High Stakes Testing Essay Example for Free

High Stakes Testing Essay Tests are a very important tool for measuring achievement; therefore, they should be part of a system which provides equitable learning access to all students. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB) which requires states to develop accountability systems and provide assessment of the students’ performance in order to receive federal funding accordingly has led to the necessity of implementing large-scale testing. The goal of using these types of tests can be considered praiseworthy if the tests are designed in such a way that all students are tested on a curriculum they have had a fair opportunity to learn (especially racial and ethnic minority students or students with a disability or limited English proficiency) the tests are scored properly, taking into account that the test scores of those students with limited English skills should be interpreted in accordance with those limitations the tests are used appropriately. For example, a test that has been validated only for diagnosing strengths and weaknesses of individual students should not be used to evaluate the educational quality of a school. The public schools of North Carolina, for example, carry a very high-stakes accountability program known as The New ABCs of Public Education. which has had a major impact on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school personnel throughout the state. The program requires: End-of-Grade Tests (3-8 and 10), End-of-Course Tests (on Algebra I, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, Civics Economics, English I, Geometry, Physical Science, Physics, U. S. History, NCCLAS ), Tests of Computer Skills, Competency Tests, Writing Assessments Grades 4, 7, and 10, IDEAÂ ® English Language Proficiency Tests. Each North Carolina school, as well as any school in any other state has to give itself an annual report card, with assessment results broken down by poverty, race, ethnicity, High Stakes Testing 2 disability, and English-language proficiency. In this way, the race for more and better information about school performance sets off. More attention should be paid to the quality of data educational authorities receive as it is a fact that there are schools which are painting a picture prettier than reality, thus misleading authorities, taxpayers and what is even worse, keeping students trapped in low quality institutions. Under NCLB, if schools fail to make adequate yearly progress on state tests for three consecutive years, students can use federal funds to transfer to higher-performing public or private schools, or to obtain supplemental education services from providers of their choice but this could not be possible if the low-quality institutions they attend remain invisible under misleading reports of pretended excellence. In many districts, raising test scores are the most important indicators of school improvement so teachers feel the pressure to ensure that test scores go up. Knowing that schools that fail for four to five consecutive years may face state takeovers, have their staffs replaced, or be bid out to private management some teachers narrow the curriculum and teach only what is covered on the test. There are many issues that should be taken into account when it comes to evaluating high stake assessment. One of them is the reliability of high stake tests which is definitely at risk when large subject domains (mathematics, language arts) are measured with relatively few questions and a narrow focus on skills and knowledge. Major decisions like getting a diploma or being promoted to the next grade require a balance of information including in-class performance, interviews, observation, projects, and class work. Perhaps the most important critical claim is that standardized tests do not measure critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and other similar important aspects of intelligence. Students who are perfectly intelligent can perform poorly in high-stakes testing, and this can have serious consequences for the student as well as his or her school. High Stakes Testing 3 In my opinion, the first of the three most important issues in high stakes testing is the type of test used. Large-scale high-stakes testing programs are primarily focused on serving the goals of norming and selection rather than student mastery of content and problem-solving (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, Glaser, 2001). These two types of testing are almost impossible to reconcile. A second issue of great importance is assessment of learning versus assessment for learning (Stiggins, 2002) There is a distinction between high-stakes testing (assessment of learning) and the formative assessment techniques that teachers may use throughout the year to foster learning (assessment for learning). In the case of the former, the goal of the test is to measure what students know or can do. In the case of the latter, the goal of the test is to provide information that will improve student learning. The third most important issue is, in my opinion, the test / curriculum adjustment. Appropriate assessments measure the objectives set out at the classroom level and at the same time reflect curriculum (or content) that has been selected to reach the specified objectives. To sum up, any decision about a students continued education, such as retention, tracking, or graduation, should not be based only on the results of a single test, but should include other relevant and valid information. The classroom is the realm of the teacher. State tests do not tell teachers how to teach, they suggest what should be taught, so there is no reason why students cannot learn how to think critically, solve problems or develop their creativity. State tests are taken at the end of the year or course, so teachers have the opportunity to diagnose their students’ needs and work on their improvement so that by the time they sit for the tests they can feel confident and succeed as expected. It is only fair to use test results in high-stakes decisions when students have had a real opportunity to master the materials upon which the test is based and this cannot be achieved without an active and professional teacher.

