Standard Based Learning And Its Impact On Education

NCLB reduces effective instruction as well as student learning by causing states to lower achievement goals and teacher motivation. Assertively, I support my argument that students who are disadvantaged or disabled do not reach the same proficiency as other students due to the simple fact that everyone learns differently, has different areas of strengths and weaknesses, and are essentially learning curriculum for a mandated state test that solely measures how well subgroups of children test on generic material based on each

Ever since standardized testing started being used as a way to evaluate the intelligence of students and the teachers’ ability to educate, the standard of actual education has been diminished immensely. Standardized testing is used in most public and private schools to analyze students’ knowledge. It has affected the way in which students learn and has corrupted the methods teachers use to educate. In some cases, English-Learning and disabled students face discrimination from teachers since teachers have more responsibility to have a high number of passing students. Some countries around the world don’t use standardized tests to rank their students or schools and yet they have been successful. Standardized tests are not efficient on making students learn, they should not be used to evaluate students’ knowledge.

     Many educators find the purpose of the NCLB Act to be very confusing and disingenuous. According to Monty Neill, who works for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an organization which evaluates tests and exams for their impartiality, “NCLB is a fundamentally punitive law that uses flawed standardized tests to label schools as failures and punish them with counterproductive sanctions” (Neill, 1). Teachers will be of no use to educate their students according to the curriculum, if the only focus that both the teachers and students have is only to pass the imperative standardized test, just so their school district can acquire more

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

This article is about how using standards and assessments do not fully measure the educational quality of the students. It also suggests that the standardized assessments promise something that is not possible with all students. It is important to keep the standardized assessments simple and not go to deep into each subject.

These tests will provide teachers and administrators a diagnosis of how the school is performing and in which areas the school needs to improve on. This will also inform policymakers which schools are doing well and why. Then that technique can be applied to schools in which the scores were not meeting standards. President Bush and the U.S. Congress have challenged educators to set high standards and hold students, schools and districts accountable for results. (Dept. of Ed, 2004)

Throughout the entirety of NCLB, the federal government has been judging schools in an obscene manner: how many students are proficient in a given year. Even though proficiency is defined differently in every state, and has changed over time (“A Failing Grade for No Child”). NCLB focusing solely on test scores to measure proficiency leaves behind real student growth. There is no praise for raising students from below-basic to basic or from proficient to advance. Meaning that schools are ignoring students at both end of the spectrum (“A Failing Grade for No Child”). NCLB does not care about student growth and education, all that matters is if they meet the required test

The 1980s brought a new reform movement in education, accompanied by a new emphasis on testing. The effort to improve education at all levels included the use of standardized tests to provide accountability for what students are learning. Minimum competency tests, achievement tests, and screening instruments were used to ensure that students from preschool through college reached the desired educational goals and achieved the minimum standards of education that were established locally or by the state education agency. As we continue in a new century, these concerns have increased.

Because instructors are teaching directly for the test, the data collected may not be an accurate representation of the student’s true abilities. As standardized test grow in popularity among the school system, the pressure to achieve high scores rapidly builds. The importance of high scores goes beyond individual students’ performances, and teacher evaluations. Serious repercussions could result from poor scores, or performances. For example, “schools that continue to fail to improve may be closed, and districts that continue to fail may be subject to state takeover” (Posner). With the weight of the success of the school on their shoulders,

Not only do standardized tests frequently lead to a lack of learning, but they also limit the learning capabilities of more successful and motivated districts. The requirements of the NCLB Act are strict enough that, in order to meet them, teachers must vastly reduce the depth and variety of their curricula (Karp). As schools begin to view standardized exams as their sole opportunity for funding, and as teachers begin to see high test scores as their only guarantee of not losing their job, schools limit their material to the narrow guidelines of the state (Orr). Creativity is suppressed, bright students are unable to meet their potentials, and school time is wasted on test-taking strategies, all because of the national government?s threat of sanctions

The educational system in the United States has gone through many changes over the last century. These changes are a part of a constant movement toward educational excellence for every child in this nation. One of the most recent acts placed on public school systems by the government is to create more accountability for schools in order to ensure that all children are receiving the proper education. Part of this mandate is that public schools will require students to take tests in order to gather information about their academic achievement. Although educators and administrators claim that the mandatory ability testing programs being initiated in America’s public schools will hold students and teachers accountable for academic

As we saw, proponents of NCLB point out that test scores have improved since 2002. But critics are not certain that the law is responsible for because the schools’ tests have improved since the 1980’s. Since the1970’s, documentation show an increase of students taking the test SAT and ACT tests. In fact these tests that were once optional became more popular during that era. Because children at all levels were taking those tests, test cores declined drastically in the 70’s and 80’s. Furthermore, critics of NCLB say that better schools are not indicative of the success of this

The NCLB Act has a goal of "closing the student achievement gap". (http://www.NCLB.gov) This gap is being measured by age or grade skill knowledge leading to what is called "adequate yearly progress". (http://www.NCLB.gov) There are test given yearly in math, reading and soon science to measure this progress. According to Piaget some children may not be cognitively ready for the type of assessment that these exams are measuring. So teachers feel the need to teach for the test. This creates a repeated experience therefore after time the practice of the test gets assimilated into the child's cognitive structural base. The test is therefore learned and not the subject matter. This in turns creates a false structural base in which new knowledge is built upon. Thus the student achievement gap is not closed it is widened. There are other areas where NCLB Act is flawed. The goal of "setting a standard of excellence for every child" (http://www.NCLB.gov) in this flawed because equality of family situations is assumed and that is not always the case. As teachers we can guarantee these standards in the classroom but we cannot do it in the family situations in the home.

“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.

But its inflexible accountability provisions have become an obstacle to progress and have focused schools too much on a single test score. (Duncan)NCLB is six years overdue for an update, and nearly all agree that it should be replaced(Duncan)Students in our poorest communities should enjoy learning opportunities like those in our wealthiest communities. Zip code, race, disability and family income should not limit students ' opportunities or reduce expectations for them.(Duncan).The Bush Administration has significantly underfunded NCLB at the state level, and yet, has required states to comply with all provisions of NCLB or risk losing federal funds.(Sen).teachers are pressured to teach a narrow set of test-taking skills and a test-limited range of knowledge.(white).At its core, NCLB faults schools and curriculum for student, but critics claim that other factors are also to blame.(white).including: class size, old and damaged school buildings, hunger and