Narineh T 1. Schools are places where kids and teenagers go to learn, achieve knowledge, socialize and be active through sports. Kids are very playful and also hard working. But if we waste their time and energy on too much exams then it is not good for their mind and health. So tests like Common Core are too much pressure on kids as well as on parents. Kids spend less time learning on class and more time for preparing Common Core tests. Parents are also worried about their kids. Parents say their kids stress a lot due to Common Core test. Students do not get time to play and socialize. They stay at home and study. It affects their health. Some kids build aggression on their mind. They do not communicate well with others. They show the anger on their juniors. Sometimes they even misbehave with their parents because of too much pressure. It is called frustration aggression theory. So the state should stop giving such exams and let kids learn properly in the class. It should be less stressful for the kids. 2. I would like to see this through conflict perspective. Conflict theory sees social life as a competition, and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. Inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. The masses are not bound to society by their shared values, but by coercion at the hands of those in power. This perspective emphasizes social control, not consensus and conformity. Groups and individuals advance their own interests, struggling over control of societal resources. Those with the most resources exercise power over others with inequality and power struggles result. Schools compete with each other for higher rankings. They make difficult test papers to prepare students better than other students in different schools. It put lots of pressure on the students. Then there is discrimination in classes. White kids get better treatment than African American kids because majority of White kids have rich parents and their parents pay lots of taxes. So black kids are less supervised and they do not get good grades in class. In public schools there is lack of good tuitions. Public schools are not financed well. Students in public schools who need extra tuitions for Math classes faces lots of problems. But in private schools there is good tuitions. They are highly expensive. Only rich White kids could afford it. Therefore majority of African American kids are left behind in achieving better life. So conflict is all about domination and power. 3. I think education system is very important for kids. They go there to learn skills and knowledge. They also go there to socialize and play sports with other kids. They want to learn and also have fun. But if we take away their freedom it is not right. States should not give them extra tests beside school exams. It put lots of burden on them. I am commenting on this topic because I see kids around me struggling for good result in all the tests. They have become so busy with the preparation for the tests that they do not get time for extracurricular activities like sports and karate class. They do not socialize well. Sometimes they do not even get to eat well. They do not have good metabolism. I think one and only solution is to stop giving state tests. It builds pressure on kids. They should have time for themselves. They should get time to play sports with their peers and have time to eat well. It builds good metabolism. We should prepare kids with normal class tests not with other state tests. It is not that necessary.
Ellen T. 1) The new Common Core Curriculum creates a social problem within the fact that the social institution of the government bothers the social institution of schools by mandating federal level standardized testing across high schools. The education is so shortsighted, students are actually "opting out," or refusing to take the standardized tests. There is a flaw when over a hundred thousand students across states think testing is useless because they are not learning relevant material. Even if one hundred thousand is small compared to a million, it can make a big impact provided that if too many students opt out of the test, the school may have its funds cut as a failure school by the government. Students are taught to think in the same exact way by passing the same tests, causing students to be less motivated to actually learn and perform their needed functions. This causes more problems given that it would affect several other areas of society, such as less students who undertake STEM careers, which requires creative and critical thinking. It destroys the idea of education because instead of learning being a process operating on intrinsic motivation, it is reduced to the extrinsic goal of making one's school look decent. 2. I see this problem through the Functionalist perspective which says social problems are caused when social institutions cannot performing the functions they are required, usually because of a structural flaw. The issue here is the latent, or unintended function, of students disinterested in education by forcing them to invest their time and energy in education for the sake of competition. This came out of the misguided manifest function of the government taking over the function of schools to get teaching across the states more organized and focused on what is determined by "experts," and large companies like Pearson what is needed. Many teachers are not properly equipped to teach the Common Core, seeing it is a fairly new program and teachers all teach in their own unique manner. Schools are also not equipping students with the skills to advance in life using Common Core, which involves a stressful memorization, esoteric, formulaic problem solving based approach to teaching, instead an organic flow of casual assignments and projects. It reduces the learning process to filling in exam booklets instead of critical individual based assessment. Thus, education fails to prepare students to serve more pertinent functions in society, the exam attendance and scores continue to drop, and the government panics further, creating more disorder and confused policies such as No Child Left Behind. 3. Education is one of the few advents of social mobility in the American capitalist system, where students through gaining knowledge increase their cultural capital and socioeconomic status. I was drawn to comment on this article because the students I tutor complain they have no more incentive to study because everyone else is learning the same exact thing. Teachers forgo their innovative lectures in order to prescribe rigid and confusing problems. The expectation to raise scores destroys the purpose of teaching and causes students to go as far as to eschew their own education leading to a drop in student performance and test scores. One possible solution is to stop the Common Core testing and provide teachers with the previous system of given educational nationwide broad standards, but without a test centered curriculum that allows no room for discussion. This is how successful college education operates, when the teacher is given liberty to educate at their own pace and identity. Students in college level AP classes are generally more motivated because an inherent desire to understand something on their own terms. Ultimately, schools need to take back the function of determining what they see fit and required to prepare their students, which are critical thinking skills and creativity, not politically gathered statistical data analyzed beyond the point of practical application.
1.The issue in this article is that thousands of students in New York are opting-out from taking their standardized tests. Parents, as well as teachers, are part of what they call the opt-out movement due to the fact that they believe that such tests do not allow teachers to &“educate”; their students. Instead, the curriculum is set to “school” and teach students based off of what will be in such tests. One parent mentions that the state is wasting teachers’ and kids’ time and that they are robbing teachers of the opportunity to be creative in their teaching styles. This is considered a social problem because it is occurring in several states across the nation. It has gathered more publicity in New York because of the outrageous number of student choosing to opt-out. Governor Andrew Cuomo had previously announced that teacher evaluations were now going to be based on the test scores, causing thousands of teachers, students and parents to support the movement.
