Term Paper on "Standards-Based Education"

Term Paper 5 pages (2200 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Standards-Based Education

Education of all students in United States has to reach the same standard, at least in a particular state. That is the main reason why standards-based education was set up in the country, and since it has existed for some time now, there are different evaluations from different quarters to find out what is really happening. The results are not totally satisfactory to everybody. The judgment of the teachers is through tests to students, as that is the job of teachers - bringing up students to a certain level of knowledge or education. All states decide about the level of knowledge that has to be reached by students there and thus fix up the standards and related tests. While this is a good objective as this will ultimately remove the difference in quality of education in different social levels due to facilities available and capacities of schools, etc. The question is whether this is being achieved. The opinion in the majority of cases is that a lot of difficulties are coming in implementation of these standards, and thus the objective standards are not being achieved. (Gibbs; Howley, 2000)

The first question that has been raised is regarding the correctness of the assumption that these standards enable the public to know how well the schools are performing. The precise definition of standards and the requirement for the same are now being questioned by legislators along with ordinary members of the public. These standards increasingly reduce the linkage of the schools to the community as they are removing the control over local education by the community. The second argument along the same lines is that the standards form a very narrow path for education and this removes the link between their daily lives and what they are taught. The entire set of arguments is about education to make a meaning to the lives of students, and this is not being done enough through the tests by the boards that come with the process of standardization.

This suggestion means that local schools should be free to design and offer changed curricula in local areas that are more related to the children who live in that area. This sort of an education will also be more meaningful to the children as they will be able to relate education to their daily life. The aim of this change is to remove the education of children from a small, basic core of knowledge to a knowledge that is required to make a useful contribution to the society. The method can be a teaching of new subjects combined with the existing standards. At the same time, often the local items may not be of much educational value, and the entire exercise by the local educators may be just efforts to demonstrate their efforts at modifying curriculum to the local authorities - in other words to show off their authority. In the end this may not end up improving the quality of education that is being received by the students. In other matters of life that the students will have to face - like personal development, ethical decision making, commitment to participation to civic life, etc. - there may be improvement. (Gibbs; Howley, 2000)

Another interesting feature of education in schools in America is that results clearly show graduation rates in the country have been falling. A study on this was done with the data collected at national, state and state ethnic groups regarding enrollment and graduation data through six alternative methods. The study clearly showed that high school graduation rates in the country have been falling, and that black and Hispanic students are lagging further behind the white students. This is in spite of the standards which were expected to bring all students to the same level. The methods of analysis did not make much difference to the results that came out. This is a very serious problem in American education as if students are not able to graduate even from high school, then their opportunities for employment and opportunities for leading a useful life in society are curtailed. Earlier there was a lot of effort to show that there are differences in achievement in test scores by these students, but the problem is even more serious - the capability of certain students to continue education in the system is being questioned. The large number of drop outs has another effect - the students who continue in school have better results as they are clearly more capable students. The graduation rates are also significant from the existing set of rules point-of-view as the new "No child left behind Act" necessitates the states to report high school graduation rates as variables of school quality. (U.S. High School Graduation Rates Continue to Fall Race Gaps Remain Large: New Study Compared Six Different Methods and All Show Declining Graduation Rates in U.S. And Most States) At the same time, there are no established federal methods to calculate graduation rates and thus different states are using different methods. The total picture should be looked at and the methods modified to have more effective reporting of graduation rates.

There was another study to examine the enrolment and graduation rates at the national level and state levels. This showed that the rate of loss of students has tripled in 1999-2000 from the position thirty years ago. The loss of students is highest in grades 9 and 10, and the worst situation is in the south - Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Another group of states were Nevada, Hawaii and New York. According to the expert concerned "It appears that the pressures of high stakes tests are generating educational strategies that deform, rather than reform the system for the customers of our public education system - our children." (Where Have All the Students Gone?) The worst part of it is that a goal of school graduation rate of 90% had been set in 1994 but only two states of New Jersey and Wisconsin managed to meet the target in 2000 to 2001. The worst part of it is that as many as 24 states had graduation rates were at 75% or less. The idea does not become clear as most states do not report data on flunked students or repeat students. The state data on the subject is also unreliable. (Where Have All the Students Gone?) This has to be viewed in line with the observations in the earlier paragraph and it is clear that number of students has dropped. This may not be a fault of the standards system in itself, but the system has to take into account the problems and make needed changes.

Though it had been assumed that the change to a standards system was easy, it was not so in at least some states like Kentucky. The charge for the switch was left to Kentucky Department of Education and they had to go through an extensive professional development program to complete the change. The reasons for this is that many of the schools in Kentucky are located in remote rural areas connected only by mountain roads, and those schools are very difficult to travel to in winter. At the same time, all schools had to be reached and the department started nine regional service centers and these were the sources of service to the districts, schools and individual teachers. At the same time, the schools to be contacted were not very close to those service centers, and many of those schools were very poor. To help the schools even further, there was a requirement of materials and activities for meeting the needs of the teachers of the schools. This was developed by the department. (Professional Development: A Key to Kentucky's Reform Effort) Thus even for the process of standardization a lot of activities have to be taken up by departments, and these lead to the success or failures of the programs.

One of the biggest problems has been on the issue of responses by the teachers as even their responses vary on the severity of the stakes attached to the results of the tests. These are regarding questions on the pressure that comes on teachers, emphasis on preparation by teachers, time that has to be devoted to the content that will be put under test, and the accountability for the program. The other variation is in the opinion of teachers about elementary, middle, and high school levels due to the tests conducted by the state. The opinion of the teachers is very important regarding school climate and classroom use of results of tests. There are some situations where an interesting patterns that are shown in teacher's responses due to the stakes and grade levels. In other cases, no differences are seen at all. (Perceived Effects of State-Mandated Programs on Teaching and Learning: Findings from a National Survey of Teachers)

When there is pressure, the teachers' report that students are under… READ MORE

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