Annually, numerous educators express despair and frustration when attempting to prepare students to take standardized scholastic examinations. Educators are constantly pressured by school administrators to ensure their students excel when these tests are administered; however, in the African-American community, the stress, frustration and pressure felt by educators is heightened three-fold. Many educators strongly believe these standardized tests are racially biased against minority and lower income students (i.e. African-American, Hispanic).These educators are correct; numerous studies indicate that, although minorities tend to produce lower scores during standardized testing, the results of these standardized tests do not accurately depict
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“Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. The (NCLB) No Child Left Behind Act mandated annual testing in all 50 states in 2002 by President Bush.” (ProCon.org) Standardized tests are designed to measure students’ knowledge of various academics, and standardized tests are supposed to measure the ability of educators to instruct student in various academic subjects. Unfortunately, due to pressure from school administrators, educators are “encouraged” to prepare their students to obtain higher scores on standardized tests as opposed to instructing students to learn academics. Many educators notoriously provide students actual standardized test questions and answers. The most recent example of standardized test corruption were committed by Atlanta Unified School District (AUSD). The results of an extensive US Federal Government investigation established that over 80 teachers and administrators were cited for assisting their students in “cheating” on standardized tests. Apparently, the AUSD educators were coerced by administrators to increase the standardized test scores of students “by any means necessary”. The AUSD educators were also threatened with disciplinary actions, including termination, if their efforts to increase the students’ test scores proved futile. As a result, the AUSD test scores increased exponentially and the AUSD commissioner received a …show more content…
As previously stated, each year, US government education budget is analyzed to justify a decrease in funding. When this occurs, the results are crippling to American public school education. As a result of decreased funding, current educators cannot be compensated and potential educators cannot be employed. Current textbooks, computers and other equipment essential to the education field cannot be purchased and antiquated textbooks, computers and other equipment cannot be replaced. The morale of educators and administrators dramatically decreases with a defunded education budgets and the quality of instruction provided by educators suffers. In addition the stagnant salaries of educators nationwide with the 20% overall increase of the salaries of educators and administrators tends to create friction amongst both parties, further decreasing the morale of educators. In certain states, recruitment of individuals to become elementary and high school teachers is difficult. The decrease of educators subsequently leads to overcrowded classrooms. In the LAUSD, it is not uncommon to discover educators instructing over 40 students in their
“Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. The (NCLB) No Child Left Behind Act mandated annual testing in all 50 states in 2002 by President Bush.” (ProCon.org) Standardized tests are designed to measure students’ knowledge of various academics, and standardized tests are supposed to measure the ability of educators to instruct student in various academic subjects. Unfortunately, due to pressure from school administrators, educators are “encouraged” to prepare their students to obtain higher scores on standardized tests as opposed to instructing students to learn academics. Many educators notoriously provide students actual standardized test questions and answers. The most recent example of standardized test corruption were committed by Atlanta Unified School District (AUSD). The results of an extensive US Federal Government investigation established that over 80 teachers and administrators were cited for assisting their students in “cheating” on standardized tests. Apparently, the AUSD educators were coerced by administrators to increase the standardized test scores of students “by any means necessary”. The AUSD educators were also threatened with disciplinary actions, including termination, if their efforts to increase the students’ test scores proved futile. As a result, the AUSD test scores increased exponentially and the AUSD commissioner received a …show more content…
As previously stated, each year, US government education budget is analyzed to justify a decrease in funding. When this occurs, the results are crippling to American public school education. As a result of decreased funding, current educators cannot be compensated and potential educators cannot be employed. Current textbooks, computers and other equipment essential to the education field cannot be purchased and antiquated textbooks, computers and other equipment cannot be replaced. The morale of educators and administrators dramatically decreases with a defunded education budgets and the quality of instruction provided by educators suffers. In addition the stagnant salaries of educators nationwide with the 20% overall increase of the salaries of educators and administrators tends to create friction amongst both parties, further decreasing the morale of educators. In certain states, recruitment of individuals to become elementary and high school teachers is difficult. The decrease of educators subsequently leads to overcrowded classrooms. In the LAUSD, it is not uncommon to discover educators instructing over 40 students in their