Curriculum Should Change Its Curriculum

Education is such an important institution in the society that has a huge impact on the younger generation. A well performing education system continuously requires the process of analyzing and reforming. However, it still remains that not every country does the same to satisfy this process to improve its educational system. As a consequence, some countries have better education systems than others. In the present days, Japan is one of the countries that has the best education systems based on the excellent scores their students get in international competitions in math, science, and reading. American students’ achievement in these competitions is far behind Japanese students’. The differences in many aspects such as the school structure, educational motivation of the younger generation, and culture between the two education systems cause huge differences in academic achievement, so comparing and learning from the best education system is a method to help U.S education reform.

Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

A study conducted in 2003 by Ofsted that involved England, Denmark and Finland, showed England’s national curriculum compared to the other two countries was:

Many high schools are spent huge amount of time and resources to prepare high school students to test or even being responsible citizen. Diane Ravitch in her essay “The essentials of a good education” tells about it, “More time was allotted to take practice tests in mathematics and reading. Because there are only so many hours in a day, there was less time for subject that were not tested” (page 106). She believes that if student spent whole day to prepare to test and get “A”, such school is a not really good school, even if gets high scores and the state awards it an “A”. Also many educated parent are would not tolerate a school that cut back or eliminate the arts to spent more time preparing for state test. If student will study well on each subject, for example good enough on math, writing and reading so he/she will not need extra class to prepare for test and spent his/he time and money. So Diane Ravitch believes that, our education system is in wrong way because they spent much time to preparing test. On the other hand, John Taylor Gatto in his essay “Against school” represent that, the problem of US education is not to give a knowledge, but conversely to make good citizens or workforce. He tells in his essay that US education system become like Prussian system, “Our educational system really is Prussian in origin, and that really is cause for concern. One of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens - all in order to render the populace "manageable."(117). In his opinion the education system problem was that they make people become predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor

Students are expected to become well educated, self-thinking, and creative citizens. When teachers are expected to teach to a state guided curriculum students are limited to the standards and content of knowledge. Students are all given the same multiple choice test, on the same day, at the same time. Students are not given a chance to show their depth of knowledge.

(Thesis) If we take a look at the differences in education standards between the US and Japan, which scored second on the test worldwide, we might see a few differences, not just in the standards, but in teaching, learning, and how people see and experience school life.

Standard based educational services for our societies students has transformed through the years. The establishment of the National Governor’s Association set of common core standards (CCS) has gained widespread attention according to Allman and Lewis (556). Within this shift, general education teachers and teachers of students with disabilities are being held more accountable for their student’s growth and knowledge. These standards have been adopted and implemented throughout our nation in order for our youth to be better prepared for higher learning once they

Standardized testing is one of the important topic to discuss about. I think standardized testing should be stopped, instead we should focus on implementing performance-based assessments to measure the capacity of a student. A single piece of paper can never determine my future and I do believe in it. Standardized testing is only for measuring the memory power of a student not the level of intelligence. Standardized testing never helps the student for the betterment of their next exams. Rather it gives stress and anxiety among students. I think we should give more priority on extra curriculum, participations and critical thinking instead of standardized testing, Let’s not focus on standardized testing. And give more emphasis on the capacity

Some of the curriculum that can be very important for future classes and even college can be cut out because the test maker could not fit it onto the test. That lost curriculum leaves students unprepared for the future and adds a level of meniality to tests that decreases the student’s motivation for learning. “For example, reading is reduced to short passages followed by multiple-choice questions, a kind of "reading" that does not exist in the real world. Writing becomes the "five-paragraph essay" that is useless except on standardized tests… Teaching to the test does not produce real and sustained gains on independent learning measures. Teaching to the test does not work if the goal is high-quality learning.” (Fairtest.org). Teachers need to start focusing on actually teaching the students instead of giving them a good grade or following the standard that the state sets. In fact the No Child Left Behind act in 2002 made it mandatory for states to test elementary students from 3-8th grade in order to help ‘close the achievement gap’ by giving all children a fair opportunity to a high level education through standardized testing. The tests would score a student on their math and reading skills to place them into a certain level of class for their level of intelligence. This only widened the achievement gap because the students in the higher level classes learn more and do better on the tests while the students who did not do as well were stuck in lower level classes at a slower learning speeds. For some students this was a good thing because a higher class would be too overwhelming for them and they would be left behind. Many students, however, got stuck in the lower level classes because of testing inaccuracy and the fact that these elementary school students were given up to sixty problem tests that they had neither the patience nor

