Goal Of Education

Higher education has a vast history; beginning in the early colonial period and spanning ten generations. With its wide range of history, aspects of higher education have changed as the ideals and reforms of society adjusted. Albeit, the missions and purposes of college have remained the same. In this paper, I will clarify the three main missions and purposes of higher education. Then, I will shift the focus of the paper to the area I would like to pursue in higher education and how it reflects those purposes.

My educational goals were to get a certificate in Health Information Technology as a certified coder. But I change my mind and decided to get my associates degree because it provides me with more opportunities in the field. I can choose many different careers such as health information analyst, insurance claims analyst, records technician specialist, etc. With this degree I can improve my family financial situation and be an example to my children that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything.

In Kisautaq Lenona Okakok’s essay “Serving the Purpose of Education” she discusses the education dilemma in her borough of North Slope, Alaska, where many of the occupants are indigenous people of the Inupiat. Western education was thrust upon the Inupiat people of Alaska, changing the traditional way they taught their children. Okakok explains why and how The Board of Education for North Slope, Alaska took entire control of their education system after having Western education try to influence their way of teaching. The way the Inupiat teach is different from that of Western education, not only do they teach a different language (Inupiaq), they also need to teach a different curriculum that is better suited for the people of the North Slope compared to that of Western education. Okakok’s essay analyzes the way Western culture and teachings influenced her own culture, and how the Inupiat have taken control of their own education again while using considerable examples to defend her claims.

The reading I chose to critically analyze was written by Diane Ravitch and is named, “Essentials of a Good Education.” In the article, education activist Diane Ravitch, expresses her opinion about how the public education and schools in the United States are failing society. She indicates that schools are wasting their money and time on preparing students to pass state test instead of teaching them valuable life skills needed to succeed. She provides interesting support for this argument and explains why schools need to stop teaching the importance of test scores and focus on a full liberal arts curriculum, where students have a better chance to obtain an education they can take into the real world. Ms. Ravitch’s argument that the

Standardized testing has become a multi-million dollar business that has shown no substantial progress on the public school system across the nation. Our students and schools are being robbed of expressing creativity and critical thinking skills while major corporations are gaining more and more financial stability. Since the implementation of the harsh testing guidelines, it has forced

The goals of public education revolve around three main areas that include; the political goals of schooling, the social goals of schooling, and the economic goals of schooling. These goals were placed with the idea that all children should receive public education whether you were poor or rich and schools focused on teaching about political views and the law to avoid conflicts. Schools were the focus of many hopes for political, social, and economic improvement.

discussed is the belief that the damaging effects of these curriculum changes are affecting primarily low-income children in urban areas and that there is little potential for these children to get a well-rounded education later in life. I believe that the article certainly poses some strong points that should be given further consideration, however, as a whole the article does not adequately assess both sides of the story and thus was generally ineffective in the end. Tim Walker’s article “The Testing Obsession and the Disappearing Curriculum” suggests that unrealistic pressures put on teachers are having devastating effects on elementary curriculum, but his analysis came across as too biased on the whole to be considered a legitimate argument.

However, our focus is so fixated on the child’s cognitive growth and performance on these standardized tests, that I feel we lose sight of our mission to also help the child develop socially, emotionally, linguistically and ethically. I think this is largely because a school is viewed as successful when it’s students perform well. But, the quality of an education cannot be measured by how well the child is performing on standardized assessments. All it demonstrates is that the child is learning what he or she is being taught. But is it a good education, and are children learning what they should? That would depend on one’s definition, and according to Dennis Littky, “our country does not have a common definition of learning” (2015, p. 159). I think that the goal of education should be to teach students to learn how to think in a way that is translated in to whatever profession they choose. For the most part, I agree with Littky’s definition of learning. He writes, “Learning is to problem solve and think critically, to analyze and interpret different perspectives, to be creative and use the world as a tool to innovate, to be proficient in reading, writing, and math” (2015, p. 159), I think that learners should be able to demonstrate these skills - but I think that there should be an overarching emphasis on the moral and civic character growth of our

Tests implemented by Common Core have become an end in themselves as they have only increased-higher hurdles, being unreasonably difficult, creating a hostile learning environment and higher-stake and stress levels for children and teachers throughout the year. Proficiency from the percentage of students in both public and private schools dramatically dropped to the low 30s in 2015, with minimal improvement the next year (Singer, Results Are In: Common Core Fails Tests and Kids). The Common Core’s massive increases in standardized testing has not only seen a rise of resentment towards school, but a plunge in support among the general public.

Since childhood it has been taught that education is key to being a successful and productive person in today’s day and age, but exactly how children should be educated is being debated heavily throughout the United States. I have decided to do my senior project on standardized testing (common core testing) as a way to shed light on this broken system. Standardized testing has been created in order to compare test scores around the country and decide exactly what needs to be taught in schools.While this may seem like a good idea on paper, the animation of this in the real world has been a complete disaster. Lately, students have been bombarded with standardized tests and it has been negatively affecting their education. In a quote from one of the most influential females of our generation, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” (Michelle Obama). Now in this quote the first lady is saying that people should not be judged based off of one test that is going to determine the way that they are being educated, which is exactly what is

Throughout history, Americans excel in pronounced innovations for society. An important part of American culture comes from its education system. Large sums of American citizens attend public schools in order to prepare themselves for their careers and to better our society. This being said, schools play a crucial element in developing citizens, and should be a top priority for our society. Initial standardized tests were introduced to assess student performance, over the past two decades, however the school system has become consumed with endless testing. Some of these tests dubbed as “Do or die tests”, due to the vast impact the success or failure of a single test on an individual student. The issue isn’t the test themselves, but how much

After the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002, the U.S. dropped from 18th to 31st place in the world in math with a similar decrease in science, and no change in reading. Standardized tests are not objective and focus on a narrow curriculum. This limits America’s ability to produce critical thinkers. Although many believe standardized tests are a reliable and effective way to measure a student’s abilities, standardized testing only measure a small portion of one’s capabilities, don’t prepare students for productive adult lives, and are an inaccurate measure of teacher performance.

Kevin Kumashiro points out in his article for The Progressive that “ The 2015 ‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows a declines in students test scores in reading and mathematics” since 1990. Over the years, school mostly focus on getting the right answer on high-stake tests. Herbert J. Walberg, wrote in his article standardized testing is the best to measure students “educational goals” (Walberg, 1) Apparently, getting the right answer on a test makes a student ready for the real world. “The scores don’t provide very much useful information for evaluation a student's achievement” (Harris, 1) Most individuals disagree with the states passing new laws since NCLB to make the opposing side happy. No matter how much the government tries to add laws to fix about measuring students ability it will backfire. Phillip Harris argues standardized test does a “poor job” with measuring students achievement. How the high-stake test fail in measuring “important attributes as creativity and critical thinking.” (Harris,1) Studies show standardized tests “reward superficial thinking.” (Harris,1) and discourage analytical thinking. Richard Rothstein, an educational economist stated ‘Measurement of students achievement is complex-too complex for social science presently available.’ (Harris, 1) These methods include standardized testing. Rothstein statement was made in 1998. More than a decade

“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.

“The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things,” stated by Jean Piaget. Education serves many purposes; it helps a child open their eyes to the world, it provides curiosity and determination for a young adult, and it can provide middle age adults and elders with a spark of belonging and hope. To be able to achieve these purposes, the process of education must start at a young age. Singing the ABC’s to an infant, reading to a toddler, encouraging writing and math skills are a few steps towards all the possibilities a person could have in life.