William Shakespeares Sonnet 18 Essay examples -- Shakespeare Sonnet

Keeping love alive is not easy. One knows that life eventually comes to an end, but does love? Time passes and days must end. It is in "Sonnet 18", by Shakespeare, that we see a challenge to the idea that love is finite. Shakespeare shows us how some love is eternal and will live on forever in comparison to a beautiful summer's day. Shakespeare has a way of keeping love alive in "Sonnet 18", and he uses a variety of techniques to demonstrate how love is more brilliant and everlasting than a summer's day. The first technique Shakespeare uses to demonstrate everlasting love is to ask the question "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (1) This leads the reader to consider other questions. Is love as bright and beautiful as a summer's day? Is the person the speaker is admiring as lovely and as kind as a summer's day? These questions are answered in the second line with "Thou art more lovely and more temperate." This shows that the person the speaker is admiring is more beautiful, calm and understanding than a summer's day. The summer is inferior to the person being admired, and the speaker's love for this person is everlasting. If anyone has every experienced a beautiful summer's day he or she will see that the trees will shake from the wind. Leaves do eventually fall from the once lively buds of spring. Shakespeare also uses the technique of imagery to develop his idea of love in line three: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." With this Shakespeare is telling us that though the winds of a summer shake the trees beauty, it will not shake the internal feelings of love from the speaker. Summer days are limited; they are short and soon will come to an end. Every year summer ends. Yes, it may begin again next year bu... ...agree with the sonnet and its final couplet. This structure, along with the iambic pentameters stressed and unstressed syllables engage the reader on the argument Shakespeare reaches for everlasting love. he structure of a Shakespearian sonnet aids in the emphasis of everlasting love. This also provides the reader to correctly read the sonnet as Shakespeare intended. Shakespeare has chosen the sonnet forms to develop his idea of everlasting love with questions, imagery, metaphors, rhyme schemes, and structure. Without these techniques we would not be able to gain the correct perspective that the beauty of love prevails over the beauty of nature; also how nature is not permanent and the sonnet will be everlasting. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 18." Introduction to literature. Ed. Isobel M Findlay et al. 5th ed. Canada: Thomson Nelson, 2004. 133-134.