2. Conflict theorist would view education as a form of divider between the haves and have-nots. Students in inner-city schools go to public schools where there is not enough staff, they are put in large classrooms, they are undersupplied, and are in disrepair. Such inequalities occur because the public school system relies on funding from property taxes. Also, due to the no child left behind act teachers have stopped teaching critical thinking so that they can prepare students for standardized testing, therefore do well and avoid getting penalized so that their school can continue to get more funding. Technically, by the end of the school year, these students for the most part, have been taught and been preparing for the test. A conflict theorist would see this as an imbalance in the educational system based on the opportunities that rich and poor neighborhoods have. Cultural capital also comes into play because a child’s educational success is highly impacted by the extend of how much cultural capital they have (based off their parents).
3. Educational success is a major component in raising a person's socioeconomic status. I have chosen to comment on this topic because being that I work with students, this issue greatly affects them. I believe all children and students should be given the same opportunities whether coming from a rich or poor neighborhood. Standardized testing should not be mandated in the educational system because teachers focus the majority of their time on teaching students how to do well on it as oppose to allowing the teachers to use their knowledge and creativity in their lectures and class time.
Victoria T. In response to Palmira G. 1. I agree with Palmira’s response that includes the conflict perspective viewing education as a divider between the haves and the have-nots. Public schools depend of federal funding so whenever there are cuts that need to be made, education is one of first places to be hit. Compared to children from wealthier families that might go to elite private schools, public school children are at a disadvantage. Like Palmira said, within public schools teachers may start preparing students from the beginning of the year to take standardized tests in order to conserve their jobs or continue to receive funding. Compared to a private school that receives funding from various others places like donors, private schools can give their teachers more leeway when it comes to their curriculum. They’re not under as much pressure to focus on testing so their students receive on overall broader education not solely focused on test material. What stood out to me about her response was the inclusion of a parent with children in the public school system that recognizes the waste of time that concentrating on testing has created. To me, this parent understanding that her children are losing a overall quality education and teachers who are creative is indicative of what the conflict perspective hopes to achieve, a class consciousness. People in states as big as New York are beginning to protest against standardized testing with the hopes that it will create a change with how much influence these tests have. I chose to comment on Palmira’s entry because her emphasis within the conflict perspective on how teachers are now concentrated on teaching students to pass the tests can also be seen within the functionalist perspective. Regarding this topic as a whole, I think that standardized testing has created a huge social problem. This isn’t just affecting a few schools, but all public schools across the states. What kind of education can a child really expect to receive when teachers focus from day one on topics that they’re expecting to be covered by standardized tests? Public school children, especially inner-city students like Palmira points out, aren’t receiving a quality education that prepares them for college or that exposes them to broader topics.
Victoria T. In response to Palmira G. 2. A functionalist would say that two of the biggest manifest functions of schools are to educate and socialize children. In order for a person to fit into society and overall for society to survive, a school must teach young individuals society’s norms, values, and beliefs. A functionalist would argue that standardized tests are a dysfunctional activity that have created negative consequences within the institution of education. One of the main negative consequences of standardized testing is the loss of a true education. The primary task of schools is to educate, and education is defined as teaching students skills, norms, knowledge, and values they’ll need in order to contribute to society. You’re supposed to be learning new things you’ll find will help you in adulthood and develop personal traits like wisdom and originality. However, what kind of originality can you hope to develop when your syllabus for the year has been predetermined to only match the content of standardized tests? Standardized testing has prevented the education system from performing its main task and has limited the originality that teachers can use to motivate and engage students in daily lessons. The manifest function of the creation of standardized tests was to make sure that schools were educating students on things they deemed important within various subjects to ensure students were receiving a good education within all subjects. The latent function of the creation of this testing system is that now teachers and students aren’t as engaged in teaching and learning material. For example, today teachers often have to tell their students that they’ll be skipping content in their lessons for the sake of time in order to get to content that will be on the test. Often the lessons and readings associated with it are topics that students would actually be interested in.
Victoria T. In response to Palmira G. 3. I agree to a certain extent with Palmira’s solution. While I agree that teachers should use their creativity to engage students with the content, I don’t agree with her solution to not mandate standardized testing. I think that the current way in which tests are being administered definitely needs to be changed, but standardized tests serve the function of allowing the government to see where some schools are failing. We want to believe that all teachers are great instructors, but that’s not the case. We need tests to allow schools to know which students are actually learning something rather then nothing. For example, when I was in high school, I had a history teacher who literally spent every class telling personal stories and complaining about the school soccer team. I think we might have actually opened up our textbooks about three times throughout the year. So when it comes to the final months of the school year and your students take a test in which they basically don’t know anything, it will also be reflective of the teacher. If a class does that badly, then it alerts the school that maybe a new teacher should be hired to avoid the same problem next year. My proposed solution is to restructure the standardized testing system. First off, the penalty that’s associated with these tests should be lessened. Teachers follow the curriculum they believe will be on the tests so closely not because they want to be boring or unoriginal, but because they don’t want to be fired. Obviously a teacher should only be penalized if a great majority of his/her class scores below a certain level. That could be indicative that it’s no longer just the student’s lack of attention or care but that some fault lies within a careless teacher like in my experience. Second, experts and government officials shouldn’t determine the actual content on the tests, it should be decided by the teachers. Teachers should be allowed to meet by departments and as a department decide what course content is crucial for students to have learned. This way, teachers know what they have to get across to their students and they have opportunities to engage their class in lessons. There’s no more of this “guessing game” as to what might be a question on the test. This way departments can create their own “cumulative finals” This is also another way for teachers not to be afraid of losing their jobs. They know what they absolutely have to cover because it’s crucial to the course and it’s knowledge that’s expected once you move onto higher education, but they also have time to cover some other topics. Now they can also incorporate time into lessons that they know their students will like. Students won’t dread testing when their teachers can assure them that these tests aren’t made up by some strangers up in Washington and that they know they can pass.
