For many years education reform has been a major debate in the United States because people are beginning to realize that in some aspects of the curriculum it 's becoming corrupt. Parents are realizing that students are not coming out of high school ready to face the real world, because they had not received the information they need to succeed. So in attempts to approve the schooling system an act called “No Child Left Behind” was passed whose intention was to make all students proficient in reading and math by the year 2014. I agree that there needs to be a change in today’s schools, but the No Child Left Behind act was not the step in the right direction because standardized testings is not a proficient way to assess students, students
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What is the No Child Left Behind exactly? The act believed that they could make every student in grades 3 to 8 100% proficient in reading and math by 2014 by testing them yearly and making scores public (). The new act has put much strain on educators, they are now reliable for every kid they teach. If there kids do not pass and meet state requirements they, the teacher, get fired. If a school as a whole doesn 't do well then the school gets closed down! Schools are beginning to expect less from their students and accepting averageness. Administration is basically dumbing down the students, and then they drag the teachers along with them! Jerry Jesness, in his essay “Why Johnny Can’t Fail” explains the concept of the “floating system”. The floating system is basically the idea of “social promotion”. Teachers will give passing grades to students who failed all of their …show more content…
For me this test was the “EOI”, it 's called an “End of Instruction” test, the EOI always frightened me! In my high school you have to pass 3 out of all your EOI to pass high school, and to get your Driver 's Permit you have to pass your 10th Grade English EOI. All year round my teachers prepared us for our english and math EOI, I remember times we would ask questions and my teacher would tell us we didn 't need to know because it wouldn 't be on the test so it was not important. The test basically trained us to all think the same way, it gave my peers and I no room for academic uniqueness. We would read a passage and then answer multiple choice question and then we were taught how to answer the question, but there was no room for interpretation it was either right or wrong. I would take a quiz and answer a question and if I didn 't answer it exactly like my teacher 's answer key I would get the question wrong even it could be interpreted the same way. There is no longer any “authentic learning” in today 's school system. The sad thing is that there are tests out there that do encourage deeper thinking, and these tests are called Advanced Placement tests. Jerry Jesness calls Advanced Placement testing a “Voluntary System” (). This is because students in select high schools can choose to take these classes to challenge
What is the No Child Left Behind exactly? The act believed that they could make every student in grades 3 to 8 100% proficient in reading and math by 2014 by testing them yearly and making scores public (). The new act has put much strain on educators, they are now reliable for every kid they teach. If there kids do not pass and meet state requirements they, the teacher, get fired. If a school as a whole doesn 't do well then the school gets closed down! Schools are beginning to expect less from their students and accepting averageness. Administration is basically dumbing down the students, and then they drag the teachers along with them! Jerry Jesness, in his essay “Why Johnny Can’t Fail” explains the concept of the “floating system”. The floating system is basically the idea of “social promotion”. Teachers will give passing grades to students who failed all of their …show more content…
For me this test was the “EOI”, it 's called an “End of Instruction” test, the EOI always frightened me! In my high school you have to pass 3 out of all your EOI to pass high school, and to get your Driver 's Permit you have to pass your 10th Grade English EOI. All year round my teachers prepared us for our english and math EOI, I remember times we would ask questions and my teacher would tell us we didn 't need to know because it wouldn 't be on the test so it was not important. The test basically trained us to all think the same way, it gave my peers and I no room for academic uniqueness. We would read a passage and then answer multiple choice question and then we were taught how to answer the question, but there was no room for interpretation it was either right or wrong. I would take a quiz and answer a question and if I didn 't answer it exactly like my teacher 's answer key I would get the question wrong even it could be interpreted the same way. There is no longer any “authentic learning” in today 's school system. The sad thing is that there are tests out there that do encourage deeper thinking, and these tests are called Advanced Placement tests. Jerry Jesness calls Advanced Placement testing a “Voluntary System” (). This is because students in select high schools can choose to take these classes to challenge