SWA #23

Jonny Leon

English 102-111

April 2, 2012

Outline

Title: Improving Our Schools without Improving Test Scores

Thesis: The failing United States school system would see the greatest improvement by eliminating standardized testing and using a more effective evaluation system.

1. Problem – The current US education system is failing its students and will continue to do so until some change is enacted.
1. Teachers’ Unions prevent ineffective teachers from getting fired under the idea of tenure.
2. Standardized testing gives students only what is necessary to do well on the tests and no more.
3. The No Child Left Behind Policy rewards high preforming schools and punishes underperforming schools.
4. All students are not treating equally within the school system and gifted students are given more attention.
2. Solution – Elimination of standardized tests altogether and a focus on teacher evaluation of students.
1. Standardized tests should be eliminated altogether from the school curriculum.

                                                              i.      Standardized tests are useful for student evaluation in some ways but they become the only method of evaluating students.

                                                            ii.      Their use has become abused in all schools throughout the United States.

                                                          iii.      That is why they should be eliminated altogether rather than still used in a small manner.

2. Standardized test are way for the government and the administration to see how schools are performing but offer no real learning potential to the students.

                                                              i.      The current use of standardized tests is not what they were designed for.

                                                            ii.      They were just supposed to be a way the government could determine how much money to give to each school.

                                                          iii.      They have no become the main subject of teaching and some students are taught nothing but what will be on these tests.

3. In the evaluation of standardized tests students are compared to each other rather than up against some standard of excellence.

                                                              i.      This means there is no real standard for what students will be held up against.

                                                            ii.      Each year the standard will change.

4. Teachers should evaluate students individually.

                                                              i.      The United States is one of the only economically driven countries that still uses standardized tests as the main way of evaluating students.

                                                            ii.      Students should be evaluated by their teachers and then at a higher level of education they should be evaluated by a panel of teachers.

                                                          iii.      Individual teachers could evaluate the students through primary school but in secondary school a panel of teachers would evaluate their students.

                                                          iv.      To most Americans this concept seems so foreign and probably very difficult to enact but it is what most European countries do and the United States is well behind these countries in education.

3. Justification
1. Standardized tests are the greatest problem to the American education system.

                                                              i.      They led to all other kinds of problems within the education system.

Fixing the current curriculum based solely on improving tests scores would improve all aspects of the education system.