Negative Effects Of Modern Day Testing | Education

Negative Effects Of Modern Day Testing | Education Using standardized tests to evaluate students and teachers has been an extreme mistake of the educational system. The seemingly flawless idea that high test scores show effective teaching and competent students has failed to be accurate. According to Alfie Kohn in The Case Against Standardized Testing standardized tests cant measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes. Students memorize more than they learn and retain and do not learn the same and even teachers have been caught cheating to keep their jobs. Many benefactors even use standardized tests to take advantage of the education system. Standardized tests have undermined education and the success of many students. While the majority of modern peoples and teachers have accepted standardized tests to be the best method for evaluating students mental ability, the reali ty is that they fail to exemplify the true ability of individual students and teachers while also impacting them negatively. Standardized tests distributed by the state are known as high stakes tests. They are called so because schools with high outcomes can get praise and financial rewards while schools with low outcomes are declared unsatisfactory and may receive sanctions. Furthermore, students with low scores may be held back in a certain grade. These are a few of the many stakes on the line with standardized tests. It has only been recently that schools have replaced use of standardized tests for academic placement and for determining student needs, with judging students intelligence and holding them back from diplomas (Kohn). Effects Against Students To most, this idea seems fine, but there are many problems with it. Gregory J. Merchant states that the National Association of School Psychologists believes holding students back is bad policy with devastating effects (3). Many cities have failed students for underachieving in standardized tests. In Baltimore, 20,000 students were held back. For the student, being picked out as the dumb one could damage them psychologically. Individual students could get left behind by the peers and friends they value most in their own grade level. Not only will this effect individuals, but large masses of students get held back leading to anxiety about standardized tests. Students in same level grades might be at different levels of their cognitive development, but due to grade levels use of age instead of intelligence level, many of those students are stuck taking tests created for the upper hand of the class and leaving them the consequences of biological factors. . While it is good to have stude nts be at their own intelligence level with peers, it would be better to change age level based grades. An increase of failure and retention from grade level to grade level could also lead to an increase of dropout rates due to pressure. In Boston, the dropout rate was increased by 300 percent which was directly attributed to standardized tests (Merchant 3). It has also been examined that tests created for educational purposes were biased on minority comprehension (Myers 334). In other words minorities generally do worse on these tests than many of the dominant white majority. This also causes many of those minorities, to feel unsatisfactory and overall dumber. Being Hispanic in high school and observing many of my friends, siblings, and relatives who have dropped out, there have been many occasions in which Hispanics believe they could not further their education. My peers also had the mindset that they were to dropout or just enter the workforce immediately after high school. These stakes not only make students further fear tests but make them wonder, as they drift through school, I this going to be on the test? Anxiety, fear, and anger towards standardized tests are overflowing students minds. Attitudes towards test not only manifest themselves in students through cheating and loafing but also inhibit success on tests by plummeting students with anxiety. (Merchant 4). Ten million students in elementary and secondary schools performed below ability on tests because of anxiety (Merchant 4). Merchant explains a possible increase due to the increased emphasis and importance of testing (4). Tests have shown to cause a lot of physical and psychological problems for students. Truancy and stress all make the education system negatively impact students, especially the young ones. The extent that modern schools make students strive for excellence beyond the busy work of the classroom is pitiful. The most any student needs to know is an equation and numbers to plug in, but there is no actual knowledge of the actual equation used. Now, all that matter is what is going to be on the test. What does mx + b mean when all you do is plug in numbers accordingly. In my experience with school I have never truly needed to know and understand material fully to achieve a good grade even though I have strived to do so. Furthermore I have only had to think critically in a handful of situations. There has been A statistical association between high scores on standardized tests and relatively shallow thinking (Kohn). Although many creative thinkers also score well on tests and many shallow thinkers sometimes score high, the bases that someone can do well on a test by merely copying down answers, guessing a lot, and skipping the hard parts creates an extreme gap in accurate meas urements of students knowledge (Kohn). Many students understand little of the subject or methods being used. While individually effective teachers do help, it is still incredibly difficult to achieve proper measurements in a contemporary day classroom focusing on state tests and other agendas. Tests are now used as a measuring stick for students and teachers achievement but the scores do not properly reflect the quality of academia. To begin with, tests are a comparison of one