Over recent years, the debate of whether or not to continue using standardized testing to evaluate college applicants has been somewhat controversial. Although college may not necessarily ensure success in the future, is not the only path in which success can be found, and is not a good path for every student, a majority of students that graduate high school want to go to college and need to know what it is they need to accomplish before their four years are up. Some of the colleges shifting to the idea of accepting applicants not based on test scores think that the potential to do well in college shouldn’t be based on these things. These argue that personal traits and characteristics are what determine success. Traits like these aren’t truly measurable though. A student's character should be a factor in their acceptance to college, but this must be supplemented with grades and standardized tests scores.
Mike Rose, in his excerpt from Why School?, questions the reliability of the educational system and its key focus on economic readiness. He states that schools stress the importance of economics, accountability, and compliance over previously sought over qualities like curiosity, intellect, and courage. Rose argues that education is spread mainly due to economic motivation; money motivates society more than dreams and desires. This economic focus is combined with assessments to calculate the number of students who do poorly in school and weed them out. Rose believes the economic motive merged with this assessment restricts what should be the main focus of school: development.
When I first hear about National Honor Society in the beginning of my middle school years I knew that it was something I not only wanted to be a part of but that I was meant to be a part of.
Getting good grades is the main focus of today’s student. Because of this, unfortunately, they
Levine claims that schools are starting to expand the quality of the student body by the rate of the students standardized test (22). Colleges are not looking to get students who do not apply themselves, but also, colleges are making it harder for the poor students that are trying to better their education. Along the same lines, Graff reminds us of the competition of comparing test scores in school (249). Graff explains, in school scores are made up by one’s reading ability, instead of, like in sports, the actual competition itself or arguing (249). Overall schools are using test scores as a way to compete with education instead of looking out for the best interests of the
Intrinsic value defines itself to be a set of ethics that is dependent upon an individual’s morals. The intrinsic value of anything is often given a hidden meaning. Alfie Kohn’s essay “How not to get into College”, Heron Jones’s poem “Somnambulist”, and the episode “Rosebud” from the television show, The Simpsons, shows how finding true meaning and motivation in life can be very difficult and also reveals deeper meaning of how it is better to be motivated intrinsically rather than extrinsically.
Had Rose and her mother been educated enough, they could have a voice to raise concerns about Rose’s marks. The author seems to suggest that the teachers were responsible for his underperformance. The author feels that parental and teacher responsibility on his part could have helped understanding what discipline is before going to college. However, it is also possible that he did not try hard enough to be disciplined. Nonetheless, Rose is right that environment plays a bigger role in what an individual eventually becomes in adult life (Munns et all, 2013).
“Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must be an escape from poverty” this was said by Lyndon B Johnson in 1964 and the problem he was addressing back then, has grown and become far larger and more destructive. The average Canadian student acquires 27,000$ of debt trying to earn what in our society today is necessary, to live a safe, happy and fulfilling life. Without higher education you are not likely to be able to do what you want with your life. Within the last two decades university prices have doubled and along with it so have interest rates. This enforces and maintains the trend of the rich staying rich and the poor staying poor; because of the high price less wealthy people are unlikely to be able to afford university and get a good job.
These three authors expose their experience with education at three different levels: high school, college and self-education. At the end, it does not matter how people get it, but it does make a different in their lives. People who receive an education are more likely to be successful and live a healthy and happy live; but those do not are more likely to live in poverty. Since it will help the economy to have better equipped citizens, the government should make college education free for
In Kurt Wiesenfeld’s article “Making the Grade”, he address the issue that students want a higher grade than they deserve. He goes on to prove this be by giving examples of previous students that he has had and what can happen when students get the grades that they want and not what they deserve.
All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 of Australian schools will soon sit The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which assesses them using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. It is possible to see how much progress in literacy and numeracy a student has made as they advance through schooling, by the introduction of ten achievement bands from Year 3 to Year 9.
Many people dream of a life filled with riches, but that dream is hard to obtain without a college degree. It is somewhat ironic how people dream of being a successful student and going to college but the cost of tuition turns that dream into a horrible nightmare. It is not a shock to most people when they that college tuition is expensive, but in the past few years it has increased to an all-time high. Lower and middle class students have now begun to realize that college tuition is holding them away from their dreams. Even though college tuition could provide opportunities for job creation and economic growth, tuition is not affordable for the average American household which in effect, prohibits students from taking opportunities like going to college in the first place. Since tuition has risen 3 times higher the rate of inflation in the past 10 years, this increase a student’s chances of not being able to afford higher education and also gives them a better chance of accumulating debt post-graduation.
Students are fully aware of the positive and negative consequences of grade inflation whether it is something as simple as a grade curve or as drastic as a student trying to bargain their way into graduation. However, another smaller issue that arises is the “participation trophy.” When doing something, everyone gets an equal amount of victory. When discussing this topic in class, I realized that many of my peers saw participation trophies and inflated grades as one in the same. Both items apparently trigger narcissism and false hope in children. I choose to disagree. Grade inflation and participation trophies are both controversial aspects of a student’s life, but they are not the same. Each issue has its own causes and solutions. To me, grade inflation is more
With a recent increase in presidential power and a new presidential cabinet, concerns have began to arise regarding state rights and independence. One of these concerns is school choice in the form of school vouchers. The use of school vouchers has been a state decision, and Texas has always been a school voucher free state. Not only the national government favors private-school voucher legislation (with Betsy DeVos as the new United States Secretary of Education); so does Texas. Texas’ Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, urges the private-school voucher bill (SB 3) to pass the Texas House (as it has already passed the Senate).
Grades are an important part of the school system. Grades set the extraordinary students apart from the ordinary ones. In Jerry Farber’s essay, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System,” he argues that grades are the only motivation students have in school. Farber even calls it “phony motivation.” He argues that students do not actually learn anything. Farber also argues that I disagree with Farber’s viewpoint on the grading system and the effect on students.