Why Students Should Be Preparing For Students For Years Well Into The 21st Century

Jobs are looking for and requiring people with good hands-on and project learning experience, opposed to long test taking skills. The Montgomery County School Board in the Washington area has already eliminated junior high exams and are now looking into removing high school finals. “We’re trying to make sure the students have the twenty-first-century skills they need for the modern day workforce, which is not necessarily sitting for a long test.” (Nerdia Gonzalez-sales ,1). Instead of long and agonizing tests, the schools would replace them with other assessments, including unit tests, projects, portfolios, essays, and document based questions. Katie Spurlock, a former teacher, and mom of two claims exams are not working because the schools are spending too much time testing and not enough time

Summarizing: This essay is about being the first person in your family to go to college. These challenges are sometimes so formidable especially for immigrants students, whose cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds were vastly different from those of predominantly.Acclimating to school’s cultural climate can be difficult and combating this situation can be easier with a help of older peers, teachers and guiding professors. Secondary and post-secondary institutions have created programming to better support and mentor first-generation student.

Implications for Teaching Thinking must be practiced in each content field at each educational level. For the teacher, this means hard work. To teach students to memorize facts and then assess them with multiple-choice tests is a much easier choice to make. In a course that emphasizes thinking,

The school must discipline creative thinking, as it will play a crucial role for the future. Bronson and Merryman report in their article that an

Public education in America needs reforms to adjust to today's fast paced, technology based society. "Changing Educational Paradigms Animation" by RSA Animate and "Reinventing Education for the 21st Century" by Tony Wanger, prompted me to wonder how does teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills in schools socially and economically benefit students? Both of these videos touched on critical thinking and problem-solving skills and their importance in educating today's work force, but Tony Wanger blew me away with High Tech High, a Sandiego high, middle, and elementary school dedicated to teaching problem solving skills to a wide range of students (Wanger). This school system was an excellent model of students working on their own to create, utilize problem solving skills, and display their hard work. This gave me the idea that we need to shift our education to focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills to better benefit students entering the work force.

As the government made the transition into Common Core Standards the controversy heated up. Common Core affected millions of people and because of this everyone has their own opinion about it. The problem is because Common Core was thrown on us, nobody really knows what it is. English Language Art

“Class, today we will work in our practice workbooks. Please complete drills nine and eleven.” One can almost hear the groans of exhausted students echo across the classroom as another day of drills and memorization passes. Unfortunately, endless drills, mountains of workbook pages, and dry, tedious lessons have become the

Limited Knowledge Standardized test have been in effect inside American schools for over 150 years (“Standardized Tests”). It has become a tradition to set aside multiple days out of the school year and test students over a variety of different material. But, having one student of a composed set of qualities

High-Stakes Tests Detrimental to American Public Education In its beginnings American public education was a rather revolutionary concept. This conception—which was cemented upon the notion that education should be free and compulsory to the masses—was scoffed at by many in the elite class however, this was the age of enlightenment thinkers

Are schools teaching students to broaden their minds and think creatively or are they just preparing them for tests? It is important to know whether standardized tests are actually beneficial for students’ learning. Over the last decade, standardized testing has been a more prominent focus for schools. Many students have to be tested every year in order to know what classes they would be placed in. Not only do tests determine what classes students will take but they may also determine whether or not they would be accepted into certain schools. These tests are a major factor that determines whether students advance in their education or not. This major focus on tests steers away from the actual purpose of schools: to teach students and ensure they understand the material. Standardized testing is not that beneficial because it hinders students’ full

Curriculums are being narrowed to concentrate primarily on what is being tested (McMurrer, J., 2007). Narrowing the curriculum to spend more time on Mathematics and Language Arts (English) robs instruction time from other important subjects and deprives students from developing strengths and talents in the less-recognized, but not less-important subjects. This narrowing of the curriculum goes hand-in-hand with “teaching to the test”. According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (2008), “teaching to the test” has the dire result of ‘what is not being tested is not being taught’, despite the importance of the subject. The method of instruction starts to reflect the style of testing, which is different from real-world application. Since not all subjects can be tested by the multiple-choice option format for standardized tests, development in the areas such as Art and Writing are being

Schools across the nation are eliminating programs that enhance creativity or even discussions about the current world events. They all have an identical curriculum and are set up to proceed one type of mind that processes information in one way. Thus, high-stakes testing pressures students to improve their performance. Lisa Collier states, “… So many Michigan students stayed home when their assessment tests were given last year that several high schools were threatened with loss of accreditation. In Illinois, 200 students expressed their scorn for the state's exam by showing up-and deliberately giving the wrong answers. Critics feel the students are being turned off to learning because they're being force-fed the dry facts and figures needed to excel on high-stakes tests…” The school is more about testing now, and we have turned away from creative teaching to teach a test and have unmotivated the students to achieve success.

Over time standardized testing has become a main focus of class time. According to Micah L. Issitt and Maureen McMahon, it is impossible to create a test that accurately measures intelligence. Students express themselves and intake information in different ways than others. This makes the idea of measuring intelligence based on testing a very unrealistic standard (n. pag.). As a result of the increase of testing many students are beginning to feel as if only their test scores matter. The scores of these tests are said to help students get into good universities and lead them to a brighter post secondary future. Students are focusing a lot of their time studying for tests that will help them get an education after high school. However, many colleges are interested in things other than the scores from tests. Laura-Lee Kearns, who examined the impact failing a standardized test had on students, explains that these tests are used to determine who is thriving but they fail to see creativity (n. pag.). Many post secondary pathways are interested in creativity and innovation, not only scores from mandatory standardized tests. Kamenetz Anya and Steve Inskeep explain that many teachers feel as though they are unable to focus on important subjects that could be useful to their students. They are forced to devote much of their time to preparing lessons based on the standards created by testing. These teachers are focusing most of their class time trying to prepare students for standardized testing while other topics are being ignored, such as creativity (n. pag.). Standardized testing focuses mostly on math, English and science, but fails to recognize the creativity of

By focusing on the mental processes students need – on the journey, rather than the result, the skill rather than the content –as the world continues to develop at a faster and faster rate he believed that future graduates would have the skills we will need. While the book for its new approach is praised by educators and parents worldwide and its open disapproval of a test-based educational culture, little, if anything has changed.

Education a hundred years ago is far different from the education today. Each generation is exposed to more and more information. This information needs to be processed and delivered to individuals. Education is the vehicle to do this. Reading, Writing and arithmetic will always be the backbone to education. However, education must also look at society and determine what more is needed to do. In our society today, computer and AIMS testing are the main focal point. Over ten years ago, high school students were being exposed to the use of the computer. Today in the 21st Century, children in kindergarten are receiving the necessary information to become computer literate. Without education keeping its eyes on what is happening in society, the next generation will be left behind. Education is the eyes and ears for society. The young people in schools are receiving