Dewan A In reply to Narineh T 1. I agree with my peer’s response. Nowadays children face lots of pressure and stress a lot because of Standard Tests. They have to give lots of time to practice for standard tests. They does private tuitions to do better in the test. I am commenting on this entry because it has become an important issue for United States. Kids have competitive mind. They want to do better than others in everything. So state tests builds pressure on them. When they fail they remain behind SES race and it depresses them. And they build aggression inside them. And they behave rudely with others around them. Parents are becoming very concerned for their kids. 2. I want to see this through functionalist perspective. Functionalist would say education is an important institution for society. It prepares kids to be a better human and achieve success in economic status. Education provides both manifest and latent functions. Manifest means to educate, personal development, proper socialization, and employment. Latent functions means child care, the establishment of peer relationships, and lowering unemployment by keeping high school students out of the full time labor force. 3. I agree with peer’s proposed solution. Government should stop giving state tests because it builds pressure on kids and they do not have time to socialize. It is realistic because class tests are enough to prove if the kids have the ability to study further or not. Class lectures prepare them for the achievement race in social economic status. They do not have that much pressure learning in class. I think another solution can be test results can be considered in absolute terms meaning with reference to a given standard of achievement rather than with reference to the scores of other students.
1. I would have to agree with Narineh T. Mainly because I was once in the shoes of these children. I can relate to how stressful those test were. I can only imagine how much harder they have made it. I think if these tests are designed to address whether or not teachers have done their job properly, the government should find a better way to do so. The way these tests are formatted is not benefiting theses children. The education system is there to educate children in a stress free environment. It serves a latent function for many kids as a getaway from family and emotional problems. While on the other hand, the government is enforcing Common Core exam on children stressing them out. Children and parents should have the option whether or not they want to participate in such an exam. I liked how Narineh mentioned the frustration aggression theory. Children get upset from having to take such a vigorous standardized multiple choice test, and may take their anger out on other children. They have even bring that negative attitude home and be discouraged from trying their best towards classes that do have an effect on their academics and future. I understand these tests have been in play since No Child Left behind was effective in 2002, but they should be update, as was suppose to be in 2010.
2. A functionalist would say the education system is a necessary institution for society to function properly. It’s manifest function serving to educate individuals while enhancing socialization, employment and status. In this case of children opting out of standardized testing, a functionalist would say the institution as a whole is at fault. Children are not prepared for these tests and fear failure. This can be due to the ill funding of schools, children not having resources to prep, or even unqualified teachers. Some believe that teachers are solely accountable. However everyone should be accountable, not just teachers. A functionalist would look as this issue in a very system perspective. There were disfunctions somewhere within the school, teacher, student, or community as a whole. They will look at a more macro level picture, than micro. The federal government is requiring students to take more difficult standardized tests without taking in account that some teachers in public schools are under qualified at teaching. This only results in children being emotionally stressed and drained by tests that are intended to evaluate teachers.
1. I would have to agree with Narineh T. Mainly because I was once in the shoes of these children. I can relate to how stressful those test were. I can only imagine how much harder they have made it. I think if these tests are designed to address whether or not teachers have done their job properly, the government should find a better way to do so. The way these tests are formatted is not benefiting theses children. The education system is there to educate children in a stress free environment. It serves a latent function for many kids as a getaway from family and emotional problems. While on the other hand, the government is enforcing Common Core exam on children stressing them out. Children and parents should have the option whether or not they want to participate in such an exam. I liked how Narineh mentioned the frustration aggression theory. Children get upset from having to take such a vigorous standardized multiple choice test, and may take their anger out on other children. They have even bring that negative attitude home and be discouraged from trying their best towards classes that do have an effect on their academics and future. I understand these tests have been in play since No Child Left behind was effective in 2002, but they should be update, as was suppose to be in 2010.
2. A functionalist would say the education system is a necessary institution for society to function properly. It’s manifest function serving to educate individuals while enhancing socialization, employment and status. In this case of children opting out of standardized testing, a functionalist would say the institution as a whole is at fault. Children are not prepared for these tests and fear failure. This can be due to the ill funding of schools, children not having resources to prep, or even unqualified teachers. Some believe that teachers are solely accountable. However everyone should be accountable, not just teachers. A functionalist would look as this issue in a very system perspective. There were disfunctions somewhere within the school, teacher, student, or community as a whole. They will look at a more macro level picture, than micro. The federal government is requiring students to take more difficult standardized tests without taking in account that some teachers in public schools are under qualified at teaching. This only results in children being emotionally stressed and drained by tests that are intended to evaluate teachers.
