Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will believe it’s whole life believing it’s stupid.” There are many students who relate to that fish and people around the United States are complaining that the educational system isn’t suitable for students in public schools. Research shows that high schoolers that fall behind in 4th-8th grade have less than a 1 in 3 chance to be ready for a career or college.
2.1 million high schoolers in the United States dropout every year, and about 25% of freshmen don’t graduate high school in four years due to falling behind. Last year, 15 year old students ranked the 40th in math out of 72 developed countries. Malek Hazime, an 8th grade journalist from Unis Middle School, said, “I think the reason to this is because a lot of parents don’t care about their kid’s education and as a result, they slack off and don’t care about their grades because they think nothing will happen to them and they think that they don’t have to try in school.” 8th grade journalist, Jaafar Chahrour, had a much different opinion on this topic, he thinks that, “The reason why high school students fall behind in math is because a lot of teachers, not all, don’t do their job, they slack off and don’t care whether their students fail or pass and they don’t help them. If all teachers did their job right then maybe we’d actually have a good ranking in mat
h and reading in the world.”
A lot of people believe standardized testing is necessary, but are they really? Frederick J. Kelly, the man who invented standardized testing confirmed that, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Jaafar Chahrour said, “Standardized testing is necessary because it tells stuff like where a student is at, if they’re falling behind, or at grade level, and they say which subject the student needs improvement.” Research shows that standardized testing does not improve student achievements. In 2002, the United States went to being the 18th most educated country out of 40 developed countries. In 2009, the United States went to being 31st most educated in the world. Alissa Genser, a 7th grade math teacher at Unis Middle School said, “Yes, standardized tests are necessary, but they don’t always show the accurate level of the student.” Standardized tests might be a little useful but they’re a waste of time and they’re inaccurate. Standardized testing takes about two weeks to complete and teachers could be using that time to teach students.
Finland’s educational system is voted best in the world. In the United States, 80% of students graduate high school in four years, while in Finland, 93% of students graduate high school is four years. Studies show that the brain isn’t fully functional until around 10 A.M. Schools in the U.S start way too early, while schools in Finland start from 9 to 9:45 A.M and ends at 2 to 2:45 P.M. Shorter school days mean more rest, and sometimes less is more. Also, kids in Finland don’t start school until they’re at least 7 years old, and they don’t receive homework until they’re well into their teens. Malek Hazime said, “I think Finland is doing a much better job than the U.S in education because their system makes students think more creatively and they have less homework, and less homework equals less stress.” Students in Finland only get one standardized test. The standardized test is given to students who are 16 years old. In the United States, students start taking standardized tests in 3rd grade.
A lot of people think the education in America needs improvement. They say that students don’t get enough breaks from school. School starts too early, too many standardized tests, and knowledge gets crammed down their throats. Teachers are teaching students things that aren’t essential in the real world. Learning how to do taxes, what to do if you’re accused of a crime and taken to court, and how to create a resume for a job, are much more important than algebra or chemistry. Hopefully, the United States will soon see it’s flaws in education more clearly and eventually fix them.
Alirida Noureddine
Unis Middle School Journalist
Very nicely written! You have me convinced!
I think you managed to capture some really important issues students face in education today. Your evidence shows that your claims are truthful. Nice job
Alirida: Interesting topic with some interesting perspectives. Nice job keeping it objective!
Thanks for the feedback, Ms. Tomasik!
This topic is interesting because you showed alot of evidence.
Zainab Hashem
3rd hour
This topic interests me because it talks about how people improve or don’t.
Tahany Ahmed 7th Hour
Standardized testing is pretty beneficial for the Teachers to know where you are at, and where you are struggling. But when there is too many different tests, every year. For example NWEA is 3 times a year and M-Step is a state test that happens every year. It starts being hard on the student to succeed. They are too worried about a test that they took multiple times that year than learning what they need to be.
This is a great story as it shed light to a topic that is important to our education.
Standardized test obviously takes away from classroom instructional time. Teachers are required to teach the same amount of material with less time due to the continuous testing schedule.
I really like the idea of the story, because I could relate, by having to go to school and take many tests. The tests we take are the m-step, and also nwea. We have to take nwea 3 times each year until 9th grade. But in high school we have to take finals and other test. I relate this by taking the nwea each year, this test gives us alot of stress. Yet this routine is still happening alot more often.
hamzah shatela
7th hour
Standardized testing is just a test to know what you need help with and what you know but I think there is to much testing every year like the nwea plus the m-step and the test from teachers for the students for the subject on what there learning. For my opinion I think it is to much for the brain but if you focus the whole year you will get good grades and good on all your test but its all on the group of friends you hang out with and how much you really want it.
