High School System Essay

Whether on the scale of a school district, a state, or the nation, achievement gaps exist. Wealth seems to be the deciding factor, with race coming in at a close second, but these do not (and should not) be deciding factors. The State of Texas has developed The P-16 Initiative which seeks to close theses performance gaps between the poor and wealthy. Our textbook reads: “The P-16 is an effort to work with stakeholders collaboratively to foster a more integrated education system, while addressing issues of college readiness standards, teacher education, and educational

The data is compared to those students come from affluent socioeconomic status and backgrounds. The data is sourced from several diverse locations in order to give the broadest view of the disparities that exist. Howard (2010) compares data in reading, mathematics, SAT results and disciplinary rates. This data is a formidable beginning to the content of the book because it provides context for the reader to better understand the achievement gap.

With landmark Supreme Court decisions in regards to education such as Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation within schools illegal, one would be inclined to believe that modern schools are void of any inequality. However, at a deeper glance, it is apparent that there is a glaring inequality within public school systems at the national, statewide, and even district-wide level. Such an inequality has drastic results as the education one receives has a high correlation to the college they will attend, and the job they will work. It is in society's best interest that public school systems be improved to equally supplement students with the tools necessary to succeed. While the public school system aims to reduce the inequality within it, they have proven ineffective in guaranteeing children of all races and economic classes an equal education.

Knowing the history of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is essential in order to define what these educational parameters represent in society today. In 2006, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano was elected to the chair of the National Governors Association. Napolitano’s work focused on

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was first implemented in 2010, nine years after I graduated from high school. Although I wasn’t personally affected by the new academic standards, it has a direct impact on the current and future generation of leaders, innovators, and world changers including my future children. The initial purpose of the Common Core Standards is to set high-quality learning goals designed to prepare students to be college and career ready. Given the current controversies surrounding CCSS, studies have shown that although the intent was to benefit students in the long-run it may actually be hindering their mathematical and reading skills. To further explore the arguments behind the Common Core initiative, I will

The Texas Academic Performance Reports is a detailed report of a district’s academic performance, financial information, and data reports as long as information about staff programs and demographics. Although the final and official ratings have not been released, a preliminary analysis for 2016 was available for review. From the results collected, I was able to create a detailed data analysis and summary over Channelview ISD’s STAAR/EOC scores for 2016 at all grade levels.

With this information, a region of schools can compare their results and figure out how well a region is doing in comparison to other regions. However, this is not completely valid due to the difference in assessment in each region. Therefore, they cannot be accurately compared to other regions because of this difference. (Costa and Kallick, 1995)

The Common Core State Standards are considered to be a high-quality group of academic standards. Before the standards were developed, it seemed as if the progress of the students in the United States was remaining stagnant and that America students were falling behind their international peers. The blame for this setback has fallen on the fact that standards are not consistent and from state-to-state students are required to know different things at different grade levels. As a result students are not graduating with the same set of skills (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2014).

Common Core State Standards is being heard throughout the education world. Many cringe when the words are spoken and many fight to support what the words stand for. Common Core was introduced in 2009 by state leaders. Common Core State Standards were developed to prepare children for the business world or the reality after grade school. “The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, also known as ELA” (About the Standards, n.d.). The goals for the standards outline what students should know before leaving his or her current grade level. “The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live” (About the Standards, n.d.). This is an ambitious goal, but with much support can be accomplished. According to Common Core State Standards Initiative (n.d.) The Common Core has been adopted by forty-two states already and is accompanied by District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity. Common Core was developed to improve the academics in society’s schools. Academics in the past years have not been successful and the United States has fallen behind international education. “One root cause has been an uneven patchwork of academic standards that vary from state to state and do not agree on what students should know and be able to do at each

In the past few years, educators everywhere have been hearing and forming opinions about the phenomenon known as Common Core. For my research paper I will be writing about this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is simply to inform about different aspects and characteristics of Common Core. I will discuss the following points: what Common Core is, where and how Common Core is being applied, changes from the former system, how Common Core affects teachers, cost of applying Common Core, changes in the subjects of mathematics and English language arts/literacy, what research has been conducted on Common Core and arguments for and against Common Core. Common Core has become an extremely important part

As of a 2012 report on annual spending for K-12 standardized exams, the states were spending a combined 1.7 billion dollars on the administering of standardized tests (Chingos, 2012). Many, including myself and likely Jefferson, would argue that it is not the place of the national government to make a judgement on the job of state educators from such a vicarious position. Some would even go as far as to label the policy coercive and destructive to public education because of the penalties imposed for schools which failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. These penalties started lightly, but schools which were labeled as “needing improvement” for more than three or four years were mandated to provide additional aid in the form of tutoring programs and remedial classes to students which did not improve. In severe cases, schools could be totally restructured by the government, privatized as a charter school, or have the majority of their faculty replaced (FairTest). Many of these penalties like tutoring programs were branded unfunded mandates, since their cost in addition to that of administering annual testing was not covered by federal grants allocated to the states. The result was a conflict between the states and federal governments which resulted in a

In earlier years of 2008 through 2013, student performance was below national average. Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah author of “CPS test scores show gains in the grades 2 through 8” explains that student performance was measured with the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT); although, the school district has recently adapted a new management by objective of Northwest Evaluation Association NWEA. Ahmed writes that after transferring to this new assessment there have been improvements in the test score. For the school year of 2013-2014 51.5 percent of students were above the national average compared to a year before where only 45.8 were in reading. In math the students improved by 3.3 percent at 48.6 percent.

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.

The first school in the district to present was Bradford Area High School. The principle, Mr. Ray, spoke saying that overall the school scored a 77.9%. The goal he has set for his school is to improve college prep classes, mastery skills in standardized testing, and to continue to revamp the science curriculum since it is the lowest scores on the state’s testing. I feel this could affect me as a future teacher because I would know what I need to work on more with my students. In addition, this could mean more jobs available to college prep classes.

Finally, Wisconsin’s voucher program began in 2013 and is called the “Parental Choice Program” (EdChoice). Wisconsin consistently had the highest test scores compared to the other four states that were examined. Its mathematics performance seemed to have scores that increase from the year 2003 with a score of 284 to 2009 with a score of 288. From this point the grades seem to level out, in 2011, 2013, and 2015 the grades remain at 289 out of 300. This is shown in Table 9, Graph 5. The reading grades differ slightly, as seen from Table 10. From 2003 to 2005, it remained at a steady 266, this grade dips in 2007 to 264 but rises again to 266 in 2009. The grades then steadily increase beginning at a 267 in 2011, to a 268 in 2013, and finally