanded to teach aspects of life that only benefit the student for an end-of-the-year test. Students are not taught what is to come in the life after school. Because of the poor quality in education today, the emphasis on standardized test has become overwhelming.

With the added pressure to do well in school, standardized testing becomes a means to added stress, anxiety and further complicates the pressure to succeed in a student’s life. Rather than a focus on learning and understanding, school has become a massive rope skill memorization test designed to have students memorize subjects to pass the test, and forget the material the next minute for the next test. When asked to speak about standardized testing, education chairman, Larry Taylor, said “It’s heart-wrenching, and it’s also insanity when you see the level of achievement these kids are already doing and yet they can’t even pass this test.” (Smith). The utilization of standardized testing further exemplifies and validates the idea that no matter how hard or long you work in school, your work will never be worth the few answers you write for the

Staples argues, “Departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled.” By arguing this way, Staples suggests the only option professors have in order to not have class cancelations is inflation of grades. This argument ignores the possibility of classes being very specific for one major and good grades being a result of students who are invested in the class and the major that requires the class. General education classes are going to have high a number of students because they are required for all students; however, very specific classes, such as sculpting which is a requirement for art majors, are going to have a lower number of students because only some students need the class. Staples also ignores the possibility that good grades are a result of students who are dedicated to those very specific classes for their major. The either-or argument Staples makes is the opposite of effective because he chose to ignore real possibilities that do not help his

Ms. Diehl says, “Less bad behavior and better grades for some kids”.(“Should Schools Offer More Electives?”) Students will keep their grades up because if they don't, they will be kicked off of their team or activity. Others say that, it raises their grades if they are not apart of any activities. The students just have to be able to stay focused on the right things. My evidence supports my claim because it tell you the causes and effects of your grades. The evidence supports my overall claim because, this backs up my reasons. This is important because,these kids need to know the importance of keeping our grades up.

the student’s standing in the course; a paper grade that does not increase the student’s final

It is suggested by data from NAEP testing that school absences is one of the factors that has a negative impact on student learning and therefore on overall grade point average and test scores. In a table that shows the coloration of school days missed with the percent of student with a 3.0 of higher grade point average, in the Sioux Falls school district in South Dakota, data suggests that as

I will be focusing on my point of view for Holt’s argument. I don’t support some of the author’s point of view. He states in his writing that children are not allowed to be themselves anymore they do what they are told to do not what they want to do. School is a very important part of the child’s life they should attend to school. In some primary schools the children are the ones that create their day there in way the teacher only provides them with a schedule. He states that children are like prisoners that they have no option to say also teachers can tell the children what they want them to in their class. In my point of view children should attend school for their own good so they can get an idea of what might happen when they enter an elementary school.

Student tardy rates have significantly hindered their attendance at CSI zero period classes. This has affected student achievement levels, and the rate at which students are retained in the CSI program, thus leading to a high student retention rate in CSI from year to year. This also results in large CSI class sizes that are not beneficial to student learning. In addition, when interviewing CSI teachers, it is apparent that numerous attempts were made to communicate with parents and remedy the attendance problem, however students continued to show up late to school, or miss zero period completely.

The author makes a very logical argument that by giving students inflated test scores, teachers are hurting students in the long run. Moore describes high school as a place where students

I agree with Nadia Banchik statement because many students do drop classes for reasons like work responsibilities, teaching method were not effective, and too much class work. Students feel that they are not ready for a class and they drop it, but others drop because it’s too hard or challenging. Professors prefer students to talk to them before thinking about dropping any class to see if they can help in any way. In the article “A Professor’s Advice On When To Drop a College Class”, a student had received sixty percent on their first exam. The student did not know that she received the highest percentage in the class until her professor saw that she wanted to drop the class, because she thought she was not capable of passing.

One of the things they take into consideration is their attendance to refund money back. Which is understandable, going to class has its value but attendance should not be enforced. If attendance is being taken, it should not be a factor in students grade. Most times It doesn’t reflect their understanding of the materials taught throughout the course. Professors assume that enforced attendance policy would force the students to come to class. But that's not the case. Students has to want to be there to learn. There are other things that goes into the student

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

classes their academic performance is usually affected. As a matter of fact, it is difficult for

number of hours (e.g., 35 hours or more per week) has adverse consequences. It is

     Secondly, the majority of the students that do not attend class are usually the one’s that should not attend class. These students tend to be disruptive and tardy distracting the students that actually want to further their education. If this policy stays in effect, it will continue to place students with little or no academic motivation in the same learning environment as those striving to achieve their highest potential. This is detrimental to everyone involved in the education process because it slows down the pace of progression. By allowing students to miss class, the student-teacher ratio will be more favorable and teachers will have fewer distractions.