Jenna Issa 7th hour
I think that all students should be able to increase their education because if you don’t learn anything you won’t be able to have a good job in the future. I think that all parents should help their children increase and get better scores on their NWEA, m-step and all other test and studies.
This topic interests me. I take lots of hard and easy tests sometimes I fail and sometimes I improve. Like Mrs. Genser we take the District Test every cardmarking. It sometimes takes my grade up and sometimes takes my grade down a bit. We even do slot quizzes. I think the topic failing or improving seems very interesting.
Tahany Ahmed 7th hour
I very strongly agree with the fact that standardized tests barely get anything important done. United States should perhaps take a few tips from Finland. Schools do start way too early and I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. Why should we have to wake up before the sun even comes out, like waking us up in the middle of the night! Finland seems to use the facts and wakes us up at proper times. These days, it seems more important to pass than to learn anything. I have personal experience with this, where i am more focused on getting an A than learning and remembering in things like maths or language arts.
I think that standardized testing is good for a teacher to know if the student is above grade level,below grade level,or at grade level. On the other hand to many standardized testing will overwhelm kids and make them stop trying and drop out. For example, the NWEA is 3 times a year the first time kids try and get a good score,the second time most kids go down by 1 or 2 points,the third time most students give up and go down 1 or two grade levels.
Ahmad Aoun 7th hour
I believe that students do get a lot of testing. Teachers should always know where you are at and your level. I think that we are having too much testing like unit tests, chapter tests, and NWEA. We take the NWEA 3 times a year but that is only so that teachers an know our level but should know our level too so that we can try our best to raise our level. We don’t need all these tests that we take!
Wala Alsabkha 3rd hour
I think the reason school is failing is because too many schools focus on standardized tests. They would spend little time on the material they NEED to learn and spend most of the time on Tests like NWEA or M-Step. I agree that most Public Schools in America need to improve their Learning style. I think they need to start doing this to the people of a younger age so they still have a better chance to have a better career.
I agree with Mrs. Genser when she said some standardized tests are a waste of time. I agree to this because we take NWEA 3 times a year, M-Step one time a year. During those weeks we could be learning something useful. Hassan Sobh 3rd Hour
Standardized tests are important for teachers to know where you’re at, but when there is too many it takes away time for teachers to teach their students what they need to learn. For example, when there is 3 NWEA tests and M-Step, it can be very overwhelming for and student and can cause a lot of stress which can make it hard to succeed. Students are very worried about doing worse than last time they took the test. Overall, I found this topic very interesting and I hope that the number of standardized will go down.
Diana Ayad
7th Hour
I believe that too many tests aren’t helping the students, but instead doing the opposite. I believe in this because taking too many tests put stress on students and those students start getting and frustrated when there are too many tests which then leads up to unsuccessful grades and school or even sometimes bad behavior. But I’m not saying we shouldn’t take tests because it’s normal to take tests for school because it helps the teacher and student understand where they’re at. Which is why I think too many tests are necessary for school.
Shahab Alriyashi 7th hour
I liked how this article showed all great reasons why our schools are really going down and it is true that some students just dont understand and need a little more help but they are just afraid to ask. If its not just the students that need a little more help it is also that students need more sleep because when coming to school at 7 o`clock in the morning they arent really focused and I liked how they included that we should be able to come to school at 10 am to a little more focused . I liked this article it showed that we need more help in education system and need to start focusing more on the students that need help.
Laila Salman 3rd
These “big” tests are not useful all the time. This takes away learning time.For instance, it doesn’t always show the accurate level of a students learning.Also the NWEA comes 3 times a year for reading,language usage,science,and math. The M-Step comes 1 time a year but it doesn’t show your score until the next year. Some tests are useful but some aren’t. I still belive we should take some of these tests.
Personally, I believe standardized tests are necessary, but not as often as they are given. There should be around 2 tests of each subject but only at the end and beginning of the year to show growth. Finland is the number country educationally because many reasons, such as the students have shorter days and they get more sleep. Things like that can be the difference between the best schools and average ones. Overall, I believe this story is great and it has strong points about how some schools should change how they go about things.
Mrs. kincaid
Testing is important so the teachers know how to help you improve, but if tests are taken over and over again then the student will not gain interest, it will most likely demoralize the student and it will most likely get worse.stress will also effect the student continues testing will stress them out and that will slow down or stop their progress
This is a very interesting topic to talk about and people ask thereselves if they are improving or not overall nice topic. Nasser Ahmed 1st hour