As education progressed in America, it seems that the pressure on schools and teachers began to get more and more intense. Starting back in the 50s and 60s, schools started to crack down on students and their grades as far as extracurricular activities was concerned. Interestingly enough, like many of the philosophies of the past, that rule still sticks today--and rightly so. Students were starting to be held more accountable for the way they preformed in schools, although perhaps it wasn't for the right reasons...
As soon as school districts began being held accountable for how their students did in the classroom, a threatening feeling began to brew. To no surprise, stress built for the teachers which in tern built for the students. It was bad enough that standardize testing was implemented every five grades or so, but then the push for every grade started in the hope that schools would be help more accountable, and students would 'progress' further. In truth, it was likely the opposite effect that happened. Standardized tests are not the answer. In fact, if I could have it my way things would be a little different.
Teacher's salaries would increase so more people would be interested in joining the profession. The more people interested in joining the profession creates greater competition for jobs, so better teachers are being hired. Because better teachers are being hired, students will inherently do better in school, and will not need to be tested on such high stakes. But hey, there isn't much I can do about that.
To quickly and easily wrap it up, standardize testing has put education in America in the opposite direction of where we want to be headed. If only educators has a real say in what went on at the higher levels of government... "Let's teach our students to think outside the box rather than fill in the circles."
No comments:
Post a Comment