...No Child Left Behind Act On American Education Education Essay Recently; main concern of teachers, parents and students has been devising ways that can increase test scores. Since the beginning of an implementation of state based NCLB standardized tests, there is an increase in expectations of the parents and teachers in terms of an improvement in test scores. However, these expectations can only be fulfilled when planning and implementation is strategic, while the reality of implementation of NCLB is on the contrary. This paper will describe pros and cons of “No Child Left Behind” act and its effects on American education system. Introduction Originally proposed by the Bush administration under US federal law in 2001, “No Child Left Behind” act was designed in order to provide funding, from federal governments, to different schools in all American states in order to make changes in learning capabilities of students. It was realized at the local government level that educational standards in schools in different states were not being considered for improvement, highlighting failures of local American governments. Various accountability standards have been defined under this law that gives the parents an opportunity to choose schools in which they want their children to be admitted. Thereby, rational that was followed while designing this law was that all children and students within schools would achieve their full academic potential because of improved programs provided in...
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...Educational Reform Essay Lance E. Ebel Grand Canyon University: SEC 501 September 9, 2015 Educational Reform Essay Looking back on education over the years there have been many changes. Some of the significant changes that have taken place, were established to support and help students succeed in school such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, School Choice, and Technology. Each one has had a significant impact on our educational system today. Each of these changes have been established to support and help all students succeed in school. With the onset of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 standardized testing has become a major instrument for gauging student and teacher performance (Smyth 2011). Based on how students perform, schools performance is measured based upon how they match up with other schools across the country. In some way this is unfair as the demographics of each school are different. When teachers are concerned with how their students are performing on a test it eliminates the opportunity to teach higher level thinking and reduces a teacher’s creativity in the classroom (Smyth 2011). According to Thomas Rabovsky 2011, “School choice refers to a wide variety of policies that allow students to transfer out of an assigned residential public school. These policies range from fairly limited systems of public choice, to more expensive systems of choice that provides tuition vouchers for students to exit the public school system entirely and attend...
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...Connecticut State Department of Education Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) Third Generation Handbook for Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines Contents Technical note: If using an electronic version of this handbook, click on any underlined text to link to the specific section in the document. Foreword 3 Position Statement 4 Introduction 6 Reading Across the Disciplines: • Response to Literature 8 • Reading for Information 11 Writing Across the Disciplines: • Interdisciplinary Writing 15 • Editing and Revising 18 Instructional Strategies to Use All Year 19 CAPT Strategies for All Students 22 Additional Assessment Information 25 Released Items 26 Foreword On behalf of the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), I am pleased to present the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) Third Generation Handbook for Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines. The third generation CAPT, developed in 2004 and piloted in 2005 and 2006, will be administered live for the first time in March 2007. This handbook has been developed to provide Connecticut’s public school educators with important information about the CAPT reading and writing across the disciplines assessments. It should serve as a reference for all content area teachers as they prepare their students. It is designed to answer the frequently asked questions about...
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...------------------------------------------------- Why Teach? Why do teachers teach? It is a rather simple question, however the question, what is a teacher, must be addressed first. Merriam-Webster’s definition of a teacher is “one whose occupation is to instruct" (Merriam-Webster, 2008, para. 1). That is a rather one dimensional definition of a teacher, as teachers these days, offer so much more to the class than just the information. They offer themselves. A collective definition of a teacher, is someone who “yearns to help children learn, watch them grow, and make a meaningful difference in the world” (Teacher Support Network, 2007, para. 2). This definition must be the main reason as to why individuals pursue teaching as a career. Generally the pay is low to fair, but the overall rewards are much greater, for as a teacher one can touch the hearts of the young and open their minds in order to tap their thirst for knowledge. ------------------------------------------------- [edit]The Long Road Becoming a teacher is a lengthy process obtained by numerous routes, such as night school or attending a four year college. Regardless of the process it is important to obtain at least a Bachelors degree in the desired teaching area, as well as a teacher certification which should include clinical experience (Lewis, L., Parsad, B., Carey, N., Bartfai, N., Farris, E. & Smerdon, B., 1999, para. 3). The average starting salaries were about $31,704 in the year 2003-04, whereas the...
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...Chapter 1: Student Characteristics Understand Characteristics of Students with Disabilities Some students with disabilities pass through typical developmental milestones and express skills within an average range for their age group. Others show delayed growth at certain developmental milestones, and many students with disabilities experience challenges as they navigate through the school curriculum. It is critical that special education teachers know how to differentiate between typical individual differences among children without disabilities and differences that may indicate a disability that requires interventions and/or specialized designed instruction. In addition, special education teachers need to know the most common types of disabilities that students may experience and how those disabilities affect their ability to learn and their behavior in the classroom. Competency 1 thus focuses on the characteristics of typical and atypical human growth and development and the characteristics of students with various disabilities that special education teachers are likely to encounter. The test includes a wide range of multiple-choice questions that address Competency 1. * Questions on typical and atypical behaviors and abilities for children and adolescents at particular ages. * Questions on the types and characteristics of various disabilities. * Questions on the similarities and differences among students with and without disabilities. This competency encompasses...
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...Standard 1: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. The effective administrator: 1.1 Uses research about best professional practice. Cooperative Learning "Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning." WHAT IS IT? Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. WHY USE IT? Documented results include improved academic achievement, improved behavior and attendance, increased self-confidence and motivation, and increased liking of school and classmates. Cooperative learning is also relatively easy to implement and is inexpensive. HOW DOES IT WORK? Here are some typical strategies that can be used with any subject, in almost any grade, and without a special curriculum: Group Investigations are structured to emphasize higher-order thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation. Students work to produce a group project, which they may have a hand...
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...Y METHODS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH From Theory to Practice Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle METHODS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Y METHODS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH From Theory to Practice Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this...
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...2 Understanding Diversity in the Classroom CHAPTER LEARNING GOALS After you study this chapter, you will be able to: 1. Explain the importance of understanding classroom diversity. 2. Explain the different group and individual sources of diversity. 3. Describe approaches to teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. 4. Explain the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 5. Explain the characteristics of students with exceptionalities. 6. Describe the role of the teacher in the inclusive classroom. Imagine You Are the Teacher It Is The First Teaching year at Lincoln Elementary School for Ms. Branson. She has 30 fifth-graders of whom 13 are girls and 17 are boys, 12 participate in the free and reduced lunch program, 5 are English language learners, and 4 have individualized education programs (IEPs). As she plans her lesson on paragraph writing, she is trying to keep the special needs of each of her students in mind. Because Jessica has a hearing impairment, Ms. Branson decides to make a written outline that includes the important parts of a paragraph and examples of good and bad paragraphs. She also decides to go over the outline several times because Fred and Alex have a reading disability. In her plan, there is also a note to herself to find a bigger pencil and wide-lined paper for Suzy, who requires these modifications according to her IEP. Based on past writing experiences, she expects Monica to finish writing her paragraph...
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