High School Schools Should Not Be Based On Student Performance Essay

First and foremost, I believe evaluation of student growth is the biggest issue in the educational system. Test scores do not provide the most accurate depiction of where today’s students stand in terms of content knowledge. For example, I went to Shea High School in Pawtucket Rhode Island, an incredibly diverse school, “with over 52 countries represented and over 25 languages spoken,” (www.pawtucket.shea.schooldesk.net/). With that in mind, not all students speak English, and a large majority know English as a second language. Regardless, however, all students are required to take standardized tests in English, which negatively impact the school’s test scores greatly.

Education in the United States has long been a concerned issue for teachers, parents, and communities. It is a major political topic, in which government has shown continuous efforts to compare and evaluate standards from state to state by creating and monitoring various programs for overall academic improvement across the country.

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

The underlying irony behind the American education system is the fact that the people are constantly calling for a better education for all students, yet reforms put in place often don’t change anything, or make the education worse for the children. For decades, people from the presidential cabinet to the local boards of education have been trying to figure out a way to make their schools look good. It’s always been about the test scores showing improvement amongst students, and nothing to do with the fact that most tests don’t test what children actually know. In Connecticut, I grew up taking the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), and I have no idea what they proved or what information they provided for the teachers, other than the fact that I was put into the gifted program starting in fourth grade, and I was able to graduate once I achieved proficiency on one subject of the CAPT.

Possibly one of the most critical issues the nation is faced with is public education in the United States. One time declaring the United States as a “Nation at Risk”, the educational commissions started to carry out one reform policy after another. With attempts to improve education, there have been reformers have modified class sizes, graduation requirements have been revised, and standardized testing implemented. Proponents of the policy feel that America’s public education system has improved, children are receiving the best instruction from the most qualified teachers, because of the increase in funding students receive extra help and parents now have a choice in what is best for their students education.

On January 8, 2002, former President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law, requiring all states to test students in reading and in math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school (Klein). This testing was designed to, as the act states, “leave no child behind.” However, because of this testing, many children are falling behind because of this very idea: standardized testing. For high school students specifically, standardized testing is the ultimate factor in whether the students are “college ready” by the school’s terms or not. A test where bubbling A, B, C, or D determines whether or not

High-stakes test really effect student’s outcomes in school. For those students that have a below grade level test result can have repercussions even if they had good grades during the school year. Those decisions can include summer school, repeating the grade level, refusal of diploma, labeling the student, etc. For schools, below grade level testing reports can including paying penalties, losing funding for their school and being labeled as a below average school in their district. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 these high-stakes test scores are used more to hold schools and

The education system is something that is very important to our nation. Unfortunately our nation’s most sweeping education law, “The elementary and secondary education act of 1965, is sadly outmoded and broken. The act is better known as the “No child get left behind act.” The act was passed in 1965 to set a high bar for students, provide our nation’s children with a solid education, and good pavement to settle life in a middle class. However, over the years government officials and schools have become too wrapped up in demanding the same skills out of all students. Everyone is different and has their own set of skills and abilities.

For many years the government has played a role in how education was run. For decades, politics has placed its focus on student test scores, how to increase those test scores, and standards that must be followed in order to achieve the goals the politicians have set. Early childhood education has been the key focus on improving test scores. According to the politics, test scores must meet above average levels in order for students to become college and career ready. Greater emphasize is pushed on math and reading levels to improve before students reach middle grade classes. Politics took more control and are now pressing for state standardized test to prove student improvements and well as school improvement. The government has

A recent study reveals that the movement started by the federal government and policymakers aims at rewarding good performance and punishing failure in schools. The initiative has been implemented to ensure that the taxpayer’s money is efficiently and effectively used. Even critics of the accountability movement agree that answerability has become a paramount issue in

​The United States of America is among the countries in the world that highly focus on the education of its citizens. The country’s government allots sufficient funding for its education, thus the country is considered the number one nation that spends on per student than any other nation in in the world. With the high price of education and the high cost of funding, the country aims to ensure that all public schools in all states achieve quality education. The “No Child Left Behind” Act is America’s law that expanded the role of the federal government in education reform, particularly focused on improving the education of marginalized American students. At the core of this act are various measures in increasing student achievement. It also puts emphasis on the accountability of states and schools for student achievement and progress. The law ushered important changes in the education of Americans in various aspects including annual testing, academic progress, report cards, teacher qualifications, curriculum, and funding. It continues to set a benchmark for the achievement of desired level of quality of education in all states in America. Through the years, the “No Child Left Behind” Act is faced with controversies and debates by various educators, policy makers, groups and individuals in America (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, No Child Left Behind, edweek.org).

In conclusion, our way of evaluating our schools is currently not adequate. It is and has been causing our education to degrade significantly over time. Using standardized tests to evaluate our schools is not as good as an indicator as everyone implies it is. With the use of these tests, our teachers are being forced to teach to the test just so their students can pass the tests, and what is worse is that the students are not even learning the curriculum because they are forced to memorize it. Compared to high school GPAs, standardized tests are lacking in indicating how well our students are being taught. We need to complete ditch standardized testing and use GPAs to evaluate our schools. In the long run, it will allow teachers to truly teach

People who graduated from an American school are painfully aware of how much emphasis is placed on high stakes testing. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a system of standardized tests put in place by the U.S. Department of Education, and studies performed on NAEP show a “significance between funding and student performance”. This means that pressure is placed on schools by both the state and federal government to provide positive test results in order to get maximum funding. Because schools have changed their style of education and are

Many penalties include the following “Replace principal, strengthen staffing, implement research-based instructional program, extend learning time and implement new governance.” (Jost 341). Even though No Child Left Behind Act forces all schools to provide a top-quality education to students who are often overseen in America’s public education system. Including students with disabilities, children from low-income families and non-English speakers, as well as all other ethnicities. For the first time in U.S. history, educational progress is tracked separately and required to be shown for each ethnic group in each school, rather than one average for an entire school. Previously, to prove progress, schools could focus on increasing test scores or related data for a small, bright group of students to bring up the average, rather than ensuring that all students are given an equal opportunity at a world-class education. This new law was supposed to close the achievement gap and set higher standard for the overall population of the students. But results have shown that dropout rates have increased tremendously because students are overwhelmed with an over rated state standardized test. Teachers are obligated to teach the content required for students to achieve high test results. A method teachers often us is called the “banking method. As a team of coined by Paulo Fair explained this method as “Education thus becomes an act of

The purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act is designed to close the achievement gap between high/low performing children and improve/strengthen accountability amongst schools (Department of Education). As a result, the Department of Education has implemented a sanctions and rewards system, stipulated in the No Child Left behind Act. If schools do not perform according to the act, funding will be withdrawn, teachers and administrators could get laid off, and potential closure of schools. In order to receive federal school funding, states must furnish standardized tests to all students at selected grade levels. However, standardization is corrupting the education process by teachers altering the structures of lessons, cheating amongst schools, and utilizing inefficient methods to connect with students during the teaching process.