We exist in a state where education is a prominent force of succeeding in life. Kids learn the

Standardized tests are largely unnecessary, ineffective, and overused. Despite the enormous monetary resources and hours that companies pour into the making of standardized tests, the unholistic pen and pencil approach of these tests tends to assess students' test-taking ability rather than their actual intelligence. All this new testing leaves less time for classroom learning than generations past. This time may seem negligible at first; however, it adds up considering the number of ACTs, SATs, graduation and annual state tests students take over their academic career. What little time left is sacrificed for busy work and teaching for the tests. Nevertheless, who can blame teachers when the results of standardized tests determine their job performance? The tests were mainly designed to showcase the efforts of teachers and schools to the state, and a reduction of standardized tests is integral to fixing our educational

Education in America is one of the most important issues that face our nation. If the education in America is not thought of one of most serious issues we face, our nation as a whole will fall. There are many debates and they seemly extend to all walks of life. The debates range from the decline in education, school vouchers, and the no child left behind law. As a nation, the United States is ranked above others. We must search for that solution to all of the pro’s and con’s in education. The solution should allow all walks of life to excel in the education realm. After all, the children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow.

It is an undeniable fact that education is amongst one of the most powerful and important aspects of life. However, the topic on what true education really is and should be is highly controversial. There are many individuals who strongly stand by the education system in effect and there are also those who completely disagree with how it is implemented. It is made perfectly clear in Sydney J. Harris’s column, What True Education Should Do, that he is an individual who strongly dislikes the current education system. In Harris’s column, he continually references some of the most reputable individuals known in history. Harris makes many extremely important points in his column and effectively explains to readers exactly what true education should be.

Some people might like education, others might dread it and really don’t see a reason to continue learning about it. Today, for teachers and professors it’s easy to them to tell how the education they teach is effective for an individual student. As we know, education is being taught at school, home, and a little of both. For America today, most children attend preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle school, high school, and college. Depending on the pupil's career choice, it can take up to 20 or more years completing their schooling system, Usually, during the middle and or high school years in America, professors teach you valid things pupils will be using in life.

Among the few nationally discussed topics today almost everyone can agree on is that our educational system needs serious repair. School buildings are in a physical state of neglect. Teachers are struggling. US school rankings are below average internationally, and graduation rates are at an all time low. The primary contributing factors for this are economic. Sadly, our society has allowed government administrations to place education at the low end of the federal budget with indisputable results. Our current policies on education do not support the needs of all students through inadequate prioritization, inequitable funding, and the devaluation of educators.

As of a 2012 report on annual spending for K-12 standardized exams, the states were spending a combined 1.7 billion dollars on the administering of standardized tests (Chingos, 2012). Many, including myself and likely Jefferson, would argue that it is not the place of the national government to make a judgement on the job of state educators from such a vicarious position. Some would even go as far as to label the policy coercive and destructive to public education because of the penalties imposed for schools which failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. These penalties started lightly, but schools which were labeled as “needing improvement” for more than three or four years were mandated to provide additional aid in the form of tutoring programs and remedial classes to students which did not improve. In severe cases, schools could be totally restructured by the government, privatized as a charter school, or have the majority of their faculty replaced (FairTest). Many of these penalties like tutoring programs were branded unfunded mandates, since their cost in addition to that of administering annual testing was not covered by federal grants allocated to the states. The result was a conflict between the states and federal governments which resulted in a

This quote alone tells you how much state mandated can impact a student and with a student who does very well in the class can a test and can destroy their confidence or better yet can negatively impact their grade . “Grade retention has repeatedly been proven to be counterproductive: students who are retained do not improve academically, are emotionally damaged by retention, suffer a loss of interest in school and self-esteem, and are more likely to drop out of school.” Some state mandated test can determine whether a student will pass your grade or get held back. All because you are not a good tester all your hard work will be overlooked because of a test

Contrary to what many people think, the best education takes place according to an individual 's needs rather than at the most prestigious school. In his book, The Education Apocalypse: How it Happened and How to Survive It, Glenn Harlan Reynolds goes into depth about the failure of the education system. Reynolds appropriately explains how there are problems with the education system and how it will continue to fall; he then presents ideas on how fix the issue.

