Blog 13: Testing the Teachers

      This article, written by David Brooks is discussing the amount of money colleges are charging, but the benefit these schools are providing is not clear. The impressiveness comes from the surging application rates, the international renown, and the fancy new dining and athletic facilities. He states that colleges are supposed to produce learning. In the study, “Academically Adrift,” Richard arum and Jospa Roksa found that, most of the time, students experienced a pitiful seven percentile point gain in skills during their first two years on college and a slight gain in the two years after that. This study suggests that just about half of the students showed no significant gain in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills during their first two years in college. There was another study which found that student motivation actually declines over the first year in college. Also, according to surveys of employers, only a small amount of college graduates have the writing and thinking skills required to do their jobs. Colleges today are definitely less demanding. In 1961, students spent an average of 24 hours a week studying. Today’s students spend about half of that time. Colleges are going to start being tested to find out how they are doing. They are going to do this through value-added assessments.

      This is most definitely a social problem. There are colleges all over the world charging students thousands upon thousands of dollars to attend their school, and the students are not even benefiting from it. Eventually, parents are going to decide not to pay the high prices if all their children get is an empty credential and a fancy car-window sticker. The point of going to school to obtain a higher education degree is to receive a good quality education, and students today are not getting that. I think that value added assessments could help this problem. We have talked a lot about this is one of my teaching classes. Value added assessments would be able to provide prospective parents with information that will give them some sense of how much their students are learning. If students attending certain schools are not learning hardly anything, then this could prevent some parents from spending an abundance of money at schools that are not going to be beneficial to their students. Value added assessments will be able to give everyone the information they need to know on how colleges are actually doing. Parents could possibly save money on their child’s education, and their child could receive an overall higher quality education than at the overly expensive universities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/opinion/brooks-testing-the-teachers.html?ref=educationandschools

Blog 12: Julia Steiny: Parents Must Fight for Kids’ Right To Recess

     This article is concerned with giving recess to students. Megan Rosker was about to put one of her children into kindergarten in a public school near Tampa, Florida. She was a former teacher and had moved to Florida from New Mexico. A friend who had older children already in school informed her that this all-day kindergarten did not have recess. But, the students were able to run around during the last half hour of class on the Fridays as a reward for being good all week. She states that humans of any age become overwhelmed if they do not get a break from work. Rosker used to teach kindergarten in New Mexico, and at her school, students got two recesses every day of the week. This article states that research argues that children and adults both learn and work better when they get breaks. “The Role of Recess in Children’s Cognitive Performance and School Adjustment” found that children are more attentive after than before recess. It is noted that in Asian schools, whose test scores are very high, give children a ten-minute break after ever 40 minutes of instruction. Many people were not concerned that their children were not getting to have recess. Many teachers also claimed that there was not enough time because of testing and accountability. Megan Rosker has since moved to New York City, where she finds schools to be more “progressive.”

     After reading this article, I find that I completely agree with Megan Rosker. All students need a break from learning to socialize, explore their creativity, and engage in active play. Yes, I am aware that schools have lunch, snack, and bathroom breaks, but that is not enough. Children need a time everyday where they can be themselves, and have at least 20 to 30 minutes of time without instruction, other than lunch, snack, and bathroom breaks. I believe that students who have these breaks from learning will be more likely to pay more attention and be more engaged in learning after recess. This is a social problem because with all of the standardized testing we have now, many schools have taken away recess. This overwhelms students. I am a college student, and I still have to take frequent breaks when studying for a test, or sitting in one classroom for three hours. Also, recess might be the only chance some students have to be physically active throughout the day. Not having recess could lead to obesity for some children. This article states that Asian schools have ten-minute breaks after every 40-minutes of instruction, and their test scores seem to be very high. This is a key reason as to why students should get a recess throughout their six to seven hour school days.

http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/julia-steiny-parents-must-fight-for-kids’-right-to-recess/

