Alvin P. Sanoff's 10 Major Challenges

In today's media coverage, we frequently hear of problems in the education system across the nation. Many communities are concerned about the quality of education being received by their students. For instance, in "10 Major Challenges” Grace Chen examines some major issues in education being bullying and family problems making an impact on the learning aptitude of many students in today’s society. This is echoed in Alvin P. Sanoff in “High school fails to engage students,” when he explains that students don’t spend the sufficient time doing their homework or studying yet still obtain an A or B in their high school course. However, when they go to college, most students tend to take remedials because they were not accustomed to taking challenging …show more content…
During an interview with Professor La Fleur, he mentioned that too much emphasis is put on standardized test and what teachers end up doing is training the student to take a particular test but that doesn't mean they fully understood the concept. Additionally, teachers need to give students an in-depth knowledge of the subject matter and have students engage in school activities. For instance, the movie Lean on Me, has major issues on the passing rate of standardized tests. Before Joe Clark became the new principal of East High, only 33% of the students passed a minimum basic skill test. The school was failing by the school board and Mr. Clark's incentive was to raise the test scores to avoid the state taking over as well as to improve the environment at school. East Side High faced many challenges like drug-dealing, graffiti , and students engaging in disorderly conduct in and out of the classroom significantly impacting how well the students would perform on the standardized test. The first thing Principal Clark does to turnaround the school is getting rid of the students who were corrupting the school. To prevent the students from getting attacked by expelled individuals, he chains the doors so the students can be in a safe learning environment. He institutes a remedial reading class on Saturday and encourages students to engages in school activities. Although his actions did have a positive effect on raising the test scores, standardized tests take over the curriculum of the school. Principal Clark faced his challenge turning a drug and crime school, into a successfully performing educational establishment, with staff members and administration being devoted to their task and aware of their social responsibility. It is apparent that teachers “teach to the test” when it comes to standardized test instead of going in-depth into valuable