Look at the Students to Determine Effective Teaching in Curriculum Reform

A never-ending issue has loomed over the head of our nation-- education. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, 63.7% of American students are below proficient in reading and 65.7% in math. In order to improve educational standards and increase student achievement, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act (also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) in 2002. Designed to increase the role of the federal government in education, it holds schools accountable based on how students perform on standardized tests. Statistics show that the average student completes about 110-115 mandatory, standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and end of twelfth grade (an average of eight tests per year). Standardized testing utilizes

The Team Pennsylvania Foundation (2011) reported that statewide results of the Keystone exam given to all students revealed that 61% of all students taking the Keystone Algebra 1 assessment scored either below basic or basic, 64% of all students taking the Biology Keystone exam scored basic or below basic, and 49.7% of all students taking the Literature Keystone exam did not meet the state expectation for proficiency. In Pennsylvania, the Keystone exam is the final measure in a series of exams that measure how students progress as measured against state expectations. The simple fact is they are not measuring up (Team Pennsylvania Foundation, 2011). Schools need to develop a system to meet students where they are and provide quality instruction

In exchange, states had to agree to set standards aimed at preparing students for higher education and the workforce. Waiver states could either choose the Common Core State Standards, or get their higher education institutions to certify that their standards are rigorous enough.” (Klein). If a school misses AYP for three years in a row, it must offer free tutoring, but due to these waivers, this is no longer required, unfortunately. “By 2010, it was clear that many schools were not going to meet NCLB’s achievement targets. As of that year, 38 percent of schools were failing to make adequate yearly progress, up from 29 percent in 2006.” (Klein).

The NCLB Act has become the largest intervention by the federal government. This act promises to improve student learning and to close the achievement gap between the white students and students of color. The law is aimed at having standardized test to measure student performance and quality of teacher. The Standardized exams are fully focused on reading and mathematics. This law characterizes an unequalled extension of the federal role into the realm of local educational accountability. High school graduation rates are also a requirement as an indicator of performance at secondary level. In low performing schools they get punished by receiving less funds and students have the choice to move to high performing school. The quality of our

"Making Sure That Schools Measure Up." Education Week, vol. 36, no. 16, 4 Jan. 2017, pp. 18-20. EBSCOhost. PDF. In this periodical article, Alyson Klein, reporter for Education Week, reflects on Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), an update to the K-12 education law, in the one year since it was passed in 2016. Klein discusses how the ESSA was designed to improve shortcomings of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the previous version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Klein also examines concerns over greater flexibility given to states and districts regarding issues such as standardized test, school choice, marginalized students. The Obama administration wrote how the accountability portion of the law would work, allowing states to pick their own goals, both a long term goal and short term goals. These goals must address students’ proficiency on tests, English-language proficiency, and graduation

Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal policy. Both Clinton and Bush administrations regulated freedom of choice within their educational policies. Clinton’s Goals 2000 increased standards for student scores within core subjects. Legislation targeting Title I, required States and school districts to “turn-around” low-performing schools, and in 1993, public charter schools increased to over 2, 000 (www.clinton5.nara.gov). Bush’s No Child Left Behind’s structure demanded high-stakes testing and created provision for privatization of public education, as well as “school choice .” No Child Left Behind not only increased the Clinton’s strong accountability disposition, but it also superimposed a new set of accountability rules that would adversely affect public schools (Porter, Linn, & Trimble, 2005). One significant requirement of NCLB is that each state must adopt challenging academic content standards and challenging student achievement standards. Additionally, states must establish Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for each year from 2002 to 2014—that would culminate in the 2014 goal that all American students would be at or above the proficient student academic achievement standard (P.L. 107–110, 2001). When local educational agencies (LEA) failed to meet their state’s AYP goals, in addition to other criteria, they [LEA] faced the inevitability of losing their accredited status and eventually face school

First of all, continual feedback allows teachers to self-reflect on best practices. For example, a teacher can target his/her areas of weakness in order to grow professionally and gain further insight of best practices. Another benefit, of teacher evaluations is higher student success rates. These, for example, are measurable through district assessments and state standardized assessments. If a teachers success rate has significantly improved through modification of practices, T-TESS has served its intended purpose. Finally, yet another benefit of teacher evaluations is the fact that the educator is an active participant in his/her evaluation process. For example, through goal setting, the educator is allowed the opportunity to decide where he/she want to grow. Through the evaluation cycle and the communication therein, the appraiser and educator both take greater responsibility in understanding and meeting established goals. Finally, at the end of the process, student growth is an indicator of a well-developed and integrated evaluation system. These are but a few of the many benefits reaped from an evaluation systems such as T-TESS (TEA,

This is putting a lot pressure on teachers and is resulting in “Teaching to the Test”, which means they are spending a great amount of time teaching students only the objectives that they know will be on the test. This is only a small sample of what students should be taught throughout the school year. Another effect of these evaluations is the loss of effective teachers. A survey by NEA Today showed that nearly forty-five percent of teachers have or have contemplated leaving their profession. It is clear to see teachers’ evaluations need less emphasis on their students’ standardized test scores and more on their ability to teach. This would allow teachers to teach a wider range of objectives and be evaluated on their ability to teach and not their students

Today, schools are engrossed on educational reform as a top priority for educational success. This focus can be contributed to The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which develops responsiveness of the poor performance of schools. Especially those schools that are deemed to be in lower-income neighborhoods that are known to be disadvantaged (Gresham, 2005). With NCLB, federal laws now demand schools to collect information on students’ performance to help recognize the true extent of the problem with struggling learners.