(continued) 3. To be honest, I do not think it would be possible to completely removing these types of testing. I think an option close to that would be providing all school with the option to opt out. Then, everyone have a the equal opportunity if whether or not they want to be apart of their evaluation without be penalized. I would say a solution to the problem could be increasing teacher pay to enhance teacher qualifications or requiring rigorous programs to enhance teachers to actually teach the required material needed to do well. Therefore, when children are forced to take such exams it might be a little less stressful. Another solutions could also be expanding early childhood education, starting from a young age. Children might be more prepared also leading to less stress when faced with these standardized tests.
Eduardo G. In response to Ellen G. 1. I agree with my peer completely because I believe that standardized testing doesn't really look at what the students are really learning, but is mostly about making a school’s reputation look good that way parents are alert that the school has a good reputation and so they inscribe their kids to the schools who have a better reputation of testing and the learning outcome (which can be deceiving most of the time). When the schools accepts the hundreds of applications, which means a lot more money for the school to be spending. Students across the nation complain about the information not being relevant to what they are being tested on, which leads to most students not doing well on these tests and like we’ve heard in New York, most of them opt out of these standardized tests that don’t really look at what the students really learned in class by their teacher. My brother came up to me a week ago asking me about science questions in which he knew nothing of and I accused him that he’s not paying attention, but he told me that it was standardized testing. I understood and there wasn’t much to do, so I helped him to my best ability. It just comes to show that the information on these tests aren’t really taught by the teacher because the teacher is busy teaching them something else that will aid the students in becoming prepared for the next grade. Taking repetitive testing year after year makes students loose interest in learning because knowing that everyone takes the same exact test on the same day drains the students because these tests take forever to finish and most students just give up and start playing the guessing game, but with this done, it affects the teachers a lot like in New York and like Ellen mentioned, it ruins the reputation of the school. When Ellen mentioned that these standardized tests disrupt various areas of society like less students undertaking STEM careers, I couldn’t agree better because what she stated there is so true. I find these tests to be a bit intimidating for students because it might discourage students into choosing a career that’s less hard, which pulls them away from STEM careers because of the “hard” science section of an exam or other factors that can play in greatly in what interests they like. I chose to comment on this issue because I do strongly believe that students should opt out of these standardized tests because it doesn’t measure anything, doesn’t determine anything, and doesn’t label students as being smart or not. All students are smart in my opinion, they all have great potential, but standardized testing is taking their motivation away just to make their school look good and to keep and receive more additional funding from the federal government. That’s not what education should be about, as a whole society we should really think about the student and their success, not irrelevant testing that proves little to nothing at all. This is a social problem because the federal government wants to make it a social problem by evaluating teachers based on this testing for half of the evaluation and it’s really selfish against teachers because it’s not their fault irrelevant information is being tested. Like Ellen said, standardized testing disrupts the flow in society and creates conflict for parents and students to how the school is being run. Less students are undertaking STEM careers because of the workload on the subject when they are tested and students feel a bit intimidated about the subject. This needs to stop, but the federal government runs the show and the schools need that money and reputation. Takes away the students motivation and thrive in my opinion.
Eduardo G. In response to Ellen T. 2. A conflict theorist would always question who is benefiting from these standardized tests and the students aren't the ones benefiting because they lose their motivation, they get sick and tired of the same testing year after year, and ultimately lose interest in school in general. The school or institution in where students attend are profiting/benefiting the most because the schools get money for every student who shows up every single day in that classroom and even more when it’s “crucial” taking those standardized tests. So schools pretty much think students as profit every time they show up to school, meanwhile the students are being deprived of an education because they have to do good on these tests so the schools gets a good reputation and is evaluated properly based solely on that testing week. Those in power dictate what goes down in the schools, like in New York those in power count 50% of the teachers evaluation based on the testing, which is so unfair because one can’t just evaluate a good teacher on horrible performances by the students who weren't even taught the irrelevant information because the teacher was teaching them real valuable knowledge. The teachers are also in conflict with those in power who are evaluating them based on these tests. It creates conflict between the teachers and the people evaluating them like that. A conflict theorist would say that teachers, students, and parents are against this method of “evaluating” their students. The people who call the shots could care less because they care about the money the federal government can provide for the school and the sake of the school’s reputation. It’ll just be a never ending dispute on the issue of these standardized tests that evaluate nothing, the conflict between the community (students, teachers, and parents) against the school district who mandate that students to take these tests, which leads to parents opting their students out and start this movement in New York that is getting attention locally and will make it all across the nation soon enough as tensions rise even more.
3. My peers proposed solution of stopping the Common Core function in schools and letting the teachers to have the liberty to teach as they like sounds like an effective way to motivate the student community and give them the necessary attention to make them grow as effective individual and student too. This sounds easy to say, but to do is going to take the voice of all communities to stop this, but the reality is that not all parents are going to stand up against this issue and agree with the school district that standardized testing is a good way to evaluate their students, which is not the case here. I like Ellen’s idea completely, but teachers also have to follow a certain curriculum that the school wants them to follow unfortunately and also keep up with their schedule as well. When students have the freedom to think creatively, they don’t feel pressure nor the weight of expectations, which leads them to develop such skills like critical thinking on their own without them noticing that they did. This is a beautiful process that can be true for all students, but it’s not. My proposed solution is to stop pressuring students and intimidating them with statistics that make them think that they’ll someday be part of those statistics as well, to stop “evaluating” them based on standardized testing, which has no meaning of the true potential they have inside of them. We want our students to be excited about learning something new every day. That’s why I also propose for teachers to teach their way because you’ll have a variety of teaching methods that could potentially better the students’ performance, not only that but create a REAL sense of reputation by having such amazing teachers teach in a way that no other can.
