The Essentials Of A Good Education By Diane Ravitch

Section Two: History: Since public schools across the country have faced budget cuts in the past decade and a half, a common cost-cutting measure is to lessen the funding for arts education, prioritizing what are deemed more essential subjects such as math, reading, and science. Yet in fact, the current iteration of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, lists that the arts are among the core academic subjects, requiring all schools to enable all students to achieve in the arts and reap all the benefits of a comprehensive arts education. Yet the economically prioritized curriculum is still draining the sources from these imperative programs leaving instruments, paintbrushes, and other artistic pieces in closets to collect dust, because no one will be there to teach or use them. Most impacting in the history of

When imagining a well-rounded school, one might think of a school filled with discussion based English classes, interactive Math classes, exciting labs, and rich History classes; one may also think of an endless list of extracurricular activities and athletic teams. Sadly, many public schools across the country do not have these opportunities. The Diane Ravitch book: Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, focuses upon Ravitch’s opinion on this important issue. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2001, schools have focused on math and reading scores; because of this, schools have disregarded and cut back on other subjects that they are not being tested on such as

Diane Ravitch is an educational historian and policy analyst, who believes that standardized education is not a smart form of learning. The author’s purpose in writing this article is to provide information about the value of arts education, and tell them the threats that standardized testing provides. The author seems to be targeting people who can not put their

This is her best supporting statement because it is the most accurate and easiest to verify, just ask any current student or teacher in a public educated school system, higher test scores equal higher ratings for the school. Furthermore, she not only offers a clear and persuasive outline of the various issues facing public educators today, she offers ideas for how to fix those issues. For example, she explains the importance of how parents need to get involved with where they are sending their children to school and need to be the ones to put their foot down with these test score curriculum school systems. Ravitch suggests, “An educated parent would not accept a school where many weeks of every school year were spent preparing for state tests. An educated parent would not tolerate a school that cut back or eliminated the arts to spend more time preparing for state tests” (Ravitch 108). However, this is the area where the reader may disagree with Ms. Ravitch, as the suggested solution, may be her weakest argument because, it seems that a more dynamic solution would not only include the parent, to change the ways the schools are, but more importantly, it would include the student. This only makes sense, as the students are the most vested in this argument and are the ones most impacted by what is going on in the classrooms, if they want change,

“Essentials of a Good Education” is an article by Diane Ravitch regarding the No Child Left Behind legislation and its effect on public schools in America. According to her, since that legislation was put into place, schools have cut funding to subjects that don’t get tested. This has taken some of the most ambitious students in the schools in poorer communities and put them at the same level as the students that don’t care about school and don’t try. That keeps the ambitious and advanced students from reaching their full potential in school. Although Ravitch makes good points about her opinion, she doesn’t consider any opposing opinion and she cites little to no sources for her information.

Parents and professors speculate why children no longer display excitement and ambition for learning. Most share the common goal of educating the youth to take on the “rights and responsibilities of citizens” (Ravitch 109). Unfortunately, educational requirements have strayed from the original purpose and began to aim their attention toward the “importance” of standardized testing. As a current high school senior, my experience has been that students are branded by their grades and test scores as if they determine who we are as a person. Diane Ravitch’s “The Essentials of A Good Education”, successfully critiques the extensive use of standardized testing in order to pursue change in our education systems and prove that focusing on test scores corrupts a child’s inner creativity.

One of the fundamental points Ravitch makes is in the second chapter when she speaks about No Child Left Behind. I had heard of No Child Left Behind before, but not in the amount of detail that is provided in this book. First, Ravitch starts by saying that 100% proficiency is an unrealistic goal. Furthermore, I agree that teachers being punished for their classroom not receiving this goal is unfair. Next, she goes on to explain that schools are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tests and testing materials. Even after all of this money had been spent, good results were still not being seen. Through this evidence, we can clearly say that something isn 't quite right.

In every school throughout the nation, students all have different interests; whether that be writing, math, acting, or drawing, each child is entitled to expressing their own interests in their own ways. In modern society, however, many schools are cutting back on subjects that are not tested including the arts, history, literature, government, and others. The author of “The Essentials of a Good Education,” Diane Ravitch, believes that there is more to education than testing students and labeling them based on scores. She thinks that making cuts in areas outside of mathematics and reading is a mistake and will be detrimental to society in the long run. Even though the purpose of “No Child Left Behind” was to make sure each child had a fair opportunity to be proficient in certain areas, Ravitch’s writing, “The Essentials of a Good Education” questions whether it has caused an unequal opportunity for children to learn and have a well-balanced, rich curriculum.

