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Thread: Students all over the country are boycotting tests

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sylveon View Post
    As much as I am an opponent of Common Core, my preferred form of protest is to take the test and then explain all of the flaws rather than running from the test.
    Plus, people who have taken the test and don't like it have an awful lot more credibility than people who haven't taken the test and claim they don't like it.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sylveon View Post
    As much as I am an opponent of Common Core, my preferred form of protest is to take the test and then explain all of the flaws rather than running from the test.
    Just out of curiosity, why are you an opponent of common core?

  3. #13
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    It forces students to follow a uniform way of thinking and problem solving, rather than promote unique talents. I am not in favor of the federal government deciding how every young person will think. I also do not like the idea of creating a federal tax for a federal program in a system i.e. the educational system which should be operated entirely on the local level.

    And dragonite is entirely correct. Those who have experienced the system have the most credibility in speaking of its flaws.

  4. #14
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    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/p...orm-Finland-US

    Finland is the world's most successful education system.
    Why is Finland so successful? Because they professionalized education. Teachers are required to have master degrees (paid for by their free college!). These teachers are also paid as much as doctors.
    Another reason why they're so successful is they (almost) lack standardized tests. They only have one standardized test that is taken in the senior year of high school. Finland used to give tests to a "small but statistically significant samples of students" to see if students know their material. They actually stopped doing those tests after they found out how trustworthy their teachers were, and how successful their system of education became. In Finland, classes are smaller and are designed by the teachers, using the national curriculum as a guide. They teach what they think is best for their students. Not having standardized tests allows more flexibility on what is taught. They don't teach a test. In addition, schools are all funded with the same amount of money, and private schools do not exist.

    That's Finland, in America, we don't even hire the most well trained and bestest people to teach our children. We also pay them nothing compared to Finland. In addition to that, what we do if students don't do very well on a standardized test, is that we cut the school's funding. This makes zero sense. Why the **** would you cut funding to schools with the children who are already struggling. That's America for you. Struggling, usually poor, students do worse and worse, and school districts with the smartest, usually wealthiest, students do better and better.

    Welcome to America.

    The point I'm trying to make is;
    1) Put less emphasis on standardized tests.
    2) Professionalize education.

    Basically;
    We need education revolved around students, not education revolved around the material on a god damned test.
    Last edited by Blue; 04-19-2015 at 04:27 PM.

  5. #15
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    ^^^^^^^^^^^^

    If you think that paying teachers more will somehow ruin the profession, I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
    You're SO SO wrong.

    Teachers get paid absolute garbage for how much they work. You ***** about your homework? Well someone has to grade all of that **** AND write the lesson plan. The school day doesn't just end when the bell rings, but that's all they get paid for. Most teachers are lucky if they get reimbursed for buying necessary supplies for their class. "Oh silly Marissa, we always just brought our own supplies to school! Why would teachers even need to bring anything?!" 1) Congrats you have money. 2) Ever notice how teachers always seem to have a million extra pencils? Or scissors? Or glue sticks? A lot of them have to pay for that **** out of pocket and children are dirty little thieves. **** needs to get replaced.

    I could honestly rant on for so long about this. Teachers don't get paid enough. The public education system doesn't nurture a love of learning nor does it provide all students with a decent ability to manage their lives. The way that we CAN fix that is by putting emphasis back on the teacher. A good teacher can do SO much for a student. Restraining teachers by forcing them to constantly worry about teaching for the test or by allowing people who really have no business teaching (I'm sure you've had at least one of those teachers) to teach is not okay. It's not as if teachers are in it for the money. Some may be really ****ty, but don't come and tell me that they're in it for the big bucks.

    I would say I'm sorry for caring so much about this, but it TRULY enrages me, so I'm not. I'm so sick of the same old arguments basically saying that education shouldn't matter (and when you say that the common core, standardized testing as early as ELEMENTARY school, and poor salary/education requirements for teachers is okay and is totally doing the children of this country good, that is what you are saying). Education SHOULD matter, but you wouldn't know that from our public education system.

    I hope if you went to an American public school and ever had a really good teacher that you were kind and loving to them. Those people probably faced a lot of **** just to provide you with the education they knew you deserved, and they don't get nearly enough credit.



    Edit: Also, with the whole "your district isn't doing well, so let's cut your funding!" bull**** is ABSURD. More like, "low socioeconomic status? students struggling to focus in boring, test-oriented classes? difficulty finding good teachers because of ****ty pay and INCREDIBLY HIGH TEACHER TURNOVER RATE??? well **** YOU!!!" Flawless argument 10/10 thanks mr. politician man you've done it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    Edit #2: If you want a tl;dr of why I'm SO MAD about this subject, please click the above hyperlink for a pretty good summation of why I get incredibly angry every time the education system in America comes up.

  6. #16
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    :420: **** school get high :420:
    Was it all worth throwing away?