Blog 11: UK Teachers Union: We're Compromised by Exam Pressure

In the United Kingdom, the Association of Teachers and Lectures has said that their members are being forced to change test results and actually rewrite the work for students. This is being done as a result of the increasing pressure to achieve high test scores. One-third of the members in this union reported that they felt their integrity was being compromised. Mary Bousted, who is the head of the union said that this is a culture that values test results. She also stated that children in this country are some of the most frequently tested students in the world. She states, “With the government’s persistent focus on tests, exam results and league tables, many teachers and lecturers also feel under enormous pressure- often at the detriment to high quality teaching, learning and development of their pupils.” This article discusses how this same issue is occurring in American education. In the last few months, many similar cheating scandals have came about. It seems that a test based education system that depends heavily on continuous assessment is always going to encounter these problems, especially when funding and pay then becomes linked to test results. Many teachers and administrators have began “teaching to the test, “ and from there it leads some educators to do the work for their students. In this article, it gives instances where teachers felt pressured to cheat. For example, one teacher at a primary school in England stated that she has been forced to change test results so that levels of progress would stay up.

After reading this article, I would first like to say wow, what has this world came to? It absolutely blows my mind that teachers are changing test results so that their schools can have high-performing students and avoid inspections. This is happening not only in the United Kingdom, but also here in our country, and probably many other countries. This is definitely a social problem. If students perform low on their tests and their teachers physically change their answers so they get a higher score, then how will these students ever receive the help they need to learn the material that they didn’t understand? Education in primary school is so important. We use the information we learn in primary school and build off of it to broaden our knowledge in upper grade levels. There should be no test that is so critical for teachers to even think about doing things such as this. Also, what is this teaching our students? Changing their test scores allows them to think that cheating is okay. It also enables them not to ask questions when they do not understand something, because when it shows up on the test and they get the answer wrong, their teacher will probably change it. There is absolutely no excuse for any teacher or lecturer to manipulate their students’ test results.

http://www.educationnews.org/international-uk/uk-teachers-union-were-compromised-by-exam-pressure/

Blog 10: Standardized Test Scores Can Improve When Kids Told They Can Fail, Study Finds

Leah Alcala is a teacher at a middle school in Berkeley, California. For the past four years, she has been doing a certain activity with her students as they enter the classroom. She calls it, “my favorite no.” Alcala writes a math problem on the whiteboard, and when the students arrive in the classroom, they are instructed to solve it on index cards.When they finish, she can see each of the students’ right or wrong answers - “yes and no.” After this, Alcala then chooses her favorite incorrect response, the one most liable to be repeated. She then explains it to the class, and shows the students how it can be avoiding. Alcala never identifies which student/s solved the math problem incorrectly. In doing this, Alcala has began to be able to pick out their mistakes before they make them. She has also seen their test scores rise since this activity. Alcala’s students are not the only ones who have benefited from this activity. A study conducted by two French researchers published in the Journal of Psychology has shown that telling students that failure is a natural element of learning may increase their academic performance. There has also been three studies conducted by Croizet and Autin. They conducted these studies among sixth graders. In the first experiment, they gave 111 students an impossible set of anagrams to solve. Autin told one group of sixth graders that “learning is difficult and failure is common,” but hard work will help, “like riding a bicycle.”  Autin then asked a second group of students how they attempted to solve the problems after the test. When both groups, plus a control group, then took an exam that measured working memory, the students that Autin has counseled performed significantly better than both groups, especially on the more difficult questions. 

The classroom activity in Leah Alcala’s middle school classroom and the study conducted by Croizet and Autin proves that students achieve higher on tests and do better in school without being pressured to succeed. It is a problem when teachers stress students out over performing well on tests. Instead of pushing students to do well on tests, and causing them to stress, teachers need to be instilling confidence in their students, and let them know that failure is okay and is expected. They will feel less pressured this way, and they will be able to think straight, achieve higher scores on tests. More teachers need to use Leah Alcala’s math activity. It is fun for students, and it helps them learn more. It also builds their confidence and allows them to realize that it is okay to make mistakes. Students will then achieve higher on their standardized tests without all of the stress and pressure to do well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/test-scores-can-improve-w_n_1343020.html?ref=standardized-testing

Blog 9: Khan Academy: Good Bad, or Ugly?