12 comments:
Narineh T
1. Schools are places where kids and teenagers go to learn, achieve knowledge, socialize and be active through sports. Kids are very playful and also hard working. But if we waste their time and energy on too much exams then it is not good for their mind and health. So tests like Common Core are too much pressure on kids as well as on parents. Kids spend less time learning on class and more time for preparing Common Core tests. Parents are also worried about their kids. Parents say their kids stress a lot due to Common Core test. Students do not get time to play and socialize. They stay at home and study. It affects their health. Some kids build aggression on their mind. They do not communicate well with others. They show the anger on their juniors. Sometimes they even misbehave with their parents because of too much pressure. It is called frustration aggression theory. So the state should stop giving such exams and let kids learn properly in the class. It should be less stressful for the kids.
2. I would like to see this through conflict perspective. Conflict theory sees social life as a competition, and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. Inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. The masses are not bound to society by their shared values, but by coercion at the hands of those in power. This perspective emphasizes social control, not consensus and conformity. Groups and individuals advance their own interests, struggling over control of societal resources. Those with the most resources exercise power over others with inequality and power struggles result. Schools compete with each other for higher rankings. They make difficult test papers to prepare students better than other students in different schools. It put lots of pressure on the students. Then there is discrimination in classes. White kids get better treatment than African American kids because majority of White kids have rich parents and their parents pay lots of taxes. So black kids are less supervised and they do not get good grades in class. In public schools there is lack of good tuitions. Public schools are not financed well. Students in public schools who need extra tuitions for Math classes faces lots of problems. But in private schools there is good tuitions. They are highly expensive. Only rich White kids could afford it. Therefore majority of African American kids are left behind in achieving better life. So conflict is all about domination and power.
3. I think education system is very important for kids. They go there to learn skills and knowledge. They also go there to socialize and play sports with other kids. They want to learn and also have fun. But if we take away their freedom it is not right. States should not give them extra tests beside school exams. It put lots of burden on them. I am commenting on this topic because I see kids around me struggling for good result in all the tests. They have become so busy with the preparation for the tests that they do not get time for extracurricular activities like sports and karate class. They do not socialize well. Sometimes they do not even get to eat well. They do not have good metabolism. I think one and only solution is to stop giving state tests. It builds pressure on kids. They should have time for themselves. They should get time to play sports with their peers and have time to eat well. It builds good metabolism. We should prepare kids with normal class tests not with other state tests. It is not that necessary.
Ellen T.
1) The new Common Core Curriculum creates a social problem within the fact that the social institution of the government bothers the social institution of schools by mandating federal level standardized testing across high schools. The education is so shortsighted, students are actually "opting out," or refusing to take the standardized tests. There is a flaw when over a hundred thousand students across states think testing is useless because they are not learning relevant material. Even if one hundred thousand is small compared to a million, it can make a big impact provided that if too many students opt out of the test, the school may have its funds cut as a failure school by the government. Students are taught to think in the same exact way by passing the same tests, causing students to be less motivated to actually learn and perform their needed functions. This causes more problems given that it would affect several other areas of society, such as less students who undertake STEM careers, which requires creative and critical thinking. It destroys the idea of education because instead of learning being a process operating on intrinsic motivation, it is reduced to the extrinsic goal of making one's school look decent.
2. I see this problem through the Functionalist perspective which says social problems are caused when social institutions cannot performing the functions they are required, usually because of a structural flaw. The issue here is the latent, or unintended function, of students disinterested in education by forcing them to invest their time and energy in education for the sake of competition. This came out of the misguided manifest function of the government taking over the function of schools to get teaching across the states more organized and focused on what is determined by "experts," and large companies like Pearson what is needed. Many teachers are not properly equipped to teach the Common Core, seeing it is a fairly new program and teachers all teach in their own unique manner. Schools are also not equipping students with the skills to advance in life using Common Core, which involves a stressful memorization, esoteric, formulaic problem solving based approach to teaching, instead an organic flow of casual assignments and projects. It reduces the learning process to filling in exam booklets instead of critical individual based assessment. Thus, education fails to prepare students to serve more pertinent functions in society, the exam attendance and scores continue to drop, and the government panics further, creating more disorder and confused policies such as No Child Left Behind.
3. Education is one of the few advents of social mobility in the American capitalist system, where students through gaining knowledge increase their cultural capital and socioeconomic status. I was drawn to comment on this article because the students I tutor complain they have no more incentive to study because everyone else is learning the same exact thing. Teachers forgo their innovative lectures in order to prescribe rigid and confusing problems. The expectation to raise scores destroys the purpose of teaching and causes students to go as far as to eschew their own education leading to a drop in student performance and test scores. One possible solution is to stop the Common Core testing and provide teachers with the previous system of given educational nationwide broad standards, but without a test centered curriculum that allows no room for discussion. This is how successful college education operates, when the teacher is given liberty to educate at their own pace and identity. Students in college level AP classes are generally more motivated because an inherent desire to understand something on their own terms. Ultimately, schools need to take back the function of determining what they see fit and required to prepare their students, which are critical thinking skills and creativity, not politically gathered statistical data analyzed beyond the point of practical application.
Palmira G.
1.The issue in this article is that thousands of students in New York are opting-out from taking their standardized tests. Parents, as well as teachers, are part of what they call the opt-out movement due to the fact that they believe that such tests do not allow teachers to &“educate”; their students. Instead, the curriculum is set to “school” and teach students based off of what will be in such tests. One parent mentions that the state is wasting teachers’ and kids’ time and that they are robbing teachers of the opportunity to be creative in their teaching styles. This is considered a social problem because it is occurring in several states across the nation. It has gathered more publicity in New York because of the outrageous number of student choosing to opt-out. Governor Andrew Cuomo had previously announced that teacher evaluations were now going to be based on the test scores, causing thousands of teachers, students and parents to support the movement.