person relative to the rest of the population of students. This in turn makes it incredibly difficult to set up a test according to the knowledge that should be established at each level. One reason for that being that not everyone at the same age is at the same level. Potential is not measured by where someone is but where they can go. Another negative effect of this idea is that if a state with 140,000 students rose the standard cutoff score for a certain grade to be five more percentiles, 7,000 students would not pass to the next level or be considered average (Merchant 2). For these reasons, students also do not learn what they should learn or gain actual intelligence. Gregory states that basic items that students should master do not show up on tests, and due to limits of time, any certain questions striving to measure knowledge may be too few to have reliable measurements of specific skill (Merchant 3). Gregory even goes on to say that a few good guesses or skipped answers may determine the skill level of students. Standardized tests then show their limitations in assessing real student growth (3). Effects on Teachers For the eighteen years I have been in school striving toward academic achievement and scoring big numbers on standardized tests, the focus has been cognitive development, understanding through thought. Although this is not bad, the ways schools have gone about it is terribly wrong. School, through my experience, has consisted of countless hours of sitting in a room looking up at what teachers were saying. This method, while working for some students, has failed to truly challenge students mentally as well as not significantly teach others. One of the main reasons for these, frankly, boring classes is standardized tests. These functions will ultimately hurt the students. Do teachers try to teach a well-rounded student or a good test taker? Effects of standardized tests are easily found in the classroom. It is also thought that good scores reflect the teachers effectiveness. Waiting time on preparing for tests rather than learning other material is a serious factor. Teachers worried about bad tests scores spend an incredible amount of time teaching students how to take tests instead of teaching learning skills and knowledge (Merchant 4). Teachers begin to focus on materials students need on the tests. The curriculum then starts to be narrowed down. Gregory states that teachers even stop focusing on creative learning, such as projects, to reinstate lecture methods (4). The bad part of this is bad teachers focused on tests could get passed off as good teachers when in fact they are not. Schools cut out music, art, and social studies to focus on reading and math for tests and teach them accordingly to do well on tests, which in turn cuts a major opportun ity of learning for students. Even the ACT science test focusses on students ability to read rather than knowledge of science. These methods do not just hurt students by neglecting countless areas of study but also by subjecting them as equal learners. The theory of Multiple Intelligence tells us that different people think and understand differently. Howard Gardner a well-known psychologist expresses intelligence in eight different packages, one being bodily-kinesthetic which requires movement unlike that of a classroom. Another psychologist, Robert Sternberg, proposed three intelligences. Sternberg called one of these intelligences analytical intelligence which expresses what would be known as intelligence geared for modern school classroom (Myers 330 333). One of the possibly worst outcomes of this new found method is the cheating by teachers throughout the states. Because many states now use tests to measure teachers too, teachers begin to cheat to keep their jobs as well as get better funding. While this idea is not very prevalent there have been a few cases amongst cheating teachers. After asking teachers in two school districts how prevalent they felt cheating on standardized tests was, they responded with multiple cases of belief of cheating as well as witnessing cheating. (Brian 2-3). Jacob Brian in Rotten Apples also goes on to reveal cheating cases in four separate states (2) It is also seen that teachers and many people have found methods for taking tests. In effect, teachers begin to teach these methods in place of critical thinking and real knowledge. Pointing to the conclusion that students, again, do not learn important subjects but methods they might not even understand. Another problem with the teacher side of standardized testing is the parallels needed to be held with state curriculums. One teacher using the methods for student success on tests might look more successful than the ones who teach effectively but not geared for tests. A Possible Politics Angle Politics has also affected the use of standardized tests in the class room. Not for the good cause of not leaving a child behind, but to manipulate schools accordingly. Recently, tests have been overthrowing the education seen but only in the United States. Few countries today give these formal examinations to students before the age of sixteen or so, (Kohn). For the most part the intent of standardized enthusiasts is to raise school standards. There might be some other unseen agenda too though. Some ideas as proposed by Alfie Kohn state that some people intend to use standardized tests to form negative perceptions of public schools in hopes of privatizing education. While schools are still dominated by standardized tests the outcome is looking bright. Hundreds of schools have begun to drop tests like the ACT and SAT from their admissions forms (Kohn). It is seen that standardized tests bring forth more negative effects than they do good. Albeit proponents of standardized tests express concern for incentives to learn, and inhibiting unqualified students from bringing down their peers, using standardized tests produce false measurements and negative effects. .

