Public Vs. Private Schools

We are in a crisis situation in this country when it comes to education. One test after another shows that we are lagging behind other countries when it comes to education ranking and worse yet is the fact that we do not seem to know how to fix it. No matter what we do, it seems, our schools in inner cities continue to deteriorate while private schools in this country tend to look like cathedrals. There is a reason that private schools in is country always have higher collective test scores than public schools, especially, in urban areas do. That reason is not because they continue to put god in the classroom.

The reason that private schools have developed academic dominance over public schools in inner city areas is because they have the money to devote to top notch education. Students test better in private schools not because people who are better of financially are inherently smarter. Students in better neighborhoods and better schools test better because they have better and more access to tools that will allow them to learn faster and retain more.

Private schools are also able to pay their teachers more, meaning that the really good teachers, unless they are driven by a need to help people are migrating to private schools in order to have a better life for themselves. This means that teachers who cannot get jobs at the better schools are being shunted to the lower quality school districts because those are the only areas willing to hire them. Poorer teachers, poorer school districts and some of the poorest kids in the country all team up to churn out some of the poorest test scores in the world. This of course leads to less federal and state funding, which only exacerbates and continues the problem for years to come.

The Repercussions of No Child Left Behind

When one looks at what George W. Bush’s legacy on education is going to be some may say that it won’t be pretty. While he did pass sweeping legislation that changed the way the education in this country is administered, whether the policies he put into place actually helped us or set us back is going to be up for debate for quite some time. Bush’s centerpiece, the No Child Left Behind Act, made sure that schools that were actually improving in their test scores and other measurable areas got a bigger piece of the education funding pie. Those schools that struggled were urged to make changes or face having their pie taken away from them.

No Child Left Behind also had a side effect one would hope the Bush administration and the congressmen who passed NLCB didn’t realize. The tenets of NCLB basically encouraged certain schools to either downright cheat or bend the testing rules. Schools who had underperforming kids would make sure that those kids were seeing tests that were much easier than the rest of their grade level or they would simply avoid those particular children having to take the tests at all. The result were higher school wide and district wide test scores and an influx of cash.

This also meant that schools that were not cheating or bending the rules were actually being punished for being open and honest about the lower scores their students were getting. This meant that schools that honored the very tenets of the bill, that schools who were trying to improve in certain areas but could not because their funding was being cut were seeing even deeper cuts. It is hard to believe that when George W. Bush and his supporters offered this bill up they hoped that school administrators would look for ways around the policies.

Pros and Cons of Going Back to School

Several close friends and family members of mine have recently taken a big step and decided to go back to school to finish their degrees (or start new, advanced degrees). This has made me wonder whether or not I should do the same.

In order to help me decide, I made a list of the pros and cons of going back to school as an adult. Hopefully this will help you if you are considering the same thing:

Pros:
- More opportunities for jobs. It’s no secret that the job market is tough and competition for a good job is fierce. Going back to school for a degree puts you a step ahead of the competition and makes you stand out as a potential candidate.

- Lots of ways to get your degree. You can go to night classes, attend a traditional campus-based school, or get your degree completely online at your own schedule while working full time or taking care of a family.

Cons:
- Expensive. School is expensive. However, you can get a variety of student loans and grants to help you pay for school. If you qualify for grants, you don’t have to pay them back.

- Time consuming. Getting a degree is time consuming and takes discipline and dedication. If your energy is already going towards a job or a family, it could be hard to find the motivation to work on your classes in your spare time.

In my opinion, the benefits of heading back to school outweigh the cons! If you do decide to go back to school, make sure you choose a good program. The Internet can be a good place to research; for example, onlinembarankings.com helps you search for MBA programs that fit exactly what you’re looking for.

Understanding Standards

We all know what standardized achievement tests are they are the test are students must pass in order for our school to qualify for federal funding under No Child Left Behind. right? That may be true, but standardized achievement tests are used for a variety of other purposes as well. Understanding the purpose behind standardized testing may help take some of the rub out of the current belief that standardized testing has done nothing more than force our schools to teach the test, effectively dumbing down both our curriculum and our students.

Standardized test are use to assess and quantify students in written language, reading and math. In some cases, they may also be used to assess social studies or science. The tests are available to students in a variety of grades, allowing for a students improvement to be tracked over the course of their school career. They can also be used to assess student’s learning disabilities and are used to test students who have taken advanced placement classes.

The test vary from state to state, with each state deciding which format the test should take, what content it should cover and other factors. The tests are analyzed by guidelines created by the company who created the specific test. The raw score is then converted to a more standardized format using tables that take into account the students grade and age. The standardized grading format typically uses the following terms: below average, above average and average.

These scores can be used to determine what a particular students strengths and weaknesses are as well as the school’s ability to educate them. Standardized achievement tests are not intelligence tests and should not be used as such. Schools can use the information to create more effective classes and curriculum. Standardized test should be used as a roadmap, not the final analysis of an institutions ability to educate students.