2. Conflict theorist would view education as a form of divider between the haves and have-nots. Students in inner-city schools go to public schools where there is not enough staff, they are put in large classrooms, they are undersupplied, and are in disrepair. Such inequalities occur because the public school system relies on funding from property taxes. Also, due to the no child left behind act teachers have stopped teaching critical thinking so that they can prepare students for standardized testing, therefore do well and avoid getting penalized so that their school can continue to get more funding. Technically, by the end of the school year, these students for the most part, have been taught and been preparing for the test. A conflict theorist would see this as an imbalance in the educational system based on the opportunities that rich and poor neighborhoods have. Cultural capital also comes into play because a child’s educational success is highly impacted by the extend of how much cultural capital they have (based off their parents).
3. Educational success is a major component in raising a person's socioeconomic status. I have chosen to comment on this topic because being that I work with students, this issue greatly affects them. I believe all children and students should be given the same opportunities whether coming from a rich or poor neighborhood. Standardized testing should not be mandated in the educational system because teachers focus the majority of their time on teaching students how to do well on it as oppose to allowing the teachers to use their knowledge and creativity in their lectures and class time.
Victoria T.
In response to Palmira G.
1. I agree with Palmira’s response that includes the conflict perspective viewing education as a divider between the haves and the have-nots. Public schools depend of federal funding so whenever there are cuts that need to be made, education is one of first places to be hit. Compared to children from wealthier families that might go to elite private schools, public school children are at a disadvantage. Like Palmira said, within public schools teachers may start preparing students from the beginning of the year to take standardized tests in order to conserve their jobs or continue to receive funding. Compared to a private school that receives funding from various others places like donors, private schools can give their teachers more leeway when it comes to their curriculum. They’re not under as much pressure to focus on testing so their students receive on overall broader education not solely focused on test material. What stood out to me about her response was the inclusion of a parent with children in the public school system that recognizes the waste of time that concentrating on testing has created. To me, this parent understanding that her children are losing a overall quality education and teachers who are creative is indicative of what the conflict perspective hopes to achieve, a class consciousness. People in states as big as New York are beginning to protest against standardized testing with the hopes that it will create a change with how much influence these tests have. I chose to comment on Palmira’s entry because her emphasis within the conflict perspective on how teachers are now concentrated on teaching students to pass the tests can also be seen within the functionalist perspective. Regarding this topic as a whole, I think that standardized testing has created a huge social problem. This isn’t just affecting a few schools, but all public schools across the states. What kind of education can a child really expect to receive when teachers focus from day one on topics that they’re expecting to be covered by standardized tests? Public school children, especially inner-city students like Palmira points out, aren’t receiving a quality education that prepares them for college or that exposes them to broader topics.
Victoria T.
In response to Palmira G.
2. A functionalist would say that two of the biggest manifest functions of schools are to educate and socialize children. In order for a person to fit into society and overall for society to survive, a school must teach young individuals society’s norms, values, and beliefs. A functionalist would argue that standardized tests are a dysfunctional activity that have created negative consequences within the institution of education. One of the main negative consequences of standardized testing is the loss of a true education. The primary task of schools is to educate, and education is defined as teaching students skills, norms, knowledge, and values they’ll need in order to contribute to society. You’re supposed to be learning new things you’ll find will help you in adulthood and develop personal traits like wisdom and originality. However, what kind of originality can you hope to develop when your syllabus for the year has been predetermined to only match the content of standardized tests? Standardized testing has prevented the education system from performing its main task and has limited the originality that teachers can use to motivate and engage students in daily lessons. The manifest function of the creation of standardized tests was to make sure that schools were educating students on things they deemed important within various subjects to ensure students were receiving a good education within all subjects. The latent function of the creation of this testing system is that now teachers and students aren’t as engaged in teaching and learning material. For example, today teachers often have to tell their students that they’ll be skipping content in their lessons for the sake of time in order to get to content that will be on the test. Often the lessons and readings associated with it are topics that students would actually be interested in.
Victoria T.
In response to Palmira G.
3. I agree to a certain extent with Palmira’s solution. While I agree that teachers should use their creativity to engage students with the content, I don’t agree with her solution to not mandate standardized testing. I think that the current way in which tests are being administered definitely needs to be changed, but standardized tests serve the function of allowing the government to see where some schools are failing. We want to believe that all teachers are great instructors, but that’s not the case. We need tests to allow schools to know which students are actually learning something rather then nothing. For example, when I was in high school, I had a history teacher who literally spent every class telling personal stories and complaining about the school soccer team. I think we might have actually opened up our textbooks about three times throughout the year. So when it comes to the final months of the school year and your students take a test in which they basically don’t know anything, it will also be reflective of the teacher. If a class does that badly, then it alerts the school that maybe a new teacher should be hired to avoid the same problem next year. My proposed solution is to restructure the standardized testing system. First off, the penalty that’s associated with these tests should be lessened. Teachers follow the curriculum they believe will be on the tests so closely not because they want to be boring or unoriginal, but because they don’t want to be fired. Obviously a teacher should only be penalized if a great majority of his/her class scores below a certain level. That could be indicative that it’s no longer just the student’s lack of attention or care but that some fault lies within a careless teacher like in my experience. Second, experts and government officials shouldn’t determine the actual content on the tests, it should be decided by the teachers. Teachers should be allowed to meet by departments and as a department decide what course content is crucial for students to have learned. This way, teachers know what they have to get across to their students and they have opportunities to engage their class in lessons. There’s no more of this “guessing game” as to what might be a question on the test. This way departments can create their own “cumulative finals” This is also another way for teachers not to be afraid of losing their jobs. They know what they absolutely have to cover because it’s crucial to the course and it’s knowledge that’s expected once you move onto higher education, but they also have time to cover some other topics. Now they can also incorporate time into lessons that they know their students will like. Students won’t dread testing when their teachers can assure them that these tests aren’t made up by some strangers up in Washington and that they know they can pass.