The article, Khan Academy: Good Bad, or Ugly? discusses Salman Khan’s Academy, and several opinions on how some feel about it. Khan Academy first began when Sal Khan got off his bike and walked into his tiny home office (which was a closet,) to record a math lesson on his computer and uploaded it to YouTube. When he did this, Khan only meant for a few people to look at it. However, his lessons became more and more popular with millions of people viewing them. Sal Khan was even on CBS’s 60 Minutes. His Academy has become well-known and has helped many students with mathematics. Dr. Keith Devlin, the author of this article states, “The outsider who rides into town to save us is a part of our mythology.” He believes that Khan captures that “can do” attitude that attracts many, and that it does so in a way that is unrealistic. Devlin thinks that it is naïve for people to think that one single person at a computer can “fix” mathematics education. Devlin claims that learning mathematics is difficult, and so is teaching it to students. He thinks that one man riding into town on a bicycle will not provide the “answer.” Towards the end of the article, Devlin declares, “Sal Khan is not the Clint Eastwood of Math Education. No one is and no one can be. Such a person is a myth.”

I am an elementary education major, and we recently discussed Salman Khan and his Academy in my TED 250 course. After reading this article, I have found that I completely disagree with Dr. Keith Devlin, the author of this article. In my TED 250 course, we were shown the segment about Salman Khan on 60 Minutes. I was absolutely amazed when I saw what this Academy is doing for so many students around the world. It is also free and available to anyone who wants to use it. There are several schools in California who watch Khan Academy lessons at home, then come to school and work math problems online while their teachers monitor them. I think that eventually, everyone around the world will be using this, and teachers will not be needed anymore. This would definitely be a social problem for teachers, but it is helping so many students learn mathematics at a quicker rate, and the academy has so much to offer. If the world did use Khan Academy, then I think many people would lack social skills and would then have a difficult time in the workforce. But overall, I think that Sal Khan’s Academy is highly beneficial to a lot of people around the world. I believe that Sal Khan should keep recording lessons because they are valuable aids to many students, and have helped millions of people to grasp a better understanding of mathematics and become successful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-keith-devlin/khan-academy-good-bad-or-_b_1345925.html?ref=education

Blog 8: Sending Off My Nervous Baby Into the World -- of Standardized Testing

I thought that this article would be appropriate to write on this week since we have been focusing on education for the last few days. A lot of us talked about standardized testing in discussion three, so I decided to complete my blog on the article, “Sending Off My Nervous Baby Into the World -- of Standardized Testing.” This article was written by an angry mother who sent her child off to school for her first standardized test. Her child is only eight and is in the third grade. Her child is a nervous wreck and feels personally responsible to do well on the test and not let her teacher down. The mother writing this article discussed that teachers and schools are doing whatever it takes for students to get a high score. Her child’s school is even allowing students to chew gum because it is supposed to stimulate brain activity. She states that the goal of the school is to look good, so that their school can come out on top. The mother talks about how her child wants to complete practice tests on Study Island every night to prep her for the test. She addresses that countries like Singapore prep even harder for tests, but in countries such as Finland, the world’s top-rated education system, have no standardized testing until the twelfth grade. She goes on to say that students, teachers, and schools are not judged based on standardized testing in countries like Finland. The mother also states that while East Asians are progressively seeking to get out of the anxiety-inducing, creativity-crushing, test-prep culture, we are looking to emulate them.

I think that standardized testing has become a problem in all schools. Just as this parent says, teachers and schools want their students to perform well on the test so that they can be looked as the better school, or to come out on top. Does it really matter if your school is on top, or better than the others? When I was in elementary, middle, and even high school, we had to take standardized tests, but it was okay if we performed poorly. Students, especially children should not have anxiety and be so stressed over standardized tests. Finland is one of the world’s top-rated education systems, and they don’t have standardized tests until the end of high school. It would not hurt to do away with some of standardized testing. Education should be exciting and fun, giving students the opportunity to excel and explore learning on their own. Standardized testing is taking away creativity. Students have began memorizing information just to pass a single test, then they forget all of it and do it again the next year. This is not what education should be about. Teachers have began to center the classroom around passing the test, not around the students and what the students are interested in. Learning has become boring, and students are less-involved in hands-on activities because of these tests. I believe that some testing is okay because, schools need to see how much students know, what the teacher needs to review, etc, but some standardized testing needs to be done away with. Children can become better learners and enjoy being in school this way.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/homa-sabet-tavangar/pssa-testing_b_1341643.html