Naoki Ogi, a Professor Hosei University and an expert on Japan’s education system argue that standardized testing should be formally put an end as it depends solely on the score to firmly decide what school should be attended (Lewis, 2015). National exam is important for creating standardization, but in terms of education purpose, the standardized exam is not a solution to create a comparison. The knowledge together with the skill should not be evaluated by merely scores in one attempt. When performing the test, both students and teachers will feel the stress which may lead to death, as in the case in Indonesia. A state of having pressure and tension exerted also may lead to creating dishonest behavior, which caused by people involved in the education system. Moreover, the process of creating a national exam together with the prevention of cheating during the exam evidently costs a lot of money. Therefore, standardized testing in the national landscape should not be applied. Parents and those with highly educated level, such as teacher and educators should be aware that there are some students who are more interested in the particular field. In fact, they might feel that during the exam process, a coercion is used. The government, in this case, should have implemented a long-term study of student grow instead of creating the national exam system. The education system should instill knowledge and hone skill without worrying that the standardized testing might create an unfair grouping, whether they are coming from “better school” nor “middle-ranked school”. With long-term study, there is no additional budget needed for each individual student which can be more appreciated within the area of the school

Some observers have found that teaching informed by the test focuses the curriculum on essential content and skills, eliminates activities that don’t produce learning gains, and motivates teachers and students to exert more

Third, research shows that testing brought positive effect to student learning. It is human nature to stay complacent with the status-quo. Except for a few driven ones, most students would choose to procrastinate studying if no tests are administered. Testing, therefore, can serve as a positive “pressure” that help students to push their limits on a regular

It seems many times that there is no time for instruction that is not test related including gaining skills that are needed to be able to lead a successful life. The assessments that educators are preparing students for prove to be long and time consuming. According to Hagopian, educational testing has been referred to as “testocracy”, “having amassed so much power and wealth” (Hagopian, p. 4). Much needed skills such as cooperative learning, cursive handwriting and spelling are being axed to make time to meet the standards that will be assessed. These important tasks are left out, although children need to learn how to work with others as well as how to sign their own name. There are no times for fun in the classrooms or love of learning to take place as it once did in education. President Obama commented in an article from Common Dreams that the current testing was “Taking the Joy out of Teaching and Learning” (Hagopian 2015). Curriculum is set and must be followed on a daily basis to cover the material before tests are given. It seems children are constantly preparing for the big test. Year after year curriculum and standards are getting more and more intense and require more

Curriculum is a term often highlighted during discourse about education and most commonly understood as a policy with overt leaning outcomes for teachers to apply and achieve. Ornstein and Hunkins (1998), as cited by Selvaraj (2010), defined curriculum based on two lenses; micro and macro, which identify the term as both policy towards certain goals and what students experience with consideration for relevant theories and principles central to its development and implementation. However, Wilson (n.d.) argued that curriculum is not restricted to certain individuals, subjects and environments, since teaching and learning can also occur beyond the scope of official curriculum (Ebert & Culyer, as cited in Marsh, Clarke & Pittaway, 2014). I believe this interpretation is the closest to the true nature of curriculum, or education, as there are more complex layers to curriculum than just a written guideline. For example, not one curriculum is similar to another because it is subjected to influences from continuum number of factors, such as politics and economy. Hence, it is wise to conclude that curriculum could not be defined based on a singular perspective due to its dependability on context.

I agree with him that test preparation has always been a point of debate among many. It is not news that high-stakes exams have powerful influence in many households and the pressure from parents as well as school administration has resulted in teaching to the test. As the test results play a vital role in determining a learner's future, schools are expected to teach learners to score better results which will help them to secure a place in universities and colleges. Gawthrop has the same belief and has supported by stating, "Universities use standardized tests to assist in selecting applicants" (Gawthrop,