Students have shown some small increases in test scores since 2002, when NCLB became a law, but they are nothing compared to what was predicted and promised (Strauss). Our government has invested huge amounts of time and money into increasing student test scores, but we have very little to show for it (Strauss). In fact, there is no evidence that better test scores help students in the real goals of education, which are to promote critical thinking, make lifelong learners, and to prepare children for real life (Strauss). Many people who would disagree on most issues, agree that the time taken for students to take the tests, along with the narrowed curriculum, and teaching to the tests, have had a very negative effect on overall student learning (Strauss). In the end, testing will document student achievement on individual, district, and state levels, and can give teachers insight into what needs to be done to help improve test scores. But the constant testing of students does very little to help their actual learning and may even hinder it

Evidence of change is heavily supported by the many change initiatives the United States’ education system has seen in the past few years. There have been programs and initiatives that have been implemented and replaced, due to their ineffectiveness as a whole. Programs such as No Child Left behind (2002) were brought in as an initiative to assist schools with bridging the gap for students who had fell behind or schools who were falling behind; however, this initiative failed due to its one size fits all methodology. The NCLB initiative became too much for schools and school officials to implement effectively. Consequently, in 2015 the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was created to fill the voids that were missing from NCLB. For example, NCLB accountability results were based on test scores alone, while ESSA focuses on multiple progress areas. ESSA provides a well-rounded education program for all students, regardless of their background or home environment. It includes more rigorous college and career readiness standards nationwide. These standards ensure that students nationwide are receiving the same information and skill sets. For example, the college and career readiness standards ensure that students are leaving grade school prepared to think critically, which will allow them to graduate from college or find a career outside of the college realm. NCLB lacked this foundation. The basis for which schools are assessed fall under many components, rather than just

A well-meaning act often failed to translate into real benefits for citizens. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is an act of congress enforced by the United States government to improve primary and secondary education. NCLB required schools provides highly qualified teachers for students. NCLB also required the states administered set a proficiency standard, so-called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which gradually increase the percentage of student that must meet the proficiency standard. The stats administrator also setup a standardize test for all the public schools students. The standardize tests measure students’ proficiency in mathematics and English reading. The purpose of NCLB is to improve individual performance in education and to close the achievement gap between each student. With the requirement to meet AYP, educator are responsible to make more effective instruction. The principle of NCLB is to help all children reach proficiency. Ideally, all the public school will be able to reach 100% student proficiency on mathematics and English reading in 2014. NCLB is theoretically a wonderful act for student. However, it has an unrealistic goal. It has many negative side effects which merely fail to match its promise for all students.

The No Child Left Behind Act should tremendously be re-examined and amended because the focus on the standardized tests decrease the quality of other subjects not on the tests, the tests are not an efficient tool to make certain that a student is receiving an excellent education and the tests create unnecessary stress for the students, teachers and administrators. The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to provide every student with the opportunity to receive a top-grade education. This is a great proposal to strive towards but, legislation plans on achieving this proposal by making schools responsible for their students’ proficiency and to measure their proficiency with the use of standardized tests. After the students take the

Also, throughout curriculum development the goals and aims of the curriculum need to be taken into account. Without specific goals and aims for the curriculum, the curriculum could be unfocused with no purpose identified. Within the social studies curriculum that I analyzed, I noticed societal goals for the curriculum (Posner, 2004). Societal goals are emphasized because the curriculum supports the development of knowledgeable and engaged citizens within our country. By understanding the goal of my curriculum I am better able to understand the purpose of what I am teaching, which in turn helps me to differentiate for my students while still keeping the ultimate goal in mind. I also was able to identify the further learning aims within the curriculum (Posner, 2004). By identifying this aim I was able to see how the curriculum I was teaching tied into the curriculum that the students would experience in subsequent grades. By reflecting on the further learning aims I was able to see how my teaching was a valuable piece of a bigger puzzle

Today, the Japanese university entrance test is becoming difficult and the system is changing too. Many examination candidates have to study a lot and therefore the amount of time needed for preparation of the test becomes inevitably longer. If so, we must spend the time as wisely as possible to pass the test. Currently, our school does have lessons of the subjects that we may use in the entrance test, but the lesson is not really for the test. In the test, what we get asked is the basic knowledge. Thus the amount of the knowledge you have is very important. What our school does in the lesson is make students think a lot. I do believe that thinking is important, nevertheless, I think high school students have to study for the test. TGUISS should change its curriculum and I say this because for one, to prepare fully for the entrance test, two, to have basic education and three, to make the status of the school even better.