Dewan A
In reply to Narineh T
1. I agree with my peer’s response. Nowadays children face lots of pressure and stress a lot because of Standard Tests. They have to give lots of time to practice for standard tests. They does private tuitions to do better in the test. I am commenting on this entry because it has become an important issue for United States. Kids have competitive mind. They want to do better than others in everything. So state tests builds pressure on them. When they fail they remain behind SES race and it depresses them. And they build aggression inside them. And they behave rudely with others around them. Parents are becoming very concerned for their kids.
2. I want to see this through functionalist perspective. Functionalist would say education is an important institution for society. It prepares kids to be a better human and achieve success in economic status. Education provides both manifest and latent functions. Manifest means to educate, personal development, proper socialization, and employment. Latent functions means child care, the establishment of peer relationships, and lowering unemployment by keeping high school students out of the full time labor force.
3. I agree with peer’s proposed solution. Government should stop giving state tests because it builds pressure on kids and they do not have time to socialize. It is realistic because class tests are enough to prove if the kids have the ability to study further or not. Class lectures prepare them for the achievement race in social economic status. They do not have that much pressure learning in class. I think another solution can be test results can be considered in absolute terms meaning with reference to a given standard of achievement rather than with reference to the scores of other students.
1. I would have to agree with Narineh T. Mainly because I was once in the shoes of these children. I can relate to how stressful those test were. I can only imagine how much harder they have made it. I think if these tests are designed to address whether or not teachers have done their job properly, the government should find a better way to do so. The way these tests are formatted is not benefiting theses children. The education system is there to educate children in a stress free environment. It serves a latent function for many kids as a getaway from family and emotional problems. While on the other hand, the government is enforcing Common Core exam on children stressing them out. Children and parents should have the option whether or not they want to participate in such an exam. I liked how Narineh mentioned the frustration aggression theory. Children get upset from having to take such a vigorous standardized multiple choice test, and may take their anger out on other children. They have even bring that negative attitude home and be discouraged from trying their best towards classes that do have an effect on their academics and future. I understand these tests have been in play since No Child Left behind was effective in 2002, but they should be update, as was suppose to be in 2010.
2. A functionalist would say the education system is a necessary institution for society to function properly. It’s manifest function serving to educate individuals while enhancing socialization, employment and status. In this case of children opting out of standardized testing, a functionalist would say the institution as a whole is at fault. Children are not prepared for these tests and fear failure. This can be due to the ill funding of schools, children not having resources to prep, or even unqualified teachers. Some believe that teachers are solely accountable. However everyone should be accountable, not just teachers. A functionalist would look as this issue in a very system perspective. There were disfunctions somewhere within the school, teacher, student, or community as a whole. They will look at a more macro level picture, than micro. The federal government is requiring students to take more difficult standardized tests without taking in account that some teachers in public schools are under qualified at teaching. This only results in children being emotionally stressed and drained by tests that are intended to evaluate teachers.
Erlin K
In response to Narineh T***
1. I would have to agree with Narineh T. Mainly because I was once in the shoes of these children. I can relate to how stressful those test were. I can only imagine how much harder they have made it. I think if these tests are designed to address whether or not teachers have done their job properly, the government should find a better way to do so. The way these tests are formatted is not benefiting theses children. The education system is there to educate children in a stress free environment. It serves a latent function for many kids as a getaway from family and emotional problems. While on the other hand, the government is enforcing Common Core exam on children stressing them out. Children and parents should have the option whether or not they want to participate in such an exam. I liked how Narineh mentioned the frustration aggression theory. Children get upset from having to take such a vigorous standardized multiple choice test, and may take their anger out on other children. They have even bring that negative attitude home and be discouraged from trying their best towards classes that do have an effect on their academics and future. I understand these tests have been in play since No Child Left behind was effective in 2002, but they should be update, as was suppose to be in 2010.
2. A functionalist would say the education system is a necessary institution for society to function properly. It’s manifest function serving to educate individuals while enhancing socialization, employment and status. In this case of children opting out of standardized testing, a functionalist would say the institution as a whole is at fault. Children are not prepared for these tests and fear failure. This can be due to the ill funding of schools, children not having resources to prep, or even unqualified teachers. Some believe that teachers are solely accountable. However everyone should be accountable, not just teachers. A functionalist would look as this issue in a very system perspective. There were disfunctions somewhere within the school, teacher, student, or community as a whole. They will look at a more macro level picture, than micro. The federal government is requiring students to take more difficult standardized tests without taking in account that some teachers in public schools are under qualified at teaching. This only results in children being emotionally stressed and drained by tests that are intended to evaluate teachers.
