...A Position Against Standardized Testing I am a mother of two elementary school age kids, Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) board member, and actively involved in my children’s education. I have often asked why there is so much emphasis on standardized tests. Growing up, we took standardized tests but there was no real preparation work or stress over the test. We didn’t even know until the week prior that we had testing coming up. Back then teachers taught and engaged their students in learning all subjects because they loved teaching. We learned not only what was minimally acceptable to pass a standardized test, but much more beyond the testing requirements. I am very interested about high stake standardized testing in our public school system because it seems my children’s curriculum is solely based on concepts they need to learn to pass their standardized test. Rather than teaching to our children who are eager to learn how to be higher-level thinkers, we seem to be teaching them to accept a minimal standard and simply learn how to pass a test. Today, I see our children being given pretests and benchmark tests to see how well they will do on the standardized test. I witness teachers under pressure to make sure they get the curriculum in prior to the test and students being drilled repeatedly for the standardized tests. Our children come home stressed and concerned because in some states, these tests can determine if you are from moving to the next grade level,...
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...Introduction A. Social Problem Education plays an important role in the way a particular country progresses. The US has always strived for high education standards; however, recent statistics point out that the country has competitively fallen behind when compared to other developed countries. For this reason, education has played an important role in the US agenda for many years. In January 8th, 2002, the US Congress passed a law called “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB), which expanded the role of federal government in education. This law strongly emphasizes the implementation of standardized tests in public schools to measure the progress of students as well as to hold teachers and schools accountable for students’ progress. A social problem that the NCLB is trying to fix is the fact that the quality of education in US’ public schools has decreased during the last years. Alarming statistics have shown that the country’s education system is not as internationally competitive as it used to be. For example, according to a report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States has slipped ten spots in high school and college graduation rates in the past three decades (CFR). Poor education affects the entire country because of the close relation that progress has with having a skillful workforce. Furthermore, other social problems, such as poverty and crime, are indirectly related to inferior education. An extensive body of research has found that people with...
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...The purpose of this essay is to describe and analyze the cultural myths and ideologies that surround the knowledge that is being distributed to public schools by examining a history text. A cultural myth refers to “the dominant ideologies of our time” (Chandler). For example, a group of people could have a belief in a myth while another group might believe otherwise. I will analyze a seventh grade history by using the method of semiotics. An examination of the history book shows that children are being deprived from a lot of historical information. In this paper I will argue that the educational system only centers it’s purpose of education and learning on the human capital ideology. This subject is important because like Joel Spring states in “The Knowledge Industry: for many young children these textbook are the only source of knowledge and the information that’s is being distributed to our children is not necessarily true or complete. As a result students are being restricted from learning how to be thoughtful and productive because teachers are being forced to teach according to a strict curriculum. The method of semiotics refers to the study of the way people make meaning. According to Daniel Chandler in “Semiotics For Beginners, a sign is a fundamental unit in the method of semiotics. A sign has two components, a signifier (the carrier of meaning) and a signified (the meaning that has been made). To describe the relationship between the signifier and the signified...
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...Mrs. Pryor AP English 9 December 2015 State of Education The 21st Century is known as the era of technology, the age of Information. Getting an education has and always will be vital to the success of an individual. However, the world isn’t the same as it was 30 years ago. If you had asked my father why he went to college back in 1985 his answer would be a lot different than my brother who just graduated back in 2014. Economic success was easier to obtain in my father’s day. If you knew a thing or two about cars you’d be considered valuable, and could easily catch a good paying job at a car dealership, straight out of high school, and could even support a family if need be. This is important to know, the focus was different back then you didn’t need an extremely high level of education to obtain some sort of economic gain, if you got an education it’s because you actually wanted to learn. However, as the world began to evolve, so did the requirements of success. Education has become a way to rule individuals out of jobs. None cares if you have the skills anymore, you have to have the college degree to back it up. Therefore, I must sadly say that talent alone isn’t enough anymore. I believe that there is a balance between formal and informal education. Arithmetic, the ability to write, and things of that nature are formally taught, and are vital to the growth of the brain. However, informal education also plays a big role into the growth and success of an individual, because...
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...Assessment without High-Stakes Testing Protecting Childhood and the Purpose of School David Mitchell, Douglas Gerwin, Ernst Schuberth, Michael Mancini, and Hansjörg Hofrichter 1 Picture a breezy spring morning at the beach. White-tipped waves roll rhythmically up the sand, washing away footprints like a blackboard eraser on a classroom blackboard. A group of children on a school outing marches purposefully along the shore through the edge of the frothy waves. A couple of eager kids stride out in front. The teacher walking along with the main group of the class notices that one of the boys is lagging behind. The teacher slows her step to find out why this child is not keeping up with his class. There are several possibilities: 1. The child is unable to keep up with the group, due to some disability, physical or emotional, or simply exhaustion for lack of sleep or nourishment; 2. The child is unwilling to keep up with the group, due to a lack of interest or, perhaps, a surfeit of distractions along the way; or 3. The child does not know how to keep up with the group, possibly because he is new to this experience and has not been taught how to hold his balance against the waves. In each of these cases, the teacher will respond differently. In the first case, she may scoop up the boy and carry him, or ply him with a quick snack or a sip of water. In the second, she may draw his attention to something of interest up ahead or coax him with some gentle words of sympathy and encouragement...
