Current Event: National Education Standards

Nina Shokraii Rees, an educational specialist once said, “Having a good strong test in early years will give parents the information about where kids are, and where the problems are.” The problems are with school. The problems with standardized testing in most cases, is not the kid it is the school. Therefore, it is not the parents job to fix their kids, it is the government jobs to fix the schools. By giving all students national standardized tests is only beneficial for one reason-it shows the government that they are failing at providing an education for students. Knowing this information is not even beneficial to the government because they are not willing to take action. The government for years now have blamed the problem with education on everything else but themselves. It is time for they to realize they are failing students all over the country and it is their responsibility to come up with a better plan rather than with education standards. Currently America does not have national standards but there are state standards. John Jennings, the director of the center of education said "And they will hold students and teachers accountable for reaching those cucurriculums. That's what this whole movement is about." The movement of standardized testing is to see where a student is compared to students around the state. It is unfair for the government to compare a student from a Chicago Public High School to a kid from New Trier. This unfairness is not caused from the parents, teachers, or students but a combination which all leads back to the government. The government is afraid. They are afraid because they have failed time and time again for students. They fail to give all students a proper education, they fail to look at the real issue of schools, and they fail to take action. The government needs to look at the standardize tests and think "okay here is what we are doing wrong, and this is what we need to do about it". The whole reason that low-income areas were creating and minorities were pushed into them in the first place, is the governments fault. It is time for them to clean up what they keep doing wrong and stop failing kids over and over again. They have been unfair, they have showed a lack of care, and they have ignored the thousands of kids that they have failed. It is time to find a solution through looking at standardized testing and not think that that is the answer. In my opinion on education, if they government can first own up to what they have been doing, then they can begin improvement. In my opinion on national standards, what would that do? It would further discourage kids about they education or it would further show the country how privileged some kids get to be. I do not see the purpose. I do not understand how it would accomplish anything positive. The real answer is not at throwing numbers and tests around it is in community and to answer the question- why do some children receive an unequal education and what can we as a country and government do to stop this?

Koch, K. (1999, May 14). National education standards. CQ Researcher, 9, 401-424. Retrieved February 9, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1999051400.