Each state's standards and testing are different, but all have the same goal of providing consistent, quality education, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Beginning in 2014, students must not only be determined to be 'proficient' in these three core subjects, but schools must make Adequate Yearly Progress overall and for specific demographic subgroups (Murnane & Pappay, 2010).
Although there are benefits to the NCLB, including the accountability measures that have been established that have set clearer expectations, there are also drawbacks to these standards as well. There has been an increasing concern regarding the inordinate amount of time that teachers must spend preparing students for the standardized tests. Although this prep may improve students scores on these tests, teachers have reported that there is often "no improvement in their underlying proficiency. (in fact,...) according to a national survey, 40% of all teachers 'reported that they had found ways to raise state test scores without really improving learning'" (Murnane & Pappay, 2010, p. 156). This "teaching to the test" is a significant concern.
Improving the curriculum standards and standardized testing requirements to ensure that not only do students test well, but also actually learn the skills needed to do well in the future in these subjects. In addition, although math, language arts and science are critical educational areas, schools need to make certain that students are receiving well-rounded educations. In this way, American students won't simply perform well during that one instance of testing, but will have the knowledge needed to build future educational skills.
Today's Classroom:
Today's classroom is significantly different from just a generation ago. Today's classroom is technology driven, where teachers are required to not only have skills in instruction, but also be technically skilled as well. Technologically-enhanced classrooms not only use computers and Smart Boards to facilitate learning, but they also integrate emerging technological trends, including blogs and social media, like Facebook, to help teachers interact with their peers. In this way, teachers can enhance their existing competences (Murugaiah, Azman, Ya'acob, & Siew, 2010).
Technology in today's classroom offers many benefits to both students and teachers; however, there are challenges with implementing technologies as well. For schools, increased technology usage means higher costs, for equipment, teacher training and for Information Technology staff to support the new technologies. In addition, the focus on the core lessons can be lost to the technological tools being used. It can be difficult for students too to have to learn new technologies in addition to the educational skills being taught. Lastly, if technologies are not dispersed evenly across schools it can further widen the...
School Shootings by Adults or Juveniles [Criminal Justice] The increased number of school shooting incidents in America during the last two decades has gained public attention. Authorities are very much concerned regarding how to control these tragic incidents in the schools of different states. These shootings in schools conducted by adults or juveniles; have created an impression that schools are not a safe place for students. However, in reality the situation is not
In suburban areas, on the other hand, the economic opportunities are diverse and the population is less dense. Here parents are motivated to educate their child and the child gets higher individual attention from the teachers than those in the urban areas where population density is very high (Broomhall and Johnson, 1994; and Hanson and Ginsburg, 1988). Since educational aspirations of parents, students and teachers differ by population density
School Finance Aguilar v Felton EDUCATION AND RELIGION The Aguilar et al. v Felton et al. Case of 1985 Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 allowed for the reimbursement of the salaries of public employees teaching in parochial schools (LII, 2012). These selected teachers provided instruction to low-income children with special needs. A group of taxpayers filed a case, claiming that the program created an excessive entanglement of
School bullying was never considered as a real social problem until 1980's. The recent escalation in School bullying has gained attention of the masses throughout the world. Several suicide and homicide cases were highlighted by media where bullying was found to be an important factor involved. Out of 37 shooting events in different schools, nearly two third of the shooters were found to be victims of bullying in their life
From each of the four classes, the researcher will randomly select 5 students to undertake the CSCL tool teaching method, this will ensure that the students are selected without any conscious or unconscious prejudices. These students (20 from the four classes) will form Group A. The rest of the students (Group B) will be taught using existing teaching methods used by the school for teaching the subject. In the event
Schools and Education Over the last several years, the field of education has been facing tremendous challenges. This is because of shifts in how they address a host of issues and there are changing demographics of students. These are all signs of broader social implications which are having an effect on individual performance and their ability to adapt with a variety of situations. (Rury, 2013) Evidence of this can be seen with
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