Martin Luther King Jr. :: Biography

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born at noon Tuesday, January 15, 1929, at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. He was first named Michael Luther King Jr., and later changed his name to Martin, after his father. He was the first son and second child born to the reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King, a schoolteacher.Growing up as an African American in Georgia, Martin experienced and suffered discrimination throughout his boyhood. This discrimination against black people was cruel and demoralizing. Martin Luther King Jr. told once of an experience he had riding a bus with his schoolteacher from Macon to Atlanta, "the driver started cursing us out and calling us black sons of bitches. I decided not to move at all, but my teacher pointed out that we must obey the law. So we got up and stood in the aisle the whole 90 miles to Atlanta. It was a night I'll never forget. I don't think I have ever been so deeply angry in my life."There were many discriminatory laws in the South. They had certain restaurants that they were allowed to eat in, separate water-fountains, separate bathrooms. Just about everything you can think of was segregated. One of his first experiences was with the curtains that were used on the dining cars of trains to separate the whites from the blacks. This incident struck King pretty hard, he said, "I felt just it as if a curtain had come down across my whole life. The insult of it I will never forget."King was an extremely bright student and skipped right through his high school years and entered Atlanta's Negro Morehouse College at age 15. His father encouraged him to study ministry, while he had his heart set on medicine or law. King was embarrassed of his own religion. He didn't understand what all the shouting and stamping was all about. But after reading and rereading Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience," he came to the conclusion that the only way he could bring about his ideas on social protest was through ministry.At Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, King studied the writings and teachings of many philosophers, such as Hegel and Kant, but the person that impressed him the most was Mohandas Gandhi, and his beliefs in a nonviolent protest.

The Articles of Confederation Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Articles of Confederation was America’s first constitution. The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Congress in 1777 and provided for a â€Å"firm league of friendship† between the thirteen independent states. The Articles were in force from March 1, 1781, to June 21, 1788 and had both positive and negative effects on the states. The Articles of Confederation provided a very effective form of government with respect to the western lands but, in contrast, the government under the Articles of Confederation struggled in terms of foreign relations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Congress of the Confederation passed very significant pieces of legislation dealing with the Old Northwest, the area of land south of the Great Lakes, east of the Mississippi River, and to the northwest of the Ohio River. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established the public land policy of the United States that lasted for more than 75 years. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided that the land of the Northwest should be surveyed and sold with the proceeds sent to the Congressional Congress to help alleviate the national debt. They land that was surveyed was to be divided into townships six miles squared, each of which was then to be separated into thirty-six segments of one square mile each. In this monumental piece of legislation, the sixteenth section of each township was to be set aside for public schools. In addition to the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was passed under the Articles of Confederation. The Northwest Ordinance provided for the formation of not less than three, nor more than five, states. The Northwest Ordinance created three stages, in which the first two evolutionary territorial stages would be subordinate to the federal government. In the first stage, the total population included fewer than 5,000 adult males, the officials were appointed by U.S. Congress and included a territorial Governor, Secretary, and three judges. The Governor and judges made laws. Under the second stage, total population included more than 5,000 adult males, there were elected and appointed officials. The government officials included a territorial Governor, a Secretary, three judges and a non-voting Territorial Delegate to U.S. Congress that was elected by the territorial legislature. The law making body under this second stage was a B... ...est with strangulation. Spain also claimed a large territory, north of the Gulf of Mexico including Florida, granted to the United States by the British in 1783. Spain and England together, using their influence among the bitter Indian tribes, prevented America from implementing efficient control over much of its total territory. In addition to the Spanish and English threat, France also provided America with some trouble. France demanded compensation for the money loaned during the war and constrained trade with their West Indies and many of their other ports. Foreign relations were very rough under the Articles Of Confederation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Articles of Confederation did not supply America with a sufficient enough government. The government created under the Articles of Confederation did both positive and negative things for the nation. While the Articles of Confederation provided a fairly effective form of government with respect to the western lands it was not so successful with foreign relations. Under the Articles of Confederation the central government was too weak, the â€Å"firm league of friendship† caused America to be the laughing stock of all nations.

