There is an old adage that "all good things must come to an end". It seems that despite the good intentions of "No Child Left Behind" a group of important lawmakers are reforming education, once again.
According to an article found in the online journal, District Administration, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is proposing educational law that would eliminate the use of standardized tests in reading and math to label schools across the United States as either "failing" or "competent". The discussion on eradicating this bill has been very heated and has caused a great amount of turmoil as our schools continue to struggle to meet the educational gaps in our country. Personally, I have found that the idea of rating a school based on a math and reading test - to be very short sighted in light of what the school accomplishes every day. Similar to what happens in the corporate world, your evaluation is not based on some arbitrary date that your supervisor came in to "observe" you, but a culmination of work efforts and accomplishments achieved over the course of that review period. This is how it was when I managed people, I certainly do not understand why that cannot apply to our students.
I hope that as a country, we can come together to help our students have access to not only the education that they deserve, but the skills that will help prepare them in competing for the jobs of the future. Perhaps focusing on "how to learn new skills" in addition to learning how to communication effectively in any given situation would be as important as reading and understanding how to calculate a math problem.
According to an article found in the online journal, District Administration, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is proposing educational law that would eliminate the use of standardized tests in reading and math to label schools across the United States as either "failing" or "competent". The discussion on eradicating this bill has been very heated and has caused a great amount of turmoil as our schools continue to struggle to meet the educational gaps in our country. Personally, I have found that the idea of rating a school based on a math and reading test - to be very short sighted in light of what the school accomplishes every day. Similar to what happens in the corporate world, your evaluation is not based on some arbitrary date that your supervisor came in to "observe" you, but a culmination of work efforts and accomplishments achieved over the course of that review period. This is how it was when I managed people, I certainly do not understand why that cannot apply to our students.
I hope that as a country, we can come together to help our students have access to not only the education that they deserve, but the skills that will help prepare them in competing for the jobs of the future. Perhaps focusing on "how to learn new skills" in addition to learning how to communication effectively in any given situation would be as important as reading and understanding how to calculate a math problem.
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