Blog 7: What the U.S. and Chinese School Systems Have in Common

   During this article, Sarah Carr, and education reporter, discusses some of the similarities of school systems in the United States and in China. In the United States, most us view private schools as superior to public schools. However, in China, most people view public schools as superior. There are several things the United States and Chinese school systems have in common. For instance, in both school systems there are high levels of inequality and segregation. In the United States, these injustices are largely based on racial and class lines. For example, minority students are more likely to attend highly segregated schools. These schools often have a lack of resources and their teachers are likely to be inexperienced. This is also evident in Chinese education system, except to a much higher degree. In China, a student’s birthplace and geography equal their educational destiny. When Sarah Carr visited China to report on the country’s education of migrant children living in Beijing, many individuals in each country asked her which country’s education system was “better.”

   It distresses me to know that many children attending school are treated with inequality, and looked down upon daily, and that most people don’t even pay attention to that. Instead, people are more interested in competing for a superior school system. Both the United States and the China need to come to the realization that both nations are excelling and are fortunate. But, instead of trying to be the “better” nation when it comes to education, each nation should begin to think about the inequality and segregation students are facing in their schools. Children/students should all be treated equally in their schools, no matter what their race, ethnicity, or class lines. Each child needs to receive a quality education, and this is what we need to focus on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-carr/what-the-us-and-chinese-s_b_1292517.html

Blog 6: During, India’s education malaise has all the hall the hallmarks of a development disaster

   During, India’s education malaise has all the hall the hallmarks of a development disaster, Kevin Watkins is discussing India’s education system. India’s schools are failing to prepare the way for future prosperity. For example, in this article, we get a glimpse of Rajpur primary school. Many of the students that attend this school are disadvantaged. They live in poverty and are unable to read and write. There are only two classrooms at this school, and teachers fail to see their students as active learners. There is no provision to make sure the children are learning basic literary skills, and only one out of the five teachers is trained. Also, none of the teachers in Rajpur speak the home language of the tribal children. Many teachers also fail to show up. Only two in three children attend school regularly, and one in five drops out. Millions of children are receiving poor-quality education. This article also states that half of children in fifth grade are unable to read material designed for second graders! Math skills are also poor. Poverty is not going away, and inequality is rising.

   From what is being discussed in this article, India’s education system has problems written all over it. I don’t understand why we (in the United States,) are working to improve our education system, when countries such as India could use a lot of help. Education is important in all countries, not just ours. I’m sure there are several things the United States could do to help under-privileged countries such as this one. On another note, teachers need to be trained and certified to teach in India, just as in the United States. They must also be held accountable and have consequences for not showing up. There also needs to be more than two classrooms in a school. How can children learn if there are 100 other students in the same room? Children need to be taught to read and write at an early age, and educators should be expected to teach them these important things. Without education, it is extremely difficult to live. Education needs to be looked at in India, just as it is here in the United States.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/feb/22/india-education-malaise-economic-human-development

Blog 5: Chinese Students Paying U.S. Tuitions—How? And Why?

    The article, Chinese Students Paying U.S. Tuitions—How? And Why? addresses that, according to surveys and anecdotal evidence, over half of Chinese students will have faked something in their admission packets to obtain acceptance into U.S universities. When U.S students attend college, they can receive loans and financial aid to help pay the costs of tuitions. In the U.S, students accumulate debt, but loans for education in China are unheard of. Many Chinese families have been saving for years to pay for college, but when the time comes, if they are still short, they might sell their apartment, and extended family members might kick in. Students from outside of the U.S are highly prized by universities in the U.S because they have to pay much higher tuition fees than in-state students. For example, at the University of Michigan, a freshman from Shanghai was charged approximately $38,000 in annual tuition and fees, while a student from Kalamazoo paid less than $13,000.