Essay examples --

Our world is made up of many diverse cultures. These cultures have influenced many aspects of this world that we live in today. Understanding and developing knowledge about these cultures is vitally important. Having the ability to understand other cultures will allow you to look deeper into your own cultural values. We will begin with looking at the nation’s largest minority group, which are the Hispanic Americans (Healey, 2012). The Hispanic Americans are divided into many groups. The three largest groups are the Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans (Healey, 2012) and these are the three that will be focused on. Mexican Americans are the largest Latino, or Hispanic American, group. There are many events that have had an influence on the Mexican American way of life. Immigration from Mexico flourished during the Mexico Revolution in 1910. Trouble was arising in Mexico and many people were fleeting hoping to stray away from the issues. After World War II, there was an increased demand for labor. This caused an increase in Mexican American immigration as well. The government of the United States fought back towards the immigration. â€Å"Operation Wetback† was put into place in the 1950s as a program in which almost 4 million Mexicans were deported. Mexican American’s privacy was vandalized, raided and broken into. Operation Wetback caused hard feelings towards Americans and has been a continuing issue for Mexican Americans to accept (Healey, 2012). One of the most significant changes in Mexican society came from the North American Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. In this agreement, th e U.S. began to move their factory operations to Mexico. Jobs were offered at factories along the board but the wages were decreased (Heale... ...us in the nation. According to McKenzie and Rouse (2013), â€Å"79% of African Americans say religion is very important in their lives.† African American religion is carried out in worship settings. They emphasize theology during their messages. The majority of African Americans are Protestant and classifying yourself in a group is highly valued in this society (McKenzie & Rouse, 2013). Just like religion is important in this culture, extended family is as well. The extended family of African Americans is typically described as close-knit. The blood ties of this culture are the strongest bonds. All adults are responsible for a child’s upbringing. They are part of the community and it is the adult’s job to help them grow. Roles and jobs are shared through out the family. Sharing roles and working together are seen as stabilizing factors within the home (Henderson, 1999).

