Essay On America's Education System

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

standardized test to get into a better school or even to get a better job. Access to

Education in America is one of the most important issues that face our nation. If the education in America is not thought of one of most serious issues we face, our nation as a whole will fall. There are many debates and they seemly extend to all walks of life. The debates range from the decline in education, school vouchers, and the no child left behind law. As a nation, the United States is ranked above others. We must search for that solution to all of the pro’s and con’s in education. The solution should allow all walks of life to excel in the education realm. After all, the children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Additionally, standardized tests have the ability to make or break a student. Today, children are being failed, denied access to an advanced program or school, or even refused a high school diploma on the basis of a single standardized test (Sacks 3). Moreover, these tests can determine whether students will spend their summer vacation on the beach or sweating out summer school. Since standardized tests have a great deal of power, students are forced to prepare for them rather than learn valuable knowledge, simply for the sake that they can graduate or enter into the program or school of their choice.

The antebellum and bellum time period fostered, perhaps, more change to the US education system than the previous time periods. One of the greatest products

Over the past (almost) hundred years, society and education have both changed drastically. Typically, the things that have happened in history, such as wars, technological advances, and changes in culture, changed education as a result. Some of these changes include popular culture in the 1920s, economic factors in the 1930s, military intervention in the 1940s, Sputnik in the 1950s, and racial issues in the 1960s. One theme of education is that it has gradually become more important over the years. Before high school diplomas could be rare, and today most high school graduates go to college in the United States.

standardized tests is that they lack a level of comprehension and are incapable of succeeding in the educational system. This belief is especially prevalent in regards to high stakes tests such as college entrance and high school graduation exams because the focus is on the test score. The perception is that these scores are the sole indicator of the student’s knowledge of a subject and their ability to succeed at a higher level of education. Therefore,

Ron Alweiss                                                  12/5/17 Mrs. Smithers                                                    8-1 Standardized Tests For The Win Imagine there was another way, besides a report card, to prove someone’s intelligence! Standardized testing is a respected way of showing someone’s smarts and abilities in terms of English and math. Standardized testing has a positive impact on students because it’s a good way to see the knowledge of different kids that go to different schools, it shows you the format and what kind of questions will be on the test, so you’ll be ready for harder exams like the SAT, ACT, etc, and it can push their minds to their full potential.

testing is a way to determine if a student has enough knowledge to do well in advanced classes.

A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,

High Stake Testing- According to our textbook, high stake testing involves all students including those with disabilities participating in a standardized summative common assessment, which is mandated by the federal government. (Salend, 2016, pg 454) These assessments are used to measure mastery of benchmarks in the curriculum. (Salend, 2016, pg 454) These assessments are used and analyzed in order to make important decisions. The results of high stake testing can be used to make decisions about a student’s education program and promotion. They often are used to measure teaching effectiveness. The use of high stake testing is highly controversial. Many argue these tests are not an accurate depiction of a student’s abilities. Not every student is a good test taker, and other means of assessments could be used to measure student’s skills and abilities. It may also cause pressure on students as well as cause testing anxiety and lack of motivation in some students. (Salend, 2016, pg 455) Other consequences of high stake testing is that is puts too much reliance on a test to measure teacher effectiveness. It also puts a lot of pressure on teachers since they are often evaluated based on the results of students performance on the test. This may lead to teacher’s teaching to the test and may limit their creativity and time spent on other content outside of the test. There are alternative testing assessments and testing accommodations available for students with disabilities.

Testing has felt tremendous influence from the emphasis on efficiency. University examinations have moved from individual testing by professors to nowadays where most exams are machine graded, text-book given multiple choice tests. Thus, with the infiltration of McDonaldization into the educational system, test taking has become extremely efficient for the professor.

America is known as the land of opportunity, it is the home of the belief system called the American dream. Many immigrants left their homeland in hope for a better future for themselves and their kids, only to realize that the public education in America, is dead. In order to revive our dead public education system, some changes need to be made.

Former president Bill Clinton once said, “if we want to invest in the prosperity of our nation, we must invest in the education of our children so that their talents may be fully employed”. Higher education in the United States has not always been a primary focus for everyone for but it has been something that people aspire to achieve at some point in their lives. George Washington, the first president of the United Sates, on January 8th,1790 mentioned to Congress that there should be a national University but the Congress thought otherwise. During the making of the United States, the founding fathers figured that anything pertaining to education should be left up to the sates (Archbald,23). In the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the United Sates, there is no mention of education and how it should be handled. Nearly two centuries later, in the late 1930’s and 1940’s America had begun to change their focus from durable goods and their investments in education to an economy geared for war. After World War II ended, the attention of the United State reverted back to education. The United States took extraordinary measures to enable citizens to achieve the American dream which included a nation where people of all income levels could afford college (Collinge,1). Higher education was mainly for the upper class which hindered those in the middle and lower class. Majority of those that were in the middle and lower class only possessed a high school diploma. In 1944

Education plays a fundamental role in the development of any nation. History is witness that those nations who did not recognized the importance of education were doomed, and education played a key role in the success of the developed nations. A successful country like America faces many challenges regarding education. Some of these challenges are: how to better achieve educational opportunity, and to find ways to deal with such problems and educational dilemmas for American children. To find the answers and solutions to these problems we can not ignore the dialogue of reforming of schools, instead, new ways of education, restructuring of American schools, and recommendations to improve might be the only answer