“Even more startling is that we hold teachers accountable
for student achievement, yet provide them little opportunity to develop rich
understandings of how people learn.” Pg 2
I believe that teachers are held accountable for many things
that they in reality do not have control over. Teachers are blamed for student
failure, however the teachers should not be blamed. I believe that MOST
teachers that choose this profession are truly passionate about their job. To
prove this is the pay they get for the amount of work they do. They do not get
paid nearly as much as they deserve and yet they are blamed for things they do
not have control of. Instead of providing these teachers with effective
training and resources they are in contrast limited and belittled.
“Need to address the fact that many linguistically and
culturally diverse students have fewer opportunities to learn and to
participate fully in robust learning communities.” Pg 4
Teachers lack training in dealing with culturally diverse
students and this is another area where teacher development is required. Change
will come only if there is an equitable distribution of resources in schools
and society. Most public schools are labeled “culturally diverse” however; they
are in reality segregated from the elite, wealthy, white students who are
placed in private and prestigious schools. I believe that this is not really a
just placement of diversity in schools. This is another point however, so for
now I will talk about how change in schools will come only when resources and
the same opportunities rich, white kids receive in their schools is distributed
to the “diverse” student populations in all public schools. How are they
supposed to overcome and be successful when they are not given the same
opportunities and resources for learning as other privileged kids? When the
less privileged students are given the resources they need and robust learning
environments then this is when they will be successful.
The reading about high-stakes testing discusses how the tests
in reality are not helpful in increasing student learning. The tests do not
show any improvement in student learning because there is no clear evidence
that proves it. The tests result in other consequences such as higher drop out
rates, cheating, and less learning and more memorizing. The tests bring stress
and a tense learning environment for our students and teachers. I believe that
the tests are a systematic way to keep English learners and minority groups who
are low social economic status segregated from the wealthy students population.
I agree that teachers should be responsible for students' learning but being evaluated by high stake test is a bit too much. As we learned in this class that there are outside factors that teachers have no control over that will affect the high-stakes testing results. It is sad how we just punish schools and students that are not doing well on the test results. Those communities and schools are the ones that need more support and money.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the inequality of the resources in that they are not equally shared amongst districts and schools and therefore prevents students from being successful and being given the same opportunities for learning. Unfortunately teachers do not get enough training and preparation to be successful teachers and actually enable teachers the freedom and resources to be successful and create a classroom of successful students.
ReplyDeleteThe high stakes testing article made me mad too! The fact that the high stakes testing scores matter SO MUCH and the students are put under so much pressure to perform well when the tests don't even show learning is pretty infuriating!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there should be a better way to determine which schools get HELPFUL support and money.
I also agree that some teachers get blamed for things beyond their control. This is especially worrisome when teachers are made to stick to a STRICT curriculum then are blamed for poor teaching...
I absolutely agree that there are systematic fractures in our society that make it difficult, if not impossible for those in lowers socioeconomic groups to achieve more. I saw Diane Ravitch.speak regarding education today (high stakes testing, narrowing of the curriculum, teachers under crazy pressure to raise scores resulting in no art, science, p.e, or social studies, reduction of recess, push down of curriculum, longer school days...and so on) and how more than 10 years after NCLB we have had no improvements in our schools. She generally equates low acheicvement rates with poverty...not "bad teachers." Chikdren who are mealess, homeless, and without stability not only are subject to a low amount of resources in their homes, but most often are met with that same amount of resources in their school. Like we learned a few weeks ago, we do a lot of learning outside of he classroom, if our students are not stimulated outside of the classroom it makes it pretty difficult for us to make up that much ground when we are faced with budget cuts and pressure for our student to do well on a test.
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