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...needs of workforce development organizations, (b) the assessment needs of individual youth to help make informed choices about their careers, and (c) the practical needs of practitioners for information about how to select and use different assessment tools. At the end of this chapter, Exhibit 3.1 contains information that can be used to help with the selection and use of assessments, including a directory of commonly used published tests. Meeting Institutional Assessment Needs Agencies and organizations in the workforce system use assessments to meet institutional needs in two ways-to determine a youth's eligibility for services and to document achievement of program goals by assessing the progress of program participants. The number of participants served and achievement of program goals can impact the amount of funding an organization receives. Funding for the youth programs considered in this guide may come from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, other federal agencies, states, local governmental agencies, or a combination of these. Table 1.2 in Chapter 1 summarizes the eligibility and assessment requirements of IDEA, WIA Title I, and the Rehabilitation Act. More specific information on assessments mandated or permitted by several federal funding sources may be found in Appendix A. (Mandated assessments are those required for all applicants or participants. Permitted assessments may be provided for some applicants or participants if appropriate...
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... Conducted in 1995, TIMSS tested student abilities in general mathematics, general science, advanced mathematics, and physics. In general mathematics and general science the Netherlands and Sweden took top honors, while the United States ranked 19th and 16th, respectively, in a field of 21 nations. Top-level U.S. students fared even worse, finishing 15th out of 16 countries in advanced mathematics and placing 16th—dead last—in physics. France and Norway, respectively, finished first in those disciplines. Asian nations scored highest in earlier TIMSS studies of fourth and eighth graders, but chose not to participate in the high school study. United States Secretary of Education Richard Riley called the results “entirely unacceptable” and said they “confirm our need to raise our standards of achievement, testing, and teaching.” Students must be encouraged to “understand the importance of math and science,” Riley said. Only 25 percent of U.S. high school students take physics and only 10 percent take calculus, Riley said. Meanwhile 28 percent of high school mathematics teachers and 55 percent of physics teachers did not specialize in those subjects during college. In the earlier TIMSS studies, U.S. students scored above the international average among fourth graders, but by the eighth grade fell behind their international peers. Riley blamed the drop-off on “low expectations and low standards” in math and science for...
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...Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice Volume 7 | Issue 1 Article 2 September 2013 The Legal Implications of Gender Bias in Standardized Testing Katherine Connor Ellen J. Vargyas Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bglj Recommended Citation Katherine Connor and Ellen J. Vargyas, The Legal Implications of Gender Bias in Standardized Testing, 7 Berkeley Women's L.J. 13 (1992). Available at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bglj/vol7/iss1/2 Link to publisher version (DOI) http://dx.doi.org/ This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals and Related Materials at Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice by an authorized administrator of Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact jcera@law.berkeley.edu. The Legal Implications of Gender Bias in Standardized Testing Katherine Connort Ellen J. Vargyast TABLE OF CONTENTS I. II. INTRODUCTION ....................................... THE FACTUAL CONTEXT ............................. A. The Scope of the Problem ............................ 1. Post-Secondary Admissions Tests .................. 2. Vocational Aptitude Tests and Interest Inventories. B. Causes of Gender Differences in Test Scores ........... 1. Post-Secondary Admissions Tests .................. 2. Vocational Aptitude Tests and Interest Inventories. C. Validity of the Tests .......................
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...assessment of psychomotor learning and performance; that section is not annotated. This work was completed by members of ELAC and its subcommittees as noted above. 1 CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT Ahmad, N. (2002). Evaluation of teaching: Through eyes of students. Plano: Institutional Research Office, Collin County Community College District. This article reviews the student evaluations instruments used to evaluate learning and faculty in the classroom. The purpose of this article was to search for come standardized instruments of student evaluations. Instruments used are: Individual Developmental and Educational Assessment (IDEA), Student Assessment of Learning Gains( SALG), Instructional Assessment System (IAS), Student Instructional Report II (SIR II), Course/Instructor Evaluations Questionnaire (CIEQ), Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ), San Francisco State University Instrument, Indiana University at Bloomington’s Multi-Op (Multiple Option System of Course and Instructor Evaluation), Student Evaluation of Instruction...
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...Mozart sonata I. INTRODUCTION The use of music as a tool by language teachers to teach foreign languages has been the center of attention to researchers for many years. That is why in the literature we can see different, but mostly positive comments concerning the effectiveness of music in language learning and performance. It has been stated that music can contribute to acquiring the linguistic skills such as reading, writing, listening and speaking (Jalongo & Bromley, 1984; Jolly, 1975; Martin, 1983; McCarthey, 1985). It is interesting to notice that not only teachers but also other scholars have benefited from the effect of music in their work "Throughout time, healers, philosophers, scientists, and teachers have recognized the role of music for...
