Teaching

Introduced in the early 2000s, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is designed to ensure that students across the country receive a similar quality of education. The initiative set specific standards for what students should know at the end of each grade with the goal of making sure that every student has an equal opportunity to attend college after high school.

Since its introduction, the Common Core State Standards Initiative has encountered a great deal of controversy. In some ways, it may benefit students to have a more structured education, regardless of where they go to school. In other ways, however, the standards don’t always work for every school or every student. One of the biggest problems with the initiative, however, is its emphasis on standardized testing.

As one of the major tenants of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, standardized testing has a significant impact on the nation’s educational system. Keep reading to learn more about how standardized testing affects teachers and teaching quality.

This video provides an evidence-based overview of some issues associated with standardized testing.

What is the Deal with Standardized Testing?

According to the Common Core website, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is, “a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematical and English language arts/literacy” that was created to ensure that “all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career,

If your student attends public school, you are undoubtedly familiar with standardized testing. Standardized testing is designed to determine the effectiveness of a school’s curriculum and teaching staff as well as the degree to which students understand core concepts.

Many schools engage in standardized testing once a year or more in grades 3 through 8, focusing particularly on subjects like math, science, and language arts. Though these tests are partially designed to measure the effectiveness of a school program, they are also used to determine funding for public schools – this puts a lot of pressure on schools to ensure that their students perform well.

With so much riding on these tests, it is no wonder that many students develop test anxiety. Anxiety over testing can turn even the smartest, most intelligent student into an F student. But what is text anxiety and how do you deal with it? Keep reading to find out.

What is Test Anxiety?

According to the American Test Anxiety Association, test anxiety is a psychological condition in which students experience extreme distress before, during, and/or after a test or exam. This level of stress makes it difficult for the student to do their best work – it even causes some students to freeze up entirely and to forget everything they’ve learned. As many as 20% of school children have severe test anxiety and another 18% have a more moderate form of the condition. Understanding what test anxiety is and how

When you ask your child about what he learned in school, he can probably tell you what subject he studied and rattle off some relevant facts. But when he brings home a test on the subject, you don’t see an “A” marked in red at the top of the page. Many parents do not realize that testing is not necessarily an accurate measure of your child’s intelligence or even of his ability to understand certain subject matter. Testing is a skill, and some children struggle more than others.

If your child seems perfectly intelligent and hardworking but still struggles with testing, you shouldn’t just brush it off. Testing is an important part of most school curriculums, so it will benefit your child to take action sooner than later if he struggles with testing. Keep reading to learn more about why your child might be struggling and what you can do to help him.

In this video, Hardin Coleman, Dean of the Boston University School of Education, discusses the role of standardized testing in evaluating student and school performance.

Does Your Child Struggle with Testing in School?

Your child may be bright or even gifted, but he could still be struggling in school – especially when it comes to testing. It is common for intelligent students to test poorly, but, unfortunately, they are evaluated more on their test results than their actual intelligence. The truth of

Parents Refuse Common Core Testing

In communities all over the country, parents are choosing to opt their children out of Common Core testing. In schools from coast to coast, April has become “testing season,” the time of the year when students in grades K-12 sit for standardized tests in math and English language arts. Because of initiatives like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, which is intended to measure and improve student performance, some students sit for up to nine to twelve hours of testing over the course of a few weeks.

Race to the Top

The Race to the Top program, which began in 2009, offers grants totaling billions of dollars to states that follow guidelines for education innovation. In order to qualify for the competitive grants, states must build “data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction.” To gather the data necessary to meet this requirement, states have implemented standardized testing for all public school children.

Why Opt-Out?

In 2014, some parents decided they’d had enough of high-stakes, long-duration testing. Around the country, handfuls of students showed up on testing days clutching formally worded notes from their parents explaining that they were “opting out” or refusing to take the standardized tests.

There are several reasons why parents are rejecting Common Core Testing:

• Parents believe students suffer unnecessary stress due to hours of testing.
• Teachers are forced to “teach to the test” which

SAT scores have traditionally been used as more than simply a means for getting into college; they are also an effective benchmark to determine college readiness among high school students today. Unfortunately, a steady decline in SAT scores over a number of decades has some worried that the next generation to enter college and the workforce will not be as well prepared as previous generations. As these numbers get a closer look by educators and politicians across the country, many are voicing concern that the United States’ place in the global marketplace may be at stake as well. What is the reason for the decline?

How the Benchmark Works

A recent report by College Board shows that only 43 percent of high school seniors met SAT college and career readiness benchmarks this year. This benchmark offers insight into the level of academic readiness exhibited by high school seniors, which typically translates to their level of success in a college environment. The benchmark was developed by educators and policymakers interested in finding the best ways to prepare students for higher education at the secondary level.

The Washington Post explains the significance of the SAT benchmark and how the numbers shake out. The benchmark combines scores in reading, writing, and mathematics, with a possible cumulative score of 1550 out of a total of 2400 points possible. Students who achieve the benchmark are thought to have a 65 percent likelihood of earning an average grade