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State Testing and No Child Left Behind

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Educating students to be successful in college or in the workplace continues to be a source of concern for parents and educators at the state level. In spite of the testing requirements laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB), test scores still vary significantly from state to state and fail to provide a consistently accurate national picture of academic achievement and students ability to compete.

A 2006 hearing conducted by the Commission on No Child Left Behind at Cambridge, Massachussetts listed concerns that are still timely. A major concern expressed during the hearing was the inconsistency of quality and rigor found in different state testing programs. There is also a widely held belief that in some cases these varying standards are an attempt to avoid NCLB sanctions.  Tied into the variance in state tests was the concern that it would be extremely difficult to accurately measure and compare the progress made between states.  Other participants stated that learning expectations set by some states do not match college and workplace realities. The hearing’s major conclusion was that schools need to encourage students to develop tests that encourage higher expectations and more consistent testing standards among the states. One of the suggestions offered was that national standards should be developed to place all states on a level playing field for scoring and analysis.

America is percieved by many eduators as falling behind in mathematics and the sciences – the fundamental skills needed for this country’s continuing leadership in the development of scientists and engineers in the 21st century. This is the challenge educators face and it begins in grammar and high school.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: , ,

What are Standardized Tests?

A standardized test is a test that contains many questions with multiple answers and this can be filled by many test takers all at once. These tests are graded quickly using scanning devices. This type of test is normally conducted to compare different test takers against each other. These tests are conducted to analyze progress in the schools and also to grade students according to their abilities.

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Standardized tests can be taken on computer or on paper. The test taker is normally provided with problems, questions, or statement and they are given with multiple choice answers below to choose. Most of the times, the answers are not straight-forward and the test takers are expected to use some methods or read paragraphs to solve the problem. The students are required to select the best answer and after the allocated test time period, all the answer sheets are collected for scoring.

Some of the great benefits of this testing method are quick grading, very cheap, and analysts can look at different samples of answers at one time. This way, analysts measure the progress of one school by comparing the result with another similar school. This testing procedure is followed to monitor the students’ learning curve, review or modify the existing curriculum in the school, identify different areas of need, and also provide some vital data for the educational research.

Often, teacher promotion and school accreditation rely on the result of this test. Standardized tests are very helpful for the admissions in higher education and the test takers are assessed under the same conditions.

 

Filed Under: Education, Graduate School Tagged With: , ,

What Makes a Great Teacher

Most adults can remember at least one teacher that made a real impression on them, whether by encouraging future study and personal growth or inspiring them toward a particular goal. Unfortunately, many adults can also remember at least one teacher who had a more negative effect on their development, attitude and self-esteem. Being a good teacher means being able to successfully communicate concepts, help students understand and incorporate them in practical applications, and motivate students to finish their assigned tasks and study for tests. A great teacher, however, is a much more rare and difficult-to-define individual.

What makes a teacher great can vary wildly, however, there are certain characteristics and habits that all great teachers exhibit. For instance, a great teacher can not only motivate students to learn a concept; they will instead instill a desire in their students to explore on their own. While good teachers can get their students to read and discuss Shakespeare, great teachers can get their students to look for deeper meanings, or autonomously investigate similar authors. Good teachers can make students care about what they are learning, while a truly great teacher makes students wonder what else they could learn about.

Great teachers are interested in more than just a child’s test scores and attendance; they are focused on each student’s self-esteem and personal growth. They have a passion for their particular subjects and they are able to impart that passion to those they teach. They understand that they are not simply providing information; they are the doors to a wider perspective and comprehension, without which the concept of learning becomes simple memorization.

Filed Under: Education, Requirements Tagged With: , ,

Preparing Kids for Standardized Tests

With the addition of the ”No Child Left Behind Act,” schools are focused more than ever on the results of state standardized tests. Because school funding is based upon the results, many teachers are encouraged to focus more on teaching toward the test, rather than concentrating on the concepts and theories behind the practical applications. Parents can help fill in the gaps by preparing their children for standardized tests, but only if they are prepared and willing to ask questions. Because public schools are forced to take these tests so seriously, they should be able to answer any questions that parents might have concerning the nature, subject material and testing procedures. Armed with this information, parents can work with their kids to help achieve a much better outcome.

Make sure your child understands the subjects and concepts that will be covered on the test, as well as the procedures for the test. For instance, you should encourage your child to take all of the time provided for each test section. Finishing early only means that he or she will have an opportunity to review the answers and check for errors and mistakes. Your child should also have an opportunity to practice taking similar tests prior to the big day. Reassure children that they are capable, remind them of previous successes and of their strengths, and encourage them to practice good study skills that will also help them prepare. Finally, sending your child off to school with a nutritious breakfast helps to calm the nerves and provide ample fuel for the rigorous mental challenges.

Filed Under: Education, Standards Tagged With: , ,

No Child Left Behind Program

The ”No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001 was signed into law by former U.S. President George W. Bush, and remains one of his most important accomplishments while in office. The act is designed to encourage standards-based evaluation of students and schools alike, and to force public schools to comply with and meet certain federal standards in order to receive funding. While many legislators claim that the act is necessary to ensure fair and equitable standards in education, teachers and parents complain that it encourages a number of less-than-desirable outcomes such as increased segregation in public schools, lack of attention for high-performing and gifted students, and an over-reliance on standardized testing to evaluate the progress of students.