Drug Control

We Must Do Better About Drugs As we know, all countries in the world prohibited hard drug, but it means that we are safe and far from drugs? Definitely not! Drug eliminated from aboveboard; still lived under the night. Prescription drug abuse is the Nation’s fastest-growing drug problem; smuggling of drug can never disappear (2011 National Drug Control Strategy 4). By the way, women’s involvement in drug trafficking in recent years has expanded dramatically (Campbell 233). Spreading of Drug decreases a nation’s physical quality, psychological condition, and life expectancy.Because no country could afford those integral losses bring from pressure of public medical benefit, no one open hard drugs. Drug is the demon, which come in from crack of door, continue his villainy that should be bar out. We cannot wait to raise awareness of drug control; we cannot wait to improve our tactics; we cannot wait to arrest more loss happen. Executions of prohibitions, living examp les of suffering, and confirmed side-effects warn us must focus on the issue. Prohibition in worldwide was actually helped. Making a general survey of our history, people have experienced full of wound bring by drug abuse.In 1840, opium was used by British government as weapon to raise the certain of invasion in China. The plentiful opium destroyed Chinese army, caused factory deficit of labors, and induced a mass of sliver outflow. The nightmare had drop away already. Today, smuggling of drug are still rampant. The grim axiom defining today's Afghanistan, 85 percent of whose citizens are farmers, farmers who cultivate fields of poppies, is that its economy relies on two dueling revenue streams (Draper 58). At May 2, 2011, United States Government Accountability Office acted Office of National Drug Control Policy.The document focused on three areas where substantial short-term progress can make a significant different in people’s lives—prescription drug abuse, drugged driving, and prevention. The document points out that whether struggling with an addiction, worrying about a loved one’s substance abuse, or being a victim of drug related crime, millions of people in this country live with the devastating consequences of illicit drug use. Overall the economic impact of illicit drug use on American society totaled more than $ 193 billion in 2007, the ost recent year for which data are available. Drug-induced deaths now outnumber gunshot deaths in America, and in 17 states and Washington, D. C. , they now exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death. In addition, 1 in every 10 cased of HIV diagnosed in 2007 was transmitted via injection drug use, and drug use itself fosters risky behavior contributing to the spread of infectious diseases nationwide. Furthermore, studies of children in foster care find that two-thirds to three-quarters of cases involve parental substances than high-achieving students.Finally, Americans with drug or alcohol use disorder spend more days in the hospital and require more expensive care than they would absent such disorder. This contributes to almost $ 32 billion in medical costs per year—a burden that our communities, employers, and small business cannot afford to bear. This document planed to achieve two goals in 2015. The first one is curtail illicit drug consumption in America; the second one is that improve the public health and public safety of the American people by reducing the consequences of drug abuse. 2011 National Drug Control Strategy 1) Still nowadays, some individual continues the tragedy about drug abuse. Bad trip is generic name of symptoms after taking hallucinogen. They start small and can snowball into anxiety, fear, paranoia, and paralysis. People experiencing a bad trip may appear withdrawn and silent or visibly upset, scared or wild. They may curl up into fetal position. Sufferer may feels like his is going insane, or losing control or dying. And he may get caught in circular thoughts, like a hall of mirrors.The anxiety may trigger breathlessness or even a full-blown panic attack (Lawrence 28). K3 is a kind of hallucinogen, which just is ban in Kansas for only one month. Before its ban, so many people experienced bad trip from it. After the poor nice feeling, billowy terrible emotions will come. Some people may black out when they driving or do something, the disruption would cause accident. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, roughly one in eight weekend, nighttime drivers tested positive for illicit drug. Wu et al. 358) In 2009, drivers who were killed in motor vehicle crashes (and subsequently tested and had results reported), one in three tested positive for drugs. One in eight high school seniors self-report that in the last 2 weeks they drove a car after using marijuana( Lu et al. 111). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that more than 27,000 people died from drug overdose death in 2007. Drug is the Dementor, a kind of monster in Hurry Potter, which living relys on people’ blessedness and soul.Apiate caused low physical quality, dysendororisiasis and anaphrodisia; ice and other amphetamine would lead to over exciting, which likely cause violence crime, also make permanent physical injury to brain; taking heroin may live in 20 years, however, taking ice must get mad in five years; also, marijuana increase lung cancer rate; LSD, Lysergids may caused schizophrenia (Jafari 373). According to a survey of Addiction Treatment Centre in Yunnan China, rate of drug relapse closes to one hundred percent (Zhu et al. 641).Drug and alcohol use affects health outcomes, job opportunities, family life, military preparedness, and academic outcome. It is necessary for us to raise awareness against any kinds of drugs. Also government should improve job market to ensure the livelihood of poor people, thus they did not have to plant or charge drug for money, expressly in some barren regions. At the same time, strong policy is important for drug control. Prescriptive drug use should be limited and customers have to register their name and information. Severe punitive measures will be effective, and powerful immigration control will be helpful.Government and school have responsibility to let students know how bad drug is. Milton Friedman, Noble Prize in Economic Science owner in 1976, had claimed that â€Å"Reason with the potential addict, yes. Tell him the consequences, yes. Pray for and with him, yes. But I believe that we have no right to use force, directly or indirectly, to prevent a fellow man from committing suicide, let alone from drinking alcohol or taking drugs. † (Thompson 546) He believed that we seem decided to make the same mistake as Alcohol ban in early 1920. Is that true?The right way to reduce suffering drug brings to us is making drug legal? Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. Spreading of D rug decreases a nation’s physical quality, psychological condition, and life expectancy. Because no country could afford those integral losses bring from pressure of public medical benefit, no one open hard drugs. It’s not true that drug control leads to high price of it; it’s not true that drug control cause poor quality drug which more harmful to physical; it’s not true that drug control convenient people â€Å"plant† charge of concealing drug to others.This monster breaks up happiness family, rein people’ life which should have bright light, destroy a nation doomed eternally. That’s drug’s truth. People need control themselves away from drug, human also do. Prohibition of drug is an effective way. Some people consider that drug control already start an end of drug age. The fact is that although sun was here, the dark still remain in nook. Human became stronger because of our reason and automatic control. However, drug could broke our magic clear brain, let us mad or decadence and lose our brave emotions and logical.As we cannot sure to control us from nerve disturb, far away from drug is the most sensible choice. Before we try it, we can choose take it or not, however, after taking, reason and knowledge and intelligence forfeit their power to stop calamity happening. So, just take care! ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Hypophora. This sentence asks a question that will be answered immediately after. [ 2 ]. Antithesis. Expresses opposite concepts to highlight emphasis on the topic. [ 3 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. [ 4 ].Metaphor. The sentence in order to show that the two things have same qualities. [ 5 ]. Anaphora. The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. [ 6 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in som e way. [ 7 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. [ 8 ]. Oxymoron. Apparently contradictiory terms appear in conjunction. [ 9 ]. Metaphor. The sentence in order to show that the two things have same qualities. [ 10 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. 11 ]. Hypophora. This sentence asks a question that will be answered immediately after. [ 12 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. [ 13 ]. Anaphora. The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. [ 14 ]. Parallelism. The state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way. Metaphor. [ 15 ]. Oxymoron. Apparently contradictiory terms appear in conjunction. [ 16 ]. Metaphor. The sentence in order to show that the two things have same qualities. [ 17 ]. Analogy. Comparision between one thing and another.

