“Learning is about so much more than just filling in the right bubble.” – President Barack Obama
What’s the deal?
President Obama wants to fix the “No Child Left Behind” act that Bush signed back in 2002. Click here for more details.
Why does it need fixing?
Even if a student has studied for hours, they blank out and fail tests. This doesn’t mean the student is below the other students that passed, it simply means that this student has test anxiety and needs a different way of assessment. If you assess every student as if they are the same, you are going to lose some students on the way.
According to Obama, these are the three key ways to put education back on track:
- Only give tests that are of high quality (worth taking)
- Taking tests should only take 2% of class time
- Tests should only be used as one way to measure a student’s progress
The FIRST STEP is important because no one wants their child forced to take a test that is either pointless or rigged. Doesn’t it annoy you when you look at the multiple choice answers and it feels like almost every. single. answer could be the correct one?
The SECOND STEP is important because if a test takes up the entire class period, the student is losing valuable time that they could be learning something new.
The THIRD STEP is, in my opinion, the most important of the three steps. A test is simply a way to sort students into categories of who knows what. A test is also one of the many ways to assess what a student has learned. Lately, tests are the most frequent ways of assessment but it is by far the best way. A test makes the assumption that every student is the same. This assumption is false because not every student learns the same or can handle the stress of a test as well as another student.