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3. To be honest, I do not think it would be possible to completely removing these types of testing. I think an option close to that would be providing all school with the option to opt out. Then, everyone have a the equal opportunity if whether or not they want to be apart of their evaluation without be penalized. I would say a solution to the problem could be increasing teacher pay to enhance teacher qualifications or requiring rigorous programs to enhance teachers to actually teach the required material needed to do well. Therefore, when children are forced to take such exams it might be a little less stressful. Another solutions could also be expanding early childhood education, starting from a young age. Children might be more prepared also leading to less stress when faced with these standardized tests.
Eduardo G.
In response to Ellen G.
1. I agree with my peer completely because I believe that standardized testing doesn't really look at what the students are really learning, but is mostly about making a school’s reputation look good that way parents are alert that the school has a good reputation and so they inscribe their kids to the schools who have a better reputation of testing and the learning outcome (which can be deceiving most of the time). When the schools accepts the hundreds of applications, which means a lot more money for the school to be spending. Students across the nation complain about the information not being relevant to what they are being tested on, which leads to most students not doing well on these tests and like we’ve heard in New York, most of them opt out of these standardized tests that don’t really look at what the students really learned in class by their teacher. My brother came up to me a week ago asking me about science questions in which he knew nothing of and I accused him that he’s not paying attention, but he told me that it was standardized testing. I understood and there wasn’t much to do, so I helped him to my best ability. It just comes to show that the information on these tests aren’t really taught by the teacher because the teacher is busy teaching them something else that will aid the students in becoming prepared for the next grade. Taking repetitive testing year after year makes students loose interest in learning because knowing that everyone takes the same exact test on the same day drains the students because these tests take forever to finish and most students just give up and start playing the guessing game, but with this done, it affects the teachers a lot like in New York and like Ellen mentioned, it ruins the reputation of the school. When Ellen mentioned that these standardized tests disrupt various areas of society like less students undertaking STEM careers, I couldn’t agree better because what she stated there is so true. I find these tests to be a bit intimidating for students because it might discourage students into choosing a career that’s less hard, which pulls them away from STEM careers because of the “hard” science section of an exam or other factors that can play in greatly in what interests they like. I chose to comment on this issue because I do strongly believe that students should opt out of these standardized tests because it doesn’t measure anything, doesn’t determine anything, and doesn’t label students as being smart or not. All students are smart in my opinion, they all have great potential, but standardized testing is taking their motivation away just to make their school look good and to keep and receive more additional funding from the federal government. That’s not what education should be about, as a whole society we should really think about the student and their success, not irrelevant testing that proves little to nothing at all. This is a social problem because the federal government wants to make it a social problem by evaluating teachers based on this testing for half of the evaluation and it’s really selfish against teachers because it’s not their fault irrelevant information is being tested. Like Ellen said, standardized testing disrupts the flow in society and creates conflict for parents and students to how the school is being run. Less students are undertaking STEM careers because of the workload on the subject when they are tested and students feel a bit intimidated about the subject. This needs to stop, but the federal government runs the show and the schools need that money and reputation. Takes away the students motivation and thrive in my opinion.
Eduardo G.
In response to Ellen T.
2. A conflict theorist would always question who is benefiting from these standardized tests and the students aren't the ones benefiting because they lose their motivation, they get sick and tired of the same testing year after year, and ultimately lose interest in school in general. The school or institution in where students attend are profiting/benefiting the most because the schools get money for every student who shows up every single day in that classroom and even more when it’s “crucial” taking those standardized tests. So schools pretty much think students as profit every time they show up to school, meanwhile the students are being deprived of an education because they have to do good on these tests so the schools gets a good reputation and is evaluated properly based solely on that testing week. Those in power dictate what goes down in the schools, like in New York those in power count 50% of the teachers evaluation based on the testing, which is so unfair because one can’t just evaluate a good teacher on horrible performances by the students who weren't even taught the irrelevant information because the teacher was teaching them real valuable knowledge. The teachers are also in conflict with those in power who are evaluating them based on these tests. It creates conflict between the teachers and the people evaluating them like that. A conflict theorist would say that teachers, students, and parents are against this method of “evaluating” their students. The people who call the shots could care less because they care about the money the federal government can provide for the school and the sake of the school’s reputation. It’ll just be a never ending dispute on the issue of these standardized tests that evaluate nothing, the conflict between the community (students, teachers, and parents) against the school district who mandate that students to take these tests, which leads to parents opting their students out and start this movement in New York that is getting attention locally and will make it all across the nation soon enough as tensions rise even more.
3. My peers proposed solution of stopping the Common Core function in schools and letting the teachers to have the liberty to teach as they like sounds like an effective way to motivate the student community and give them the necessary attention to make them grow as effective individual and student too. This sounds easy to say, but to do is going to take the voice of all communities to stop this, but the reality is that not all parents are going to stand up against this issue and agree with the school district that standardized testing is a good way to evaluate their students, which is not the case here. I like Ellen’s idea completely, but teachers also have to follow a certain curriculum that the school wants them to follow unfortunately and also keep up with their schedule as well. When students have the freedom to think creatively, they don’t feel pressure nor the weight of expectations, which leads them to develop such skills like critical thinking on their own without them noticing that they did. This is a beautiful process that can be true for all students, but it’s not. My proposed solution is to stop pressuring students and intimidating them with statistics that make them think that they’ll someday be part of those statistics as well, to stop “evaluating” them based on standardized testing, which has no meaning of the true potential they have inside of them. We want our students to be excited about learning something new every day. That’s why I also propose for teachers to teach their way because you’ll have a variety of teaching methods that could potentially better the students’ performance, not only that but create a REAL sense of reputation by having such amazing teachers teach in a way that no other can.
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