    Parents in China want their children to have an American education, and view an American education as superior. They want their children to attend a top 50 school. It has been said that when Chinese students arrive back in China after studying abroad, that they become a social problem. This is because they return with limited English and limited marketable skills, yet they have high expectations. They don’t fit in America, and when they go back to China, they don’t fit in Chinese society either. In my opinion, universities should not charge thousands of dollars more for out-of-state students. What’s the difference anyways? We are all students, trying to obtain a good education with a degree. I don’t understand why a person from out-of-state needs to pay 25,000 dollars more in tuition and fees, like at the University of Michigan. There is also more money included in books, and food. So, out-of-state students are spending a lot of extra money. I also don’t think that Chinese families should send their children all the way to America just because they think a degree from America is a “luxury good.” They could save so much money by encouraging their children to obtain a quality education at a university in China. After all, a degree is a degree, it really does not matter where you receive it from.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/how-chinese-students-pay-u-s-tuitions/?scp=1&sq=Education%20in%20China&st=cse

Blog 4: Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters

     During, Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters, Vedika Khemani is advocating the value and necessity of a broad, liberal education that is well provided with both technical subjects and humanities. Khemani grew up in Kolkata, India and came to the United States as a freshman in college to study physics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. This school is a distinct arts college that specializes in science and engineering, while also enhancing its graduates to be well read in the humanities and social sciences. Khemani took intensive physics and mathematics classes, while also studying history, economics, linguistics, philosophy, and creative writing. She is now pursuing a Ph.D in theoretical physics at Princeton University. Most Indian students who are in there last year of high school are being asked, “What is going to be: engineering, medicine, or commerce?” In India, millions of students regularly compete for the short supply of college placements and job opportunities. Because of this, students want to study whatever will get them a job, creating a college experience much more related to “technical training,” rather than intellectual exploration.

     In my opinion, it is understandable why these soon to be college students want to take the easy way out. They are extremely stressed, and education and job opportunities in India are very competitive. Vedika Khemani wants for students to be able to think critically and solve real-world problems. She believes that studying at a liberal arts college will allow students to be molded into well-rounded, well-informed global citizens with a wide skill set. With the economy the way it is, we need more college graduates who have a liberal arts education. This is because, the liberal arts system is said to create resilient people who can invent creative solutions and always have new ways by which to try things differently. Individuals who have a liberal arts education are able to communicate effectively and work well on a team, while inspiring others. We need more liberal arts education here in the United States. Like this article states, “Real-world problems rarely ever have textbook solutions.” This gives more reason to why drawing and painting offer perspectives such as critical thinking and synthesizing multiple ideas in one’s mind. This economy needs more liberal arts majors! 

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/choice-on-india-ink-liberal/?scp=5&sq=Education&st=cse

Blog 3: India’s Education Dream Risks Remaining Just That

    The article, “India’s Education Dream Risks Remaining Just That,” is discussing a problem at one of the better schools in New Delphi, India. At this particular college, there is not enough space for all of the faculty. There is only one large room for 140 faculty members to sit and have a cup of tea or coffee while grading papers. A history professor at the school claims that even if only half of the faculty show up, there still is not enough room.There is also no other place in the school for faculty to work. There is also another problem. That is, a teacher by the name of Ms. Amin makes $22,000 per year, and she has been teaching for 30 years! This is less than half of what some of her better students will make during their first job after college. India is facing a shortage of faculty members. Also, according to a government report that was completed last year, there was an increase in higher education combined with a poor supply of Ph.D.’s, delays in recruitment and the lack of motivation to attract and take care of talent has led to a situation where 40 percent of existing faculty positions remain unfilled. Experts say that India will fail to meet the goal set by the education minister. He wants to double the size of the education system by 2020. 