Diane Ravitch explores the corporate side of American public education and the reformists’ misled beliefs that the school system is in crisis. The school reforms in place are disguised as a means of improving public education, when in reality it has become an objective to “replace public education with a privately managed, free-market system of schooling” (Ravitch, p.4). Diane Ravitch supports her claim that the reformation movement has poor intentions with multiple sources of evidence. Among these facts she uncovers the truth behind test scores and the achievement gap. Furthermore, Ravitch exposes how the reform movement is a back-door way to privatize schooling with monetary motives in mind. In response to these problems, Diane

The American education system has not managed to survive a single day in which it has not been placed beneath society’s microscope to be analyzed and critiqued by both those involved and not. It comes as no surprise that there are a plethora of flaws involved in the institution of education. However, there is one entirely unique aspect of American education that has potential to alter the system’s negative persona; the fine arts programs. Rick Dean, a journalist for Topeka Capital Journal, researching Topeka’s new arts and education program stated, “Teachers and students participating in the program benefit from infusing fine arts across the curriculum, thinking critically. . . . to find creative and innovative solutions to problems beyond

In order to revamp Core tested programs, schools have been shifting focus to those areas and changing instructional times for various classes, which prevents students from achieving their full potential in the affected classes. Instructional time is important, especially in the fine arts. In order to have an arts program with the tangible results and benefits previously explained, elementary students require to have at least 50 hours of instructional time in order to give them a solid base in art disciplines (Good, 374). The schools who would prefer to focus their resources on the Core tested programs will see improvement in the Core areas, but there are other subjects that leave a footprint along the beach of test scores that help improve

Schools with lower test scores take money out the Arts fund and put it towards more Language Arts/English, Math, and Science classes. But studies show that that actually doesn’t help make test scores better, but can actually make them worse. Educational institutions should focus more on creativity in people, instead of focusing on standardized tests. Schools spend thousands of dollars, and hours in a school day to focus on standardized testing and the importance of it in your future. Although, it’s been proven that tests don’t actually help you in the future, and that focusing on them so much, actually kills the creativity side of kids. It’s been proven that kids that focus on creative activities like music, and art, actually do better in their

Right brain? Left brain? Both sides are very different and have their own characteristics that help determine what a persons potential strengths and weaknesses will be. “The human brain is split into two halves, each with its own unique abilities. This phenomenon, discovered three decades ago by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry and his associates at the California Institute of Technology, is known as brain lateralization” (Raudsepp, 1992, p. 85). Certain characteristics of a person can go so much deeper then just hobbies that a person enjoys. Brain function can play a major role in how a person perceives their surroundings, such as if someone like to draw or do math. On the other side of that if a person is very analytical and good at subjects in school such as math it could be linked to which side of their brain is dominant.

In today’s American education system, the arts are typically referred to as “electives.” they are not mandatory and are seen as hobbies. STEM subjects (the sciences, technology, english, and mathematics) are viewed as necessary skills in today’s society. A student that has a talent for photography yet lacks considerable skill in mathematics is usually seen as unintelligent, or academically challenged. A different student, one who is gifted in mathematics, yet is below average when it comes to skills in their art class is not faulted for their loss of artistic talent. They are praised for their intelligence no matter their artistic prowess. Artistic students are constantly made to feel deficient, as if there is something wrong with them if the struggle with STEM subjects. This paper focuses on asking why students are made to feel that way. Why intelligence is measured in standardized test scores and letter grades. It will explore how lack of the arts and creativity is damaging to students, and how this disregard for creativity starts well before we are aware of it. It starts in elementary schools and primary education systems, and continues on into adulthood.

Being a present senior in highschool, I have often found myself wondering about the importance of the universally dreaded “standardized tests” which all students are forced to take. For many these standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT for example, were, or will be taken in one’s junior year of high school. Prior to these tests, countless amounts of preparation is forced upon students, limiting their abilities for educational diversity. Many education professionals are just as skeptical of this aspect of education in today’s society. Educational expert and highly credited author Diane Ravitch in her essay, “The Essentials of a Good Education,” directly addresses this idea, discussing not only the idea that these problems do in fact exist, but also suggesting that a change is imperative. Ravitch claims that education has become too solely focused on these test scores, which is creating a sort of robotic routine for all students. Throughout her essay, she utilizes many appeals to facts and statistics, accountability and emotion, and credibility, along with a strongly developed tone throughout in order to provide support for her claim which helps to prove the present state of our education system is not doing an adequate job in preparing students for the real world.