This is another essay I wrote for a scholarship application.
The essay was supposed to be about the biggest problem facing my comunity and how to fix it.
One of the biggest problems facing our community, mainly our youth, is the lack of motivation. In a small town like this, with less opportunity that bigger cities, it is easy for our your to fall into the mindset that we can’t make anything out of ourselves because we’re from such a small place.
Because of this many students my age are convinced that they aren’t smart enough to do well, and they stop trying. I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say, No one from Harlan County is smart enough to do that. This isn’t true.
There and many smart and talented people here, people like you can’t find anywhere else. Many people, however, have talents that they didn’t even know about because they aren’t motivated enough to try new things and branch out.
One solution to this problem, I believe, is to change the curriculum in our schools. Because right now, there is too much emphasis on the state testing, there should be more emphasis on personal growth and actual education. Because of this great emphasis on CTBS and CATS testing, one of the only things our teachers focus on teaching us, is what’s on said test, we’re always preparing for this droning device also known as a state test. A state test that is going to do nothing to help us in out future. This is very discouraging for us because it makes us feel as if they don’t care if we succeed in live or not. They only care about state testing, and its hard to believe in yourself when no one else does.
I would agree with you, although it depends on the state your from. The MCAS is required of middle- and high-school students in MA. People expect you to do well on them, but in high school, you just have to pass it so you can graduate. That's the whole emphasis. The one exception is that if you get "Advanced" in one subject and "Proficient" in the other, you can get a scholarship (or a "free ride") to a state college/university. I feel that more emphasis is placed on the SATs (or the ACTs,depending on which part of the U.S. your in). I know people who have taken it numerous times, hoping to get a better score. A number of colleges look at the SATs/ACTs and use that along with your high school transcript to determine if you get admitted. Although it is true, state testing shouldn't matter a whole bunch, but in some areas of the country, other standardized tests are considered more important than others.
But honestly, any standardized test is horrible and it stresses students out too much.
In Kentucky, our tests mean nothing.
They are a reflection of our teachers.
They don't count for us, all we get out of it is a headache and a pizza party.
Thank you for reading and replying,
Numbers tell nothing about a person's ability to be successful in any field. I think colleges should give scoresheets with traits relevant to the student's career path to their references to determine if his or her qualities are up to the challenge.
Cheers
http://progressiveu.org/blog/leslieq
Check it out...it's a work in progress.
I agree.
Thank you for reading and replying.
The only way standardized tests can really measure learning is if the schools are completely standardized, as well. And they aren't. The students all have different backgrounds, different family emphasis on education, and different socioeconomic statuses. The quality of teachers varies greatly by district, and the amount of funding versus the amount of special needs in a district is not standardized.
For example, in Minneapolis, the public schools have disproportionately more children living in poverty than the suburbs. We have the highest per pupil budget, but along with that comes feeding the students, transporting them, bringing them up to speed because they didn't have years of preschool or their parents didn't have good prenatal care before they were born, or....THEN, we also have higher costs for ESL, interpreters, social workers, etc. There is little left over for actual curricular spending. But we have the same standards as the suburbs, if we want to keep our schools open.
It's tough. We want accountable, quality schools, but the way we're going about it doesn't seem to work for everyone. What really will work? That's the billion dollar question.