Is there too much emphasis on standardized test scores?

Is there too much emphasis on standardized test scores when it comes to overall school progress?  That’s an old debate but one that becomes more relevant every day.  Schools are under tremendous pressure to raise scores.  Testing, it seems, has become more of a focus than teaching.  I completely agree with accountability; inclusive of schools, teachers, parents and students themselves. The goal of setting high standards for all is a noble one.  Striving to improve education is certainly in all of our best interests. I also realize that although standardized testing is certainly not a perfect measure, many would argue that it is the most objective and least ambiguous tool we have.  However, it is not without its controversy.  Some of the arguments noted with the use of standardized testing to prove or disprove the performance of a school or a particular teacher follow:

A single instrument cannot be expected to serve a multitude of purposes including ensuring good teaching and learning, making high-stakes decisions about students and teachers, and holding schools and districts accountable. Standardized test scores, according to some, measure little more than socioeconomic status and certainly don’t take into account the entire school career.  It seems illogical to justify holding a 5th grade teacher completely accountable for students’ test scores when they reflect everything that has happened to that student prior to stepping in to that classroom.  This would not only include previous education, but family situations, frequent moves, attendance, parent involvement, innate ability, poverty, both physical and mental illness in the home as well as abuse.  These disparities are not excuses, but sometimes are seen as such by those who do not have to face them.  These non-instructional factors explain a lot of variance when schools are compared. These tests may oversimplify knowledge and by their very multiple-choice nature cannot accurately measure higher-order thinking skills.  Kohn (Standardized Testing and its Victims - read complete article here ), argues that they only measure superficial thinking skills.  Many “non standard kids” do not fit into a “standard” mold. Tests may be biased.

Personal Finance Online: Goal Setting With Students – Financial ...

Students come with a wide variety hopes, dreams and needs. While many of them share the same goal – getting an education – very few of them are prepared for this critical stage in their life when it comes to money. While they all practically live online and are permanently glued to smartphones, only the very smartest conduct their personal finance online.

Goal setting with students is relatively easy to explain because they completely understand the concepts of choosing what they want and implementing a plan to achieve it, but while they are encouraged by educators who provide them with a goal setting template by way of lectures and seminar timetables, they each have to take responsibility to create their very own goal setting worksheet, timetable, study plan, and pin it to their wall.

So why don’t people take the skills they learned while goal setting with students, and apply them to the world of personal finance? After all they ‘live’ online so why not train, learn and plan their personal finance online too? The answer comes in the tools available and knowing what to do with them.

There are four areas where personal finance online can be enhanced with students, and goal setting is only one part of a process which touches all four areas.

Earning Money As A Student

First jobs are character building for students. They get to find out what they enjoy doing, and what they hate doing. Earning money as a student allows strong developments in skills such as influencing people, task management, reading situations, and making judgments.

The best earnings goals though, are the ones which enhance entrepreneurial flair, independent choices, and return financial rewards. So many students ignore this, thinking a job equals money equals spending. The smartest thing to do when teaching goal setting with students, is to give them the skills of personal finance, knowing the value of their earning, and the ability to make money not take money.

Saving Money As A Student

Independent money is a thrill like no other for a student, and the impulse to use it to the fullest extent normally extends to living life large, in the moment.

Yet remembering the famous marshmallow test by Professor Walter Mischel, one of the core principals of sharing goal setting with students is that of delayed gratification – the skill to wait until later to enjoy the money.

Long term goal setting is difficult for students. Try shorter term (unit to unit, skill to skill) goal setting

Heart of the Matter: What areas of goal setting do you need to concentrate on most? (Personal, Work, Goals for students, All).

Heart of the Matter: What areas of goal setting do you need to concentrate on most? (Personal, Work, Goals for students, All the above).

Goal Setting For Students: A Success Tool For Grades 5-12:

I noticed the topic on student goal setting on this evening. Here's 1 way

Goal Setting for Students

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