One of the biggest concerns about the act is that it encourages teachers to focus only on the material that will be covered on the standardized tests. Spending additional time drilling certain applications means that there is little or no time to be spent on practical and theoretical implications. For instance, teachers may encourage memorization of addition and multiplication tables while completely neglecting any explanation on how those figures are arrived at. This can contribute to students who are able to add, but unable to apply mathematical concepts to word problems.

There is little doubt that the ”No Child Left Behind Act” is not completely successful in its aims, however, legislators have yet to define a better solution. While President Obama’s State of the Union address in early 2011 mentioned a renewed focus on the program and promised that attention would be given to fixing it, teachers and administrators continue to labor under a system that devalues exceptional performance in both students and educators.

Filed Under: Education, Student Tagged With: , ,

SAT and ACT Prep Classes Create Imbalance of Opportunity

Every year, dozens of scholarships are offered to recent high school graduates based on either their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or American College Testing (ACT) score. While these tests were originally formed to help lower-income students become eligible for scholarships and programs previously only accessible to students at private and expensive academies, these tests have now once again alienated the students they aimed to serve.

Recent studies have suggested that students who participate in a SAT or ACT prep class have a significant increase in their score on either test. This is because the tests are designed in a way that does not only test knowledge, but requires an understanding on how the test works. Most students will not gain this understanding unless they participate in some sort of prep class, which have recently become popular in wealthier school districts. By understanding how the test includes trick questions and other information, students are able to score much higher simply by knowing how to take the test.

The problem with this system is that most schools only offer these prep classes for an expensive fee, if they offer them at all. This excludes lower-income children from the higher advantage given to students whose families can afford such a class. It creates an uneven playing field, putting the wealthier children ahead of the less fortunate students. This is so important because many scholarships are significantly if not solely based on these test scores, meaning that lower-income students are now even more limited in their scholarship options.

While these tests were created to allow students not attending a private high school the opportunity for scholarships towards a college degree, these same tests are now limiting these opportunities. Some teachers have advocated for the construction of these classes in every school free of charge, but this is extremely difficult as most school districts are already lacking funds. Whether the tests need to be completely reconstructed, or whether all schools should now offer these prep classes free of charge is not clear, but something in the system must change.

Filed Under: General, SAT Tagged With: , ,

Reaching the Top, in Spite of it All

Standardized testing is a slippery slope at times. On the one hand, you have people who think that because their test scores are a certain way they either don’t have to try anymore or they confirm that they are in fact the cream of the crop. But on the other hand, you also have people who think that the mediocrity of their test scores (since, by definition most students are going to be in that broad group known as “somewhere in the middle”) means that they are just mediocre people by nature. While this is true in some senses of the word, it may not be reasonable to put such measurements on people.

After all, everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. And for some people, their greatest strength lies in aligning themselves with people who have strengths which they personally lack. True, not everyone is Henry Ford, who sued someone for libel and won his case by calling in his various experts on any given topic on which he might be questioned. Wouldn’t it be lovely to just hire people who know pretty much any kind of information you might ever want to have available to you? There’s a very good reason why onlinembarankings.com is accessible to anyone, after all.

No matter where you fall in the spectrum on standardized tests, you can achieve pretty much anything you can imagine yourself doing. If you think of yourself as an underachiever, then that’s what you’ll be. If you think of yourself as someone who performs at the optimal level all the time, then you have a destiny of being amazing ahead of you. How you see yourself is infinitely more important than what your aggregate skills and aptitudes are on one given day. The problem every educational system is going to have to deal with is, how do we identify the skills of our students?

Filed Under: Cause & Effect, Education Tagged With: , ,

The Main Areas of Testing For Conformity Assessment

Conformity Assessment is the act of ensuring that goods, products or services are able to meet predefined standards of quality or effectiveness. This ensures that consumers are increasingly aware of what they are buying, and can have confidence in the quality that is implied through that product.

Normally, the procedures related to conformity assessment are related to three main areas, and may spread onto more related areas depending on the sort of product that is being examined.

The first of these areas is product/service testing to ensure that it can meet or exceed standardized testing procedures designed to put the product through the rigors it would meet in every day usage, but in a controlled laboratory environment.

The second area is the implementation of a management system to ensure that any relevant products are continually developed in a way that is compliant with standards of both quality and safety. Even the most expertly designed products can ultimately fail in the marketplace if the facilities manufacturing them are not required to demonstrate their commitment to certain standards that have been set forth. Officials from the European Organisation for Conformity Assessment must also ensure clear and efficient distribution channels for such products, so that they can reach consumers with a limited amount of hassle.

Finally, an inspection process must occur to investigate whether such products in question have followed regulated procedures during their design and manufacturing process. This is especially important for product types such as fire extinguishers, baby products or electrical appliances, since they could cause serious damages, personal injury or even death in the event that they were built or conceived in a faulty manner.

The European Organisation for Conformity Assessment strives to present easily understood standards that can be followed by manufacturers and distributors, and ultimately protect the consumer.

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