Institution

Institutions are establishments or organizations that contain individuals as a mechanism to maintain control and a secure environment. However, the institution can restrict to an extent of an individual's experience and liberty of the world, resulting in conflict against the institution. Though many individuals apply themselves towards the institution with the nature of compliance, other individuals may be restricted therefore behaving in a conflicting fashion towards the institution.This is demonstrated through Harper Lee’s â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† by concentrating the audience’s attention to the social inequality in Maycomb representing the communities institution. Similarly within Suzanne Collin’s novel â€Å"The Hunger Games†, the institutional government is illustrated and is explored through the situations face by the individuals contained in it. Furthermore, institutional confinements elaborate the hierarchical structure enhancing or limi ting an individual within the system.As represented in Harper Lee’s â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird†, a nature of compliance and defiance is evident within the town of Maycomb. Evaluating on this, the protagonist ‘Atticus’ depicts elements of defiance by resisting to the social means that are accustomed to in the community. Accounting for the institution’s behaviour of containment, people at the top of the institution have the ability of corruption. This is best demonstrated in the court scene where the racist views of the white residents of Maycomb are juxtaposed with Atticus Finch’s desire to represent a black client.The injustice that is present in Maycomb, is best addressed as Atticus challenges the jury to â€Å"do their duty, in the name of God†, as they decide whether Tom Robinson is guilty, despite the fact that there is no â€Å"probable cause† for supposedly raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. This empathetic challenge by Atticus acts as the voice of reason against the racist, regressive elements of â€Å"southern† culture in the 1930’s. The institution, the town of Maycomb has been operating in a corrupt manner by segregated black and white communities within Maycomb.This segregation is again demonstrated in the court some exchanges, as the black citizen must stand in the stalls, whilst â€Å"white folk† cans sit on the same level as the judge and other court officials. In addition, Suzanne Collin’s â€Å"The Hunger Games† illustrates the nature of a governmental institution and how individuals are able to adapt or resist to the establishment. Within the novel, the protagonist Katniss Everdeen is elected to compete in the annual ‘Hunger Games’ a brutal competition containing individuals to signify the former defiance from the past districts.Through the protagonist’s portrayal of defiance, it is evident that one’s institutional thinking u ndergoes transformation, furthermore granting ability of opinion and greatly influencing an individual’s extent of restriction within the institution. This is supported through the statement of a participant of the games, â€Å"if I am going to die, I still want to be me†. Suzanne Collin uses this to express the emotions of a character experiencing the effects the institution, depicting the individuals as a tool or equipment used for manipulation and subsequently dehumanizing the individual.Conversely, within â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† the corrupted institution relies more on the community to progressively change people’s perspective rather than utilising threats. This is shown through the underlying nature of the public on how to behave within the town of Maycomb. Throughout the scene of the confrontation of Atticus Finch outside the town’s jail, the community’s men arise to form a mob creating a single identity. However, when the protago nist Atticus directs him individually towards a man, the man is shown to be contextually righteous and was only conforming to the society’s standards.This proposes the argument whether an institution is built on corruption demonstrated in â€Å"The Hunger Games† or is built on manipulation demonstrated in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird†. Evaluating on the manner of both characteristics of each institution it is evident that they share common aspects. Throughout both texts it is apparent that institutional thinking and institutional behaviours derive from the different social rankings that individuals subconsciously acquire.

