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PES Canton

Name: _______________________
Date: ____________ Hour: _____

Education Standards Reading Packet Questions

Editorial Observer; Why the United States Should Look to Japan for Better Schools by Brent Staples
1. Why, according to Mr. Staples, did the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) create a “squabble” about testing?
The Squabble about testing was created by the NCLB because a part of the required annual testing in early grades to ensure that
the states are closing the achievement gap.
2. Name the two topics that Mr. Staples says the United States has yet to approach.
The United States had yet to approach how teachers are trained and how teachers teach what they teach.

3. What is a “lesson study” and how is it supposed to help educators?


A lesson study is where teachers work cooperatively and intensively to improve their teaching methods. This is supposed to help
educators allows teachers to revise and refine lessons that are then shared with other teachers. This also creates a publicly accessible
knowledge base of what works in classrooms.

4. How did states get around the NCLB penalty when a school failed to show improvement in student performance? How did
the states’ strategy get exposed?
The states got around the NCLB penalty by lowering state standards as low as possible and making state tests easy. This strategy was
exposed when states performed so well on their own state tests, but preformed dismally in the more rigorous test, the National
Assessment of Educational Progress.

5. What educational trend is seen as fundamental in the U.S. but as heresy in Japan?
The educational trend that school officials have embraced is the millions of children are incapable of high level learning.

Standards – Introduction by Diane Ravitch


6. How many local school districts and state boards of education do we have in the US and what do they have to do with
decentralized decision-making concerning education.
There are 15,000 local school districts, and 50 state boards of education, they create the test, how there going to teach the kids and
create the system.

7. In 1989, President Bush and nation’s governors set national education goals to be reached by the year 2000. Describe each one.
Two of the six goals president Bush set were to increase academic achievement, the third goal was that American students would
leave the 4th, 8th and 12th grade demonstrating a competency in challenging subjects, and being able to use their minds to be good
citizens and works in our economy, the fourth goal was that American students would be first in the world in science and
mathematics, and the other goals focused on helping preschool children/

8. The Clinton administration’s Goals 2000 program was enacted into law in 1994. Both the Bush and Clinton administrations
recognized that if goals 3 & 4 were to be achieved, these two things would be needed.
The two things that would be needed were national standards, and comparable assessments to determine if the actually learned

9. List 9 reasons why policy makers and the public were ready to consider national standards as a remedy for their ailing schools.
• In the 1970’s, there were declines in student performances on tests and led to reports on the quality of education.
• The public was dismayed in the 1980’s by poor performance of American students on international math and science
assessments.
• Public officials and education leaders embraced the ideas that schools should be judged not only by input but also by output or
student performance
• The persistence of gaps in educational achievement between different races which hindered the quest for social equality
• Low expectations were contributing to the poor performances
• Changes in the economy increased inequality between the well educated and those who where not
• Americans worried that badly educated young people might impair the nations productivity
• There was a consciences that there was no reliable measures of an individuals assessment

10. List some reasons why national standards and assessments are not likely to cure all of the ills of education.
Some reasons are that standards are unlikely to make much differences in schools, were adults have not established an orderly
climate for education. Also this wouldn’t form a solution for preschool programs, decent recreational facilities and breake social
trend that lead to destructivity
PES Canton
11. Although national standards and assessments can’t cure all of the ills of education, the real purpose behind them is (see p. 5 –
right column – paragraph 3)?
The real purpose is to raise academic achievement for all, signal students and teachers about the potential that hard work can
bring and to motivate students to have higher aspirations in their school work

12. What are the arguments against having markedly different State standards for math, science, and English?
No matter where you go across the united states, math science and English that students need to know are the same everywhere.
It doesn’t care about culture, religon or race, it is the same material

13. Are those who advocate for national standards and assessments also calling for how the subjects should be taught?
People who are advocating for national standards and assessments are not asking for how the subjects to be taught

Experts Warn States Against the Risk of High-Stakes Testing


14. What is a high stakes test?
A high stakes test is a test in which if a student does not pass the test, he or she may be held back a year or denied a diploma

15. What conditions did the American Educational Research Association place on using high stakes testing to judge a school’s
effectiveness?
Adequate resources and opportunity to learn, making sure schools use the right tests, and no high stakes decisions are made on the
basis of one test are the conditions did the American Educational Research Association places on using higer stakes testing to judge a
schools effectiveness

Standardized Testing and Its Victims by Alfie Kohn


16. List the 8 facts Alfie Kohn uses to dismiss standardized testing.
• Our children are tested to an extent and unparalleled anywhere else in the world
• Nonistructional factors explain most of the variances among tests scores when districts are compared
• Tests were never intended to measure the quality of learning or teaching
• Standardized test scores often measure superficial thinking
• Most speaclists condemned the use of standardized test on children younger than 8 or 9
• Most relevant experts and organizations condemned basing important decisions on the results on one test
• The time money and energy that goes into preparing students for the tests have to come from somewhere
• Many educators are leaving the field because of what is being done to schools in the name of accountability

17. List the 5 reasons why Kohn believes that high stakes tests mark a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality, and
from equity.
• The tests may be biased towards privileged children
• Privileged children can better afford test preparation
• The quality of education and instruction declines most for those who have the least education and instruction
• Those who tests are supposed to help are being driven out
• Standards are the main ingredient that is low

Standardized Tests: Common Questions – an interview with Kathy Swope


18. What is a standardized test?
A test that has the same questions, the same directions, time limits and the same answers. Usually the tests are multiple choice.

19. What’s wrong with standardized tests?


The test questions only have one answer, so multiple perspectives are not taking into account. Also these tests are designed to sort and
rank test takers, so no matter how good a field of students do, fifty percent of kids will fail.

20. If we don’t have standardized tests, how do we know how our schools and children are doing?
There are other ways to asses how students are doing, one alternative is performance based assessments. Also compling a portfolio of
a students work over the years of highschool is an alternative assessment.

21. Why do African-American and Latino students generally perform less well than Whites on standardized tests?
For one most non white students don’t get the opportunity of a rigorous, challngeing better educatuion than the whites. Also there is a
test bias, ranging from the subject matter of the test to wording of questions.

22. What are high stakes tests?


PES Canton
A high stakes test is a test that determines very important educational matters, such as should a student be held back, given a diploma
or accepted into a college
23. Testing is everywhere in society. What’s wrong with teaching kids how to take standardized tests?
We as a society have a responsibility and opportunity to create a more just and equitable world, and we can not do that if we continue
to rely of the status quo of standardized testing.

Different Strokes for Different Folks? By Steven A. Stahl


24. What is a learning style? Provide examples of different types of learning styles.
A learning style is the preferred way some one likes to be taught material. Some examples of different types of learning styles are
visual learning, anayaltic learning and auditory learning.

25. What does education research say about learning styles? Why are they hard to prove?
The research about learning styles say that one can not realizably measure childrens reading styles, and even if you did match
children’s reading programs to learning styles it would not improve their learning. It is hard to prove because even if all the studies
disproves a type of learning style, its always possible one study well come out a prove it.

26. Who is Howard Gardner and what would his research say about using a standardized test to judge a student’s achievement.
Howard Gardner is some one who suggested that people vary along at least seven different dimensions of intelligence. His research
would say that using a standardized test to judge a students achievement is a very bad thing. He would say that a standardized test
would only hit upon one type of intelligence, when in fact there are many other types of intelligences that are beign excluded from
this testing. It might not accurately measure the achievement of a student.

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