In This Age Of High-Stakes Standardized Testing The Idea

Are we underestimating the importance of creativity? Many times children are not encouraged at home to be creative, either because their parents restrict their ideas, fill their decisions with pessimism, or simply do not pay attention to this matter. However, creativity is a skill that makes the human being flexible and resourceful as well as helping them see problems differently and identify solutions more easily. Many times education will directly contradict creativity. It destroys the innovation of ideas, and stifles the imagination, while claiming it is “teaching.” Sometimes entering a classroom becomes the closest thing to entering a time machine since our teaching methods differ very little from those of ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. In Ted Talk “How Schools Kills Creativity” by Ken Robinson and the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein, two different opinions about the current educational system are presented. While Robinson believes that the schooling system should work to promote creativity, Botstein says that the concept of a high and middle school is useless and should be abolished. However they both agree on reform. As a parent, I have always been concerned about my daughters’ education, and have always believed, like Robinson and Botstein, that our educational system needs a change.

Children are no longer encouraged to be creative in the test prep environment. Instead, they are being taught to perform well on standardized tests and are labeled as unintelligent if they don’t. Young children are born with creativity and we see that when they are playing and pretending. According to Sir Ken Robinson, in Slon’s (2013) article, “by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity” to be creative. The fundamentals of creation and experimentation are not part of the standardized testing mechanism.

According to Diane Ravitch, “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” Her point is that not every student’s mind operates the same way, so one test that all students must take does not measure the student’s actual abilities. Across the United States, standardized testing is a popular method used to measure a student’s academic ability and their college admission. These exams have multiple-choice questions and sometimes a writing section, which the examiners must complete in a certain amount of time. Every year the tests get harder and harder, which causes anxiety in the students. Standardized testing does not measure the skills students have learned

3. Critically analyse how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development.

High Stakes Testing has been overly integrated in the education systems. High-stakes testing are used to determine grade retention, school curriculum, and whether or not students will receive a high school diploma (Myers, 2015). Since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, high stakes testing has become the norm and mandating that students must pass a standardized test before moving up in grade. As a special education director, the focus is to ensure the student’s accommodations are being followed. Accommodations help increase students’ academic performance. “Both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) call for students with disabilities to participate in the general education curriculum and in testing programs to the maximum extent possible for each student (Luke and Schwartz, 2010).” Throughout the years, high stakes testing is becoming more common than ever before. The reality is high stakes testing is one indicator in evaluating children with specific needs. This paper will discuss, the violation of the statutory language regarding assessment based on IDEA, the strategies and goals of a remediation, staff training, common Core and PARCC assessment, and funding for the remediation plan under IDEA.

This approach focuses on creativity as a process and how new ideas emerge.  Theorist Graham Wallas proposed a five stage model and focused on the unconscious mind:

I t is well known that Standardized testing is not popular with students, but many teachers also do not agree with the method as well. Teachers see the testing as a burden and an end to creative and fun curriculum. Teachers teach all year for what will be on the test. Students are forced to learn by memorization quickly with so much knowledge being imposed on them at one time. Teachers have to teach so many core factors that they do not have hours to spend the wanted and needed lot of time on certain content. The article “It’s déjà vu all over again!” includes comments from educators on testing “The tests tend to measure factual memorization of names and dates, rather than important conceptual understandings and interpretations” (pg.199). Children can profess when and where The Battle of Gettysburg was, but could not express what the speech was about and the lasting impositions of the speech. They memorize a topic to pass a test. That is standardized testing. That is not learning.

Inside the classroom, the creative curriculum teacher creates an atmosphere in which children are safe, and they feel emotionally secure, as well as have a sense of belonging. It describes activities and teaching strategies that are challenging but at the same time are within the children's reach. It also suggests giving children choices and a role in determining how they will learn.

I would agree with high stakes testing being a major obstacle in education. With high-stakes testing present, schools are creating a completely different environment that many students do not want to go to. A lot of students may be really good students in the classroom, and may not be good test takers, which makes the situation even worse as more tests are being given to meet the state standards. By creating this kind of evironment at school, students attitudes towards learning are completely changing because we are focusing too much on scores and not on what is being gained through teaching in the classroom. No I am not saying that tests should not be given at schools, but I am saying that the amount of testing needs to decrease, which

A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.

Thank you, for sharing your view on this topic. A flaw that many educators witness is that test scores “places emphasis on what is measurable, which means there is a possibility of neglecting important educational goals as creativity, imagination, and appreciation” (Hale, n.d.). Focusing only on what is a measurable robes student of their creativity. It is important that we place emphasis on teaching students to be creative and to use their imagination. We can accomplish this by inviting them to be innovated thinkers. Dewey believed that “a universal education was the “key to teaching people how to abandon their habits” and think” (Popp, 2015, 7). An additional, way that I promote creative is to remind them there is nothing

“Educators invested in building creative skills risk lowering test scores and jeopardize the jobs they have dedicated their lives to.” This quote caught my eye since test scores continue to be a driving force in education. Teachers are continually prodded to make gains and document growth. If this is in the back of the minds of teachers, how can creativity evolve in the classroom? First, the authors define the seven virtues of creativity:

It's about also exploring new materials, and making them fun for the students to enjoy while they're learning. Creativity involves imagination, making your own interruption of things that makes sense to you. When kids use creativity they make scribbles that they understand, and that helps their literacy skills. There scribbles according to an article that we discussed in class by Lauren Neergaard, it explains that it doesn’t just represents a line, that it represents something much bigger like a word or picture. Another point is that it starts to introduce different speech “sound, vocabulary, and rhyming”, which can develop for the child to learn how to read. When a child starts to learn new vocabulary, I believe that when they see the word again in a book they would know it, because they’re already familiar with the

Creativity is the ability to produce work that is original yet appropriate-something that others have not thought of but that is useful in some way (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2007; Sternberg, 2003b). The significance of creativity for children’s development is very high. Creativity helps children develop the overall areas of development; physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive. A child learns to innovate as well as invent while doing creative activities. Through creative practices child finds multiple methods of looking at various situations, assessing these situations and finding new solutions. Children often desire to be able to express themselves without any

Creative teaching makes learning easier for students because it creates a possibility for students to be entertained instead of bored with the material that is being taught. One way to start the quest to being creative in the classroom would be think differently. Teachers need to think of new ways to teach their students. Think of new sources that make students explore, ponder, and contemplate. Providing a variety of options and resources is another way to keep students engaged and creative in the classroom. Creative teaching is a way to keep students excited about learning, keep them entertained and learning at the same