My Writing Experience and Thoughts about Different Cultures Essay

First of all, I would like to talk about my writing experience. In China, primary students originally talk about the pictures in primary school. There is no particularly difficult impression in my memory, But when I was in high school, I found a primary school second grade examination paper and I found articles particularly well written. I am surprised, I get so good at writing, but also particularly well written. After, grade level increases, When I was in 5 Grade, the teacher asked me to keep a diary every day, but my mind is empty and I do not know what to write. So I just wrote the diary about what happened each day. I was afraid of my teacher said that I can’t write very well. Later, when I was in junior high school, I still don’t know how to write and what should I write. I remember an unforgettable experience, it is a composition lessons. At that time, my Chinese language teacher ask me to write about the composition of spring as homework, I remembered that I have a book seems to be an article which was written about the spring in my drawer. That’s my cousin’s textbook when he was in high school, I usually read it if I have a spare time. Thus I opened the catalog and found this article, then I excerpt some well written sentences to complete the composition. When I watch the article I accomplished, I wondered how beautiful sentences which I copied form the first paragraph, and it is also especially good at the last. I was so frightened, because I know that if I hand it to my teacher. Not only the teacher didn’t believe I wrote, even I don’t believe it. I should say I was lucky. She was not aware of this problem, but I fe lt so guilty. Later, I found that the author which I copied the original article from is a very famous writer in early China. I think my behavior is disrespectful to him. Since then, I had no interest in plagiarism and I began to write article all by myself. I no longer have a copy of the composition, instead of learning their thoughts. Since that time, I concluded a truth, although the plagiarism is a bad behavior, it is also in the process of looking for good ideas. After that I read a lot of books and learned to analysis and appreciation. It laid the foundation for my future writing, this is a big harvest to me. In the United States, plagiarism is a very serious behavior of cheating, but this is very different to China, In China, language teachers always promote students to learn from those who write a good article, even require students to recite those articles and then students can modify this article into their own article. This is a necessary process in China, a lot of good articles learned in class, the teacher will ask students to recite these articles . For me, writing in English is very different from writing in Chinese, although as a Chinese student I started to learn English when I was very young, and did a lot of English writing since primary school, but English is not my original language. Besides, the English wring practice in China is very limited. Specifically in the model of thinking, Chinese and English are in widely vary. Many times, the sequence of grammar between Chinese and English is the on the opposite, so when we write in English, many sentences are called ‘Chin glish’. It is probably that maybe many Chinese people can understand the meaning but the Americans do not necessarily know the meaning of it. So, English Writing is such a challenge for me, here is the U.S., I wrote the article is not for the Chinese people, it is written for people here to read, I must think the ways in Americanï ¼Å'to let people here know what I say. So the most important thing I have to do is that I must adapt to American life , and learn the way of thinking in American so quickly, then use the thinking of U.S. to writing. Only in this way, I can adapt to life better and complete my studies here . I chose the major of Business Management, so there may be a lot of writing about Business Management in my further study. So I must learn the writing skills and method well in this writing lesson, and then do a better writing in further courses of study. The differences of cultural may cause differences in student’s ability, which is reflected in the students between United States and China very clearly. In China all of the knowledge are imparted to students by teachers, Chinese students only need to remember the knowledge that their teacher told them. If you remember it exhaustiveï ¼Å'you can get a good grades in this course. In the United States , the teachers always train students to focus on the ability which they interested in, regardless of the students’ ideas are correct or not, as long as he has his personal reasons, it will be a good answer. In my opinion, Chinese students have a strong ability to remember so many things though, but they serious lack the ability to think things independently and they lack the imagination. In the classï ¼Å'they are not good at expressing their ideas, because they always looking for the right answer, which could be widely recognized . There are also some differences in writing. In China, junior high school students have a same writing style, The teacher teach them to write with same skills and the contents of the article are almost same at all. Although I do not know the style of American students’ writing, but in my guess, their writing must have their own ideas. In my opinion, whether writing in Chinese or English , we must have our own ideas, Only in this way, articles will be more valuable.

Busy Bee Essay

In this crazy world, everyone is busy with their work, going to school, or doing something for the survival of their lives. A busy bee defines a person who is busy in his/her life and barely has time for their personal and social life. This kind of lifestyle is really complicated and hard to live. A busy bee is a behavior in which a person has little time for friends, is focused on their career and also has a lifestyle of either being a single or can barely provide time for family. First of all myuncle who owns 12 dunking donuts barely has time for his family. He sees his kids or communicates with them once or twice in a week. For him, his business life is more important than his social life with his family. He ought to give first prefrence to his business to make more ‘n’ more money on his bank account. In addition, Olivia Pope from Scandal, to me reflects the behavior of a busy bee. In the show, ‘Scandal’, she appears to be very busy, handling five cases a day, and there is always something going on that she needs to take care of it. As the definition says, she is shown as having no personal life, and mostly she is in the office solving cases since she does as a job as a fixer. Busy bee behavior can also exhibit influential behavior. The bad feeling between what is, and what could be, talks to our frustrations and stirs us into wide awake Influence.I chose this behavior to write about because I can connect to this behavior in such manner that since morning to night, I am running around the whole day to take summer classes or running errands or working. I also uncover some of the valuable realities of how my mind can either work for me or against this influencial being busy behavior. It’s only the weekends I can go back to my normal lifestyle, talk to my family and relax myself. Though Stephen R. Covey famous American educator and author has define busy bee in above mention phrase, â€Å"We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.† To conclude, the behavior of the busy bee is my favorite from all the other behaviors listed because being busy makes me feel like I am accomplishing something from life, it doesn’t give me a chance to get bored and watch shows like sorrow or happiness and it gives me the encouragement to be busy in life. The behavior of a busy bee is an exceptional and unique way to keep going in life. That’s why William Blake said, â€Å"Get busy living, or get busy dying.†