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...tablets, smartphones and the internet has play an important role in recreating our world and making it become a better and more imaginative place. Yet technology cannot become what it has become without millions of brilliant inventors throughout the world. Two of the most impactful inventions that will be examined further in this final project are the Internet and the World Wide Web. The reasons behind this selection are because of the iPad and the World Wide Web has influenced so many people around the world. In another word, they changed the way human interacts with technology and with each other. The structure of the paper will start off with the background of the inventions, then follow with the patentability assessment, their impacts, reasons behind the impact, internationalizing patents and conclude with a concise and comparative (ending?) on the two impactful inventions. 2. Background 3.1. Ipad Ipad is an IOS – based line of tablet computers designed, manufactured and commercialized by Apple Inc. The first iPad was invented and developed by Steve Jobs in Cupertino, California in 2009. The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Since the first iPad released on April 3, 2010, Apple has introduced to consumers six advanced versions of the original one. In terms of its function, an iPad can shoot video, take photos, play music, and perform Internet functions such...
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...various academic subjects followed by students at various levels of education. The school or college’s teaching staff are employed to teach this curriculum, and students are periodically assessed in their progress in each curriculum subject. As they grow older, students’ achievements in their curriculum subjects are seen as important in helping them get into a good university or college, and to find a good job when they leave education. The academic curriculum has never been all that schools and colleges offer to their students. Often a range of other classes, clubs and activities is available to students, sometimes in lessons but more often in the lunch break or after school. These are referred to as the co-curriculum, or as extra-curricular activities, and they are mostly voluntary for students. Examples would include sports, musical activities, debate, Model United Nations, community service, religious study groups, charitable fundraising, Young Enterprise projects, military cadet activities, drama, science clubs, and hobbies such as gardening, crafts, cookery and dance. Because they are not examined in the same way that the academic curriculum is, and because most of them take place outside lessons, such activities have less status in education than the main curriculum. However, they are often held to be very important to the wider education of young men and women. This topic examines whether the co-curriculum should be given more importance in schools and colleges – maybe by giving...
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...relationship between parental factors, such as parental attachment, parental education, and parental expectations, and academic achievement among White and Hispanic first-year college students. We found that adjustment mediated the relationship between parental factors—quality of the parental relationship and parental education—and GPA for White students. However, none of the parental factors explained GPA for Hispanic students. These findings support previous research asserting that correlates of academic achievement might vary across ethnic groups. Adjusting to college is a major transition in a young adult’s life. Unfortunately, a large percentage of students are unsuccessful in navigating this transition. In fact, the majority of students who depart their initial institution often leave during their first 2 years (ACT, 2002). Tinto (1975) argued that these departures result from a lack of integration into the college environment and that the first year is particularly critical because it is during this time that students are initially learning to negotiate the challenges of adjusting to a new environment. In support of this argument, recent researchers have found that students who withdraw often do so for personal reasons such as a lack of adjustment to the college environment (Kalsner & Pistole, 2003; Kerr, Johnson, Gans, & Krumrine, 2004). However, more research is needed to examine what variables predict college adjustment, especially during the first year (Grant-Vallone...
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...University of California The work reported herein was supported in part by the National Research and Development Centers, PR/Award Number R305A050004, as administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The findings and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences, or the U.S. Department of Education. T his study required the participation of all fifty states, their assessment directors, particularly those involved with the NCLB Title III assessments. Their cooperation and patience is much appreciated, and their dedication to educating young people is greatly admired. We cannot thank the states enough for their collaboration with this project. Many people generously contributed to the development of this report. We are especially indebted to the chapter authors for their invaluable contributions and for their patience throughout this process. Sue Rigney from the U.S. Department of Education contributed greatly to the quality of this work by providing excellent comments and suggestions. We are so grateful for her support, advice and contribution to this report. Kathleen Leos of the U.S. Department of Education also provided useful comments. We appreciate her support as well. We are also so grateful to Dean Harold Levine for his support, Veena Nambiar, Susan Porter, Jisel Vega, and Lisa Sullivan for their contributions to this...
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...LEAN HOSPITALS “Mark Graban’s book has documented what is now happening in hospitals all across America as we learn to apply the Toyota Production System methodology to healthcare. This book lays out the nuts and bolts of the lean methodology and also describes the more difficult challenges, which have to do with managing change. Graban’s book is full of wins—these are the same type of wins that are happening at ThedaCare every day. I wish I could have read this book six years ago, as it might have prevented some of the mistakes we made in our lean transformation journey.” — John S. Toussaint, MD, President/CEO ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value “Coupled with a foundation of alignment and accountability, the ideas in this book provide a powerful tool to help hospitals get closer to the goal we want – perfect care.” — Quint Studer, CEO, The Studer Group, author of Results that Last “Mark Graban is the consummate translator of the vernacular of the Toyota Production System into the everyday parlance of healthcare. With each concept and its application, the reader is challenged to consider what is truly possible in the delivery of healthcare if standardized systems borrowed from reliable industries were implemented. Graban provides those trade secrets in an understandable and transparent fashion.” — Richard P. Shannon, MD, Frank Wister Thomas Professor of Medicine, Chairman, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine “There is an...
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