Although the blame cannot all be placed on the administration, the problem with standardized testing itself stems from government involvement. The introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act led to more and more standardized testing. The Act was issued in “an attempt to build an accountability system” (Cox). If every school in the nation was held to the same standard, the government would be able to dissect where students and schools are struggling and where they are succeeding. Ideally, every school would not only be held to the same standard, but every school would also be fulfilling the expectations set out. Unfortunately, with all the competition and hardships we naturally face as an economy and a society, it is difficult to envision an ideal situation becoming reality. If schools were scrutinized in more efficient ways, it's possible the gap between the highest and lowest schools would be smaller. However, the method the government uses to gather data is testing, and this has led to figures that are shocking. In the US “a typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and 12th grade” (Layton). “The Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration, Diane Ravitch, became known for her push to establish national standards for K-12” (Erickson). She admits that test scores have become the end goal for politicians, and not actually teaching. She reveals “Test scores are not being used for diagnostic purposes but as a clumsy and myopic way to evaluate (and penalize) American schools, teachers, and students”

Education is the essential foundation for the progressing of our nation as well as the stimulation for our children. Now, as some may or may-not know that learning gives forth children the accessibility to succeed in physical, intellectual, and even emotional endeavors. Education tends to incline us to widen the door towards attainment in the future. As individuals receive an education, they are more capable to obtain better employment. Views tend to be various to our educational system. Throughout America’s history, students, parents, educators, and government authority have discussed what changes must be made in America’s public school system. We agree changes need to be made to reach goals that will prepare our future for the future properly. However, the voices and cries for positive changes have yet to be heard. Sometimes, many of those changes are established far too quickly for results to be thoroughly examined. The most popular cries for education changes comes from Geoffrey Canada’s stating that “billions of dollars spent on testing, the data cannot be used, because the results come back too late (Canada, 2013). Now, the average person may not be too alarmed, but when companies, like Microsoft or Apple, has to hire computer programming engineers from other countries to fill positions since American’s are academically unqualified, which brings this education system to light on such topics (Moore, 34-36). In all, the public school system is

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein, a German-born physicist. This quote is referring perfectly to standardized testing by saying something along the lines of, you can’t judge a student’s ability to perform well in school by giving him/her a standardized test. Standardized testing is wrong just because not all students can perform well on a test, including myself. Administration often want to take the easiest way out to collect the data they need to place students in classes instead placing them according to something else; or in such way that is fair to all students. Education is a big part of our nation today with one of the biggest components being standardized testing, which does not accurately measure full capabilities of students from elementary on up to the high school level.

The dreaded week of state test finally come, the halls are filled with cranky kids and bad moods. You then think ‘what do we do this for’. State testing is just to score schools so the state can put them on a list. I do not support state testing because it puts students under unnecessary stress and pressure to be the best. I believe state testing should be limited and/or

What is it that’s making our country suffer from excelling in education? Very few would argue about the importance of our education system today. Issues such as lazy teachers, lack of parent involvement, and teaching useless information in class may hinder progress in today’s education system. An education plays a crucial role and is an essential tool, unfortunately, with all the jaded judgments; our students are not able to value their education. A proper education can open the doors to many opportunities that would have never been possible if it had not been for the knowledge and preparation that one received while in school. With the growing economy and desperate times, it is more important than ever for our country’s children to receive the proper education and training that is needed to allow them to acquire a good job and produce the revenue needed to live. Today's education system is flawed in many ways, and these flaws should be eliminated to ensure a good education for our future generation.

The lack of funding in public school systems also leads to underpaid and often undereducated teachers. These teachers are often never given the tools to succeed when such changes like the C.C.S.S. come about. When we fail to continue the education of those who educate our young, we, therefore, fail to succeed academically as a society. States are not merely missing academic criterion because they have low expectations or no motivation, but because we are failing to provide them with the necessary tools and resources to educate children at an acceptable level. By promoting standardized testing, we are essentially setting our children and our future up for failure.

I’ve always thought that the statewide and national testing system would be a lot better, if there were some flexibility. If only there were some kind of way to let teachers assess students’ learning, or remove all but the most important tests. Oh wait, there is. Many countries already have such systems, and these are some of the countries that the United States most admires in international education comparisons. Advocates of the current standardized testing system argue that standardized testing is good because it essentially gives a