The director in charge of faculty claims that the problem is not insufficient resources. He says that they need to provide housing and research facilities for them to want to be a part of the education system. I think this would be a great idea to attract more faculty, and keep the current faculty motivated to continue teaching and working for the school. I have heard of so many school in the United States who have a shortage in faculty. Maybe there should be an increase in salary, as well. Faculty spend so much time teaching, working, and grading papers. In my opinion, teachers deserve more that what Ms. Amin is earning. Also, I think it should be mandatory that schools everywhere should have enough room for all of it’s faculty and students. Having 140 faculty members assigned to one particular room is just unacceptable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/world/asia/16iht-educlede16.html?ref=internationaleducation

Blog 2: A Boost For the World's Poorest Schools

In the article by Tina Rosenberg, A Boost for the World’s Poorest Schools, she is trying to address how the program, Save the Children is working to improve the reading level of children. She starts off this article by stating that the world has made great progress toward the goal of having all children in school. She also gives several statistics. One of these statistics is that 69 million school-age children do not attend school as of right now. However, this is an improvement compared to the year 1999 in which there were 106 million school-age children not attending school. Countries have made progress by getting rid of school fees, building schools in distant areas, switching the language of teaching to the one children actually speak, and giving families incentive to send children to school with school food. But, the flowing in of new students in many places has affected school systems that were already having a hard time. Some schools in countries such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia often have no materials or books other than a chalkboard. Sometimes at these schools, teachers do not even speak the same language as the students, and do not even show up for class. Save the Children is trying to help schools. In Tigray, Ethiopia, 23 percent of third grade students in a school supported by Save the Children could not read a single word in one minute. In Nepal, it was 50 percent. The Save the Children organization created Literacy Boost. This program is now in schools in 12 countries and expanding to another six this year. It works in any language and culture. It also holds workshops to help teachers learn effective teaching methods. The goal of this program is to expose children to reading as much as they can, and boost children’s literacy skills.

Reading this article made me realize how lucky we are to live in the United States and receive a good education. Sometimes, we take it for granted. It completely blows my mind to think that there are children around the world who are in third grade and cannot read a single word. I also cannot believe that teachers are not even showing up to school to do their jobs. I won’t get myself started on that aspect. One thing that saddened me during this article was that some schools in poor parts of the world have no other learning materials besides a chalkboard. We are so fortunate to live in the United States, where we have just about everything we need to learn. One thing I thought was interesting about this program was that all of the books are homemade. This makes the stories more interesting and children can learn to appreciate the work that was put into creating the books. From what I have read in this article, I think that Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program is a successful and rewarding program. I also think that we should create something like this for the under-privileged schools in the United States. This program has been proven to work, and can only help students in the United States improve their literacy skills even more!

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/118675/?scp=19&sq=Education%20Problems&st=cse

Blog 1

Nathan Davis from Bournemouth, Dorset had a military career in Iraq until the year 2007, when he had to leave his job as a soldier due to an eyesight problem. Nathan joined an internship program called, SkillForce. SkillForce is a program for long-term sick military workers. Nathan, along with other instructors, spend one day a week with students ranging from ages 13 to 19, to assist them in gaining qualifications to improve their chances of further education or employment before they are finished with school. This program works with 150 schools across England and Wales. The teenagers who are in SkillForce spend up to two years with these instructors, potentially spending 20 percent of their schooling with the SkillForce program. Nathan Davis is 22 years old, and can relate to the experiences of his students in school. He has always had an interest in teaching, but he has never seen himself doing something like this full-time. As of right now, Nathan Davis is working with high school juniors.

This article is encouraging because, it shows former soldiers who are injured, that there is another way they can serve. The SkillForce program can change not only the lives of the instructors, but also the lives of these teenagers who are in this program. By reading this article, I can see that this program is beneficial because, these former military personnel are helping teenagers further their education and find a job that they are interested in. The former soldiers who are interning at SkillForce know what the real world is like, and have had experience in real world situations. They can use what they know to assist the teenagers who are a part of this program. This gives former injured soldiers a chance to be a vital instrument to teenagers. It also helps students gain a better understanding of education and employment from another perspective, besides their parents and teachers at school. This program builds self-confidence into students and encourages them to keep going when they are finished with school. I think that the United States should definitely start a program like this. According to this article, SkillForce has given 95 percent of its graduates a recognized qualification and 60 percent of these students go on to further their education.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16598127