What Is the Best Way to Educate Our Children

With the NCLB’s focused emphasis on English and math standards, other educational areas such as the arts and sciences have been overlooked. The No Child Left Behind Act also focuses on bringing the lower scores up and not helping in raising the scores of those students who are already at higher levels leaving these higher achieving students behind in a push for equality. Although test scores have risen and the achievement gap between minority and white students has decreased, the No Child Left Behind Act has damaged the United States educational system by not addressing the needs of all students, forcing curricula to exclude arts, civics, foreign language and sciences, and emphasizing testing and not learning. It is time for a change.

With developments in technology growing exponentially, teachers must show students how to think critically and problem solve, using factual information as a primary resource. By mastering these skills, students become prepared for their college and careers, which will most likely involve some form of technology that has not yet been invented. This will influence many of the decisions I make as a teacher. Instead of assigning a reading passage and then comprehension questions to answer after, I can encourage students to discuss what they read and make connections to their own lives, research a topic for different perspectives or deeper details, or give students opportunities to present what they know to their peers and me in creative ways.

“Shrinking state and local education budgets matched with the added pressure of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which sets rigid standards in reading and math that schools must achieve in order to receive federal funding, have created a new challenge for districts” (Van Harken).

"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

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

Education in the United States is in an abysmal state. It continues to spiral downward as students and educators fail to meet standards. The standards are then altered on a patchwork basis throughout the states. The goal is no longer to have a high standard educational system. The goal now is to maintain the status quo, allowing students and educators to strive for the minimum. There is no common approach to achieve success. Incipit Tragoedia, in comes the Common Core, agreed upon by educators, politicians, and

Like an epidemic terrorizing the western hemisphere, the Common Core State Standards program has swept across our nation, and at each stop, threatened a new way of thinking and learning. These standards were created to ensure that more students graduated from high school with the skills to succeed in college, life, and career, no matter where they might live (“About the Standards”). In 2009, this fresh new take on education was launched to each state’s educational leaders in the U. S. The officials of each state decided whether the implementation of the program was beneficial for them, or if the current techniques were the best option.

Computers and technological devices have been heavily used in millions of elementary classrooms throughout the world. While many people believe this is a beneficial thing some think it is taking over the traditional ways of learning and damaging their social interaction. All the colors and sounds on the screen attract children and make them think that what they are learning is fun and enjoyable. Using computers in the classroom is very beneficial, but it should not be replacing traditional ways of education. As Elizabeth Bohnhorst, author of Floppy Disk Fallacies, stated “…computers are being used more and more frequently as a substitute for books, blackboards, and in some cases, the teachers themselves (251-252)”. Students will soon not have the need to bring pencils, paper, and even a backpack to class because everybody will be using computers as a means of learning. Moreover, computers should be used only as a tool to assist learners and make certain tasks accomplishable more efficiently while also keeping traditional ways of learning.

The last century in American history has yielded educational reforms, federal legislations, school improvement plans and interventions, which consistently influence best practices in school systems. After the report, A Nation at Risk (1983), the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). This reauthorization was a call to attain educational equality for all American students and to lessen the achievement gaps between and among ethnicity groups, children of poverty, and disabled populations (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Additionally, because of this increased scrutiny of student performance, other classification categories emerged such as gender.

Remember when you were in 5th grade? Your teacher went over the material in class, you went home and had some sort of homework paper to do, you took a test in class later that week, and you either passed or you didn 't. Do you remember comprehending any of that material? Or did you simply just memorize the material and move on with your life? The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) not only standardizes education, but it makes comprehension and intricate tool of the learning process. When it comes to American public education, the diagnosis has been offered that our schools suffer from a lack of consistent standards from coast to coast about what our kids should leave school knowing. The fix that has been adopted in a number of states in the last few years is a set of standards called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which have become the most contentious issue in American education in the last generation with disputes about who drew up the standards, whether they result in kids being over-tested, and even whether standards make sense that they have to be common. Are we fixing the right problem (Donvan, 2015)? Throughout the U.S., more and more states have been enacting the Common Core State Standards. Despite opposition from politicians and educators alike warning of dismal results, these standards appear to persist as a result of mostly positive outcomes.

In an attempt to create educational reform, pieces of legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have been passed with the hopes of making schools “accountable” to the children within their walls. Although this piece of legislation was eventually overturned its effects are still being felt within Americas public schools and it is estimated that this generation will be less literate than their precursors (Kohn). Although well intentioned, the NCLB failed schools, teachers, and most importantly students all as a result of one key aspect of the law: high-stakes testing. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all states are required to give standardized tests to their students in the hopes of holding teachers accountable for their scores and ensuring all students become “proficient.” These tests have come to determine whether or not students can graduate, how and what teachers teach, as well as how much funding a school will receive. High-stakes tests can make or break a school, but with all this pressure are kids really showing sizable gains in areas like math, science, or reading? The answer is no and time and time again

Like an epidemic terrorizing the western hemisphere, the Common Core State Standards program has swept across our nation, and at each stop, threatened a new way of thinking and living. These standards were created to ensure that more students graduated from high school with the skills to succeed in college, life, and career, no matter where they might live (About the Standards). In 2009, this fresh new take on education was launched to each state’s educational leaders in the U. S. The state officials each decided whether the implementation of the program was beneficial for them, or if the technique they were currently using was the best option. However, even though state authorities have control of their individual educational standards,

The American Education system has been under standards based reform for over 25 years. In 2009, The National Governor’s Association developed and released the Common Core State Standards (CCSS); a set of educational standards which would standardize learning expectations in English Language Arts and Math for students in any state that chose to adopt them. The debate over the implementation of these standards attempts to confront the government involvement in educational reform, the quality of the standards, and the way in which topics are taught in American classrooms. The implementation and adoption of the CCSS is a positive move that puts a common framework in place for improved student education.

Public education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a “nation at risk”, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide students with a quality education. This is disheartening as we learn that the United States lags behind in math and science compared to our international counterparts. It is safe to say that educational reform has spent billions of dollars over the

Technology has begun to replace skills, such as learning how to use a thesaurus, solving long division problems, or learning how to use critical thinking skills. Some students have failed to learn because of the abuse of technology that is occurring in the learning environment. The internet has brought more resources to schools around the world but some of the important skills in the learning process are being substitute for the mass of resources the internet has provided. The result of this abuse of technology is a student passing the curium without