  7. #17
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    I'm not from the States so this is my first time hearing about the "Common Core". So my knowledge on this subject is from that video Blue posted and the article's various people provided in this thread. So since I know so much about this topic now thanks to the ss forum members, I am going to do the rational thing and bash this idea of creativity.

    When you are doing simple math problems, getting taught a complex way to solve them is not teaching you how to think about it. Mental math needs more value, so that when you start to tackle more complex problems at a higher education you use simple math to try and solve tougher problems. Being taught "creative" ways to do simple math is not going to help. In order to be creative you gotta understand the basics. Don't make the basics complicated or else you won't really get anywhere in education or even life in general. Doing this weird curriculum is just setting up students to fail. I don't even think the classroom is really the best place to explore being creative at a young age. You would be better off being in school programs such as band/art/track and field etc to explore your creative background. Every human is different and they need to explore their individuality while at the same time learning the basics(reading/writing/math). So tl;dr of this paragraph is keep your creative side separate from math, writing and reading until you have a more developed sense of how to do the basics in a state of mind where you don't have to think about the procedure, and when you can do it mentally without much thought.

    As for standardized tests in general, if you're doing tests at a young age, they really should not be pass or fail tests or tests that require extensive studying to do them. They should be more friendly in the sense that they don't apply pressure to kids to succeed and know exactly what all the answers are. It's cool to have level of difficulty for such problems to see how students minds works and how they try to tackle 'em, but they are not really necessary to testing to see whether kids really understand the basics.

    As for public funding of teachers and schools. I don't know if these tests are the best way to evaluate teachers. When it comes to learning, it's a two way street. The student has to be engaged in what he or she is learning while the teacher has to have a decent lesson plan. So evaluating poor results from a couple students and coming to the conclusion that it's the teacher's fault is a little unfair. Same thing if there are a couple of kids that have exceptional results. Unless the whole class does poorly(or well) then you really can't blame or praise the teacher. This next bit is going to make me sound like Satan, however it makes sense in terms of efficiency that they cut back on public funding of a certain school with below average test results and place that funding in schools with above average test results. You're pushing the smarter kids way ahead of the not so smarter kids. However, this deteriorates the government's purpose of achieving equity between its citizens. So it can be unethical at times to cut back on funding when you're using the citizen's income(government's conveniently forget that sometimes their revenue they get through taxation is not their money but that's for a different time). If they really wanted to judge funding on test results, they should give more funding to schools that do poorly so that way every student is on an equal playing field. As for the higher labour turnover rate for teachers, you don't even need to pay them more to keep their job. If you improve their working conditions, such as adequate classroom, good student teacher relation and decently funded school programs, the teachers will have a more positive experience, and their "disutility" of working will be significantly lower. ALSO, pension plans go a long way for holding down teachers at their job for extended periods. My cousin in-law is a teacher, and he was telling me about how here in Canada it's difficult to get hired as a teacher, but once you do it's very difficult to lose your job. The firing rate is below 1 percent which is ridiculously low. And the reason that he said being a teacher is so great is because he gets a bunch of benefits despite the pay being relatively lower compared to other career paths he could have gone.

    Yeah these tests may seem a little silly but their results have high implications. Something that is considered silly should not have such high value. The two ways I see this improving in USA is that they remake the test OR they put less value on the test.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by marissachu View Post
    Edit: Also, with the whole "your district isn't doing well, so let's cut your funding!" bull**** is ABSURD. More like, "low socioeconomic status? students struggling to focus in boring, test-oriented classes? difficulty finding good teachers because of ****ty pay and INCREDIBLY HIGH TEACHER TURNOVER RATE??? well **** YOU!!!" Flawless argument 10/10 thanks mr. politician man you've done it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    this sounds almost exactly like what my state governor did. now he's going to try a presidential run. it's amazing.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dragonite View Post
    this sounds almost exactly like what my state governor did. now he's going to try a presidential run. it's amazing.
    Wow everyone is ignoring the super long post I made

    That guy wants to privatize all education in the country. He's a ****ing lunatic.
    Last edited by Blue; 04-19-2015 at 04:32 PM.

  10. #20
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    y'all try to hard to say common core is bad then ask the us to mimic another country's educational system...

    finland is definitely not as big or diverse as the us. problems with education in the country stem back to even plessy v. ferguson. education in the us has been so different across states and even districts...

    in my opinion its very hard to comment on this topic unless you are either a parent or a student who has changed districts. i believe common core is certainly good as it has students with the same general education... if you are a bright young scholar as you believe yourself to be, you will put yourself in the more rigorous honors/ap courses.

    the us education system definitely needs an overhaul. atleast our non secondary education options. its too much of a business now...

    how can you comment on the education system of the entire us if you've been in the same city your whole life. move to another state pre-common core and tell me if your opinion changes.
    OLD ENGLISH.

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