The United States Falls Farther Behind On Education Tests

Since the release of the annual report by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December of 2010, many in the government and community are searching for ways to reform the American education system to give American students a greater opportunity to succeed. According to the report, one cannot ignore the fact that American students are not testing as high academically as other nations in the world (Duncan, 2010). There are many contributing elements that have brought America to her knees in the education system, however, the obsession with standardized testing is found to be more of a stumbling block than a stepping stone in the education system. To understand how to rectify the problem, we must look at all the facts

He believes that there are colleges that are still challenging enough for the talented and bright students, but he also tells the students that are not ready for college, to not go to college. Even though the mentally challenged students will obtain a college degree, they will still have a huge problem with finding a job. These slower students are one of the reasons why the value of a college degree is declining together with the whole American education system. America’s education system is rapidly declining, and the government is not trying to fix it. If there would be a problem with the American military, the government would pay millions of dollars to fix that problem. They should look at the European education system and take something

One of Michael Crichton’s well-known books is Jurassic Park. As an intelligent man who is good at writing stories, apparently, he did not impress his English teacher at Harvard with one of his essay. Michael’s confidence was ruined when he found out he had a C- on his English paper. Michael’s creativity did not meet the principle of writing. America’s education is ranked number 14th compared to other countries. There are three different ways to prevent Americans to fail on the education system such as spending less money on war and inmates and lower the high school dropout rates.

One of Michael Crichton’s well-known books is Jurassic Park. As an intelligent man who is good at writing stories, apparently, he did not impress his English teacher at Harvard with one of his essay. Michael’s confidence was ruined when he found out he had a C- on his English paper. Michael’s creativity did not meet the principle of writing. America’s education is ranked number 14th compared to other countries. There are three different ways to prevent Americans to fail on the education system such as spending less money on war and inmates and lower the high school dropout rates.

For over two decades, New York State has been refining and fine tuning the learning standards that teachers use for their students daily. It is no surprise that countries were education is a “high-performing ability”, pinpoint their success to curriculum that is strictly focused and coherent for one goal; to improve the achievement of students as whole. The challenge of “creating a sequence of topics and performances that are logical and reflect the sequential or hierarchical nature of the content from which the subject derives” was one presented to teachers amongst others. Such standards needed to be coherent and must evolve from the previous ones to deeper structures in which students would be challenged by higher-level thinking (NYS Common Core Learning Standards in Mathematics, 2010, p.1). This paper examines the New York State Teaching and Learning Standards and follows the shift to the New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards and its continuous growth from here on.

There are some students that are strong test takers and some that are not. There are multiple methods to assess a student that does not require them to memorize facts or terms that may or may not be presented on a test (teaching to the test). Teachers are more aware of their student’s reading levels by providing appropriate classroom assessments and instruction throughout the year. The standardized tests more or less provide positive and negative data that can negatively impact students’ self-esteem and motivation by providing labels making reading a negative experience. Teacher and student morale can decrease as well as funding depending on the scores of these tests or single indicators of student and teacher achievement (Afflerbach, 2012). The time, energy and money that are used to prepare students and teachers do not seem to justify the benefits of taking standardized

In this day and age, the United States, leader of the free world, is not leading. Our economic system is failing. Even worse, our educational system falls short compared to other nations. Consequently, our literacy rate and mathematical abilities are far behind; and even more embarrassing is the fact that education is not doled out equally despite our rather relentless fight against inequality. When academic achievement is examined on the basis of race, class, and gender, widening academic gaps are evident. * If this continues, there will be nowhere to go but down, economically and educationally.

This strategy is a simple one: practice. The more students practice, the better they will read. At some point, students will no longer need to fully focus on decoding. Instead, they can read with fluency.

One of the country’s priority is to have higher test scores among students. The individual state has put so much priority on passing these tests that the only focus they want on education is math, reading and writing (Ravitch). While these three subjects are very important and key factors to future success, this is not the only thing that we, as a country, should be focusing on. While many classrooms are drilling math problems and speed reading through passages similar to those on the standardized tests, people are failing to realize that this is not a proactive way to achieve higher test scores. In order to become more advanced in a specific subject, it is important to improve ourselves

The United States is falling behind in tertiary education. Generalized testing scores in secondary schools are dropping and have been for the past few years. As a result the U.S. college admittance percentages are the lowest they have been during the past decade. This has not only affected college admittance levels; lamentingly, college graduate percentages have also suffered. A statistical report by journalist John Cookson confronts this difficult truth, saying, “What about college? The U.S. once led the world in college graduates . . . But this number has flat-lined for Americans . . . Meanwhile, other nations have caught up, and some have pulled ahead.” It has been proven that a successful country is an educated one. Labor workers are important, but having a strong educated work force will benefit the future success of the United States.

In the last decade, the United States has seen declining scores in reading, math and science compared to other countries as cited by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2015). The OECD publishes the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years. This report compares the student scores from all over the world. In the PISA report, when looking at a comparable sample of countries that participated in the PISA exam in both 2012 and 2015, the US ranking fell from 28th to 35th in math. While the ranking for reading and science stayed the same, it remained below the OECD average. (PISA,2015)

Zelowski (2010) states, “In the US it is acceptable to say “I am not good at math”, “I hate math” or “Don’t worry honey [parent referring to child], I was not good at math either, so it is okay for you too.” However, you will rarely, if ever, hear someone admit in our society that they cannot read (p. 18).” This statement helps to emphasize why it is necessary to gain a better understanding of how the educational field may improve student

The establishment of international testing regimes such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Article (PIRLS), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Article (TIMSS), and the Program

Education has always been a cornerstone of American society. However, the current educational system of the US as many issues. First, most public schools hardly teach many important subjects such as personal finance, entrepreneurship, and coding (Gerber). Furthermore, many schools are required to teach students about pointless material such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Qin Shihuangdi, and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Second, in subjects such math and science, America lags behind most developed countries due to many teachers teaching a subject based off a particular standardized test such as the End of Course/Grade assessment (Chou). Therefore, the issues of low test scores in comparison to other developed nations and teaching students the wrong material in the American educational system need to be addressed.

A high level of enrolment of children in primary and secondary education is essential for a country to sustain its economic growth. Once the vast majority of the adult population are functionally literate, which has been the case in all the advanced industrial countries for many years, a country becomes more economically productive. Indeed, in most jobs, a reasonable level of numeracy and literacy is required to perform basic and essential tasks. Therefore, it is expected that numeracy and literacy must be taught appropriately throughout the different schooling stages. Pre-primary and primary years do offer essential tools for students to grasp the basics of numeracy and literacy. However, the middle years of schooling ranging from year 6 to year 9 do provide students with essential numeracy and literacy skills that will be helpful for them in their adult lives.