How to Choose the Right College Major

A college major is the main subject that a student studies while attending a college, university, or another academic institution. Examples of popular business majors include advertising, business administration, and finance. Many students begin their college education without a clear idea of what their major will be. Others know from an early age exactly where theyre going and what they have to study to get there. Most people fall somewhere in between; they have a general idea of what they want to study, but are considering other things. Why Choose? Choosing a major doesnt necessarily mean you’ll be stuck doing that particular thing for the rest of your life. Many students switch majors during their college career--some do it quite often. Choosing a major is important because it gives you a direction to aim for and determines what classes will be taken to earn a degree. When to Declare a Major If you’re going to a two-year school, you will probably need to declare a major soon after enrolling because of the short duration of the educational process. Many online schools will often make you choose a major as well. However, if you’re entering a four-year school, you are sometimes not required to declare a major until the end of your second year. Read more about how and when to declare a major. What to Choose The obvious choice for a major is an area you enjoy and are good at. Remember, your career choice will most likely be reflected in your choice of a major, so the majority of your classes will revolve around that area of study. In choosing a career, it would be best to pick something that appeals to you now and will provide you with job prospects in the future.   How to Choose The most important thing to consider when choosing a college major is what you want to do with the rest of your life. If you choose a major that doesnt particularly interest you merely because a job in that field pays well, you could end up with a few bucks in the bank, but be extremely unhappy. Instead, you would do well to pick a major based on your interests and personality. Dont shy away from the hardest college majors if those fields interest you. If you enjoy them, you are more likely to succeed. For instance, if you’re not a people person you probably shouldnt consider a career in human resources. People who don’t like math or numbers shouldnt choose a career in accounting or finance. College Major Quiz If you’re unsure of what major to choose, it may benefit you to take a college assessment quiz to help you pinpoint a college major based on your personality. A quiz of this type isnt infallible but it can give you a general idea of what majors might suit you. Ask Your Peers Consult with the people who know you best. Your family and fellow students may be able to help you decide upon a major. Ask your peers for their advice. They may have an idea or point of view that you haven’t considered. Keep in mind that anything they say is just a suggestion. You dont have to heed their advice; you’re simply asking for an opinion. When You Can’t Decide Some students find that they are torn between two career paths. In these cases, a double major may be appealing. Double majors allow you to study two things at once, such as business and law, and graduate with more than one degree. Majoring in more than one area can be beneficial, but it can also be difficult--personally, financially, and academically. Consider it carefully before taking this path. And remember, you shouldnt be disheartened because you don’t know what direction you want your life to take. Many people don’t choose a major until they absolutely have to, and even then, change majors at least once.