If you could change any aspect of the educational system, what would it be?

I'd change the methods of testing.





I'm so tired of such biased results.





Some people are perfectly suited for multiple choice or true and false while others are suited for written response. I think that at the beginning of each year, the teachers should determine the learning style of each student through a survey or questionnaire of sorts. And then set up the students tests according to their learning style.

If you could change any aspect of the educational system, what would it be?
For me...I think there are some kids who are destined for college...and some that aren't. My son is a Sophomore in high school, and he has special needs, but is able to take regular high school classes (he's not that "special")...but there is no way he is destined for college....none. And there are other kids in the same boat....so I would like to see Trade School skills taught at the high school level.





Sure he can take some shop classes, but that's not enough. For instance, it would be better for him if he left high school right now and became an apprentice with a construction company...but he can't...he would literally have to drop out of high school to do it...even though they don't provide what he really needs...which is a skill so he can earn a real living...instead of having to settle for saying "would you like plastic or paper?"





Just like you said about biased testing (don't get me started), students are different...and not all of them learn in the same way or have the same goals in life.
Reply:Students are assessed throughout the entire year and this information is passed on to their next grade...


It would be nice to have the time to assess each student but that would not be reality....


There is private school...but they don't assess each students learning style either....Good luck
Reply:+ I think you have thought deeply on this.


My thought is the we are operating on the wrong premise. Presently we teach to the lowest common denominator and curve grades to match it.


Perhaps we should take a beginning test and an ending test and teach to the highest common denominator and grade based on the amount of improvement over the length of the course. Novel approach?


Most professional test takers know that it is almost impossible to write a longer wrong answer to a multiple choice question than the correct answer, so if the test taker just picks all of the longest answers they are sure to do well.





Try it for yourself (writing a longer wrong answer) It takes much more effort (and people are lazy) so if you don't know the answer on a multiple choice just pick the longest if you don't know the answer and see.





Good luck changing the world. Hope you have better success than I have had.
Reply:Vouchers, baby! Education is no place for a government monopoly. Students also need more options for focusing their education earlier, should they choose to do so.
Reply:Written response. I teach middle school, and I have taught high school. Multiple choice or true and false tests tell me little. I want to know about the thinking process of the student. It is more important than the facts they can spew out. Facts mean nothing if you cannot put them into an organized system of knowledge. I prefer Criteria testing; where students are tested on what they have been taught as opposed to standardized testing where they are judged upon what students in other parts of the country have been taught. The two seldom mesh. All tests are inherently biased in some minuscule ways. There is no perfect system.
Reply:I'm tired of teachers thinking that because they're teachers they're smarter than me, or they know my child's learning potential better than I do.
Reply:LEAP tests: vote to get rid of them!!





In every state that carries LEAP testing--NONE of them show any educational improvements! And I've seen way too many bright students make impressive grades....only to fail the LEAP test.....then ENDURE senselessly the stigma of being "left behind"--something that lasts an innocent child's lifetime.





LEAP testing is far more harmful than it is useful.
Reply:First, get rid of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. It focuses on the lowest level student while the others are treading water all year waiting for them to catch up.





Give homeschool parents the ability to participate in some thing, such as sports, musical instrument...rather than ALL OR NOTHING. PS should consider it a blessing that so many parents are teaching their own kids and undercrowding classrooms.





Stop paying schools for administering meds (thereby getting teachers to push adhd etc) or find a way to correct the fact that teachers and schools make money off of disabilities in general.
Reply:1. Get rid of incompetent teachers. I am currently battling with an extremely asinine and foolish teacher; it would take 5 essays to describe all the wrongs he has done our class. We are also being taught by 2 teachers who must look at the textbook for reference while teaching, and who give countless tests on subjects we have never learned. Since these teachers are friends with the supervisors, they are never given poor ratings or warnings.


2. Rid ourselves of standardized testing. It does nothing but waste time during the day and aggravates our teachers.
Reply:I'm tired of the testing process and the amount of time and money spent (such as on the benchmark exams). My kids have classes--that's right, an hour each day--where they do nothing but study for the benchmark exams. Aren't the benchmark exams intended to measure the success of the system rather than REPLACE the system? Wouldn't the time be better spent actually teaching the children rather than reviewing what they might be test on?


The accountability that comes with "No child left behind" has educators so afraid of losing their funding that the schools are abandoning their normal curriculum!





Let's return to a more normal testing schedule (every few years, such as 5th, 8th, 12th to measure school success and put the responsibility for learning back where it belongs--with the students).
Reply:I am a student and let me tell you the only thing questionaire's are is boring and tedious. They give u like a packet with 100 some questions for us to fill out. I'd definitely change the general outlook of schools. It seems all we students are our test numbers. The only thing public schools want their students to do is get a good grade on a standardized test so the state dont get on their backs. They dont care how we do in the future. If they really wanted to educate us maybe they'd figure out a more hands on cirriculum so that we as students dont get so bored of the same verbal lectures and teaching day in and day out for 100 something days
Reply:The one thing I would change is how the money is spent in the educational system. Most of the money does not go to provide that many items for students. I taught in the public schools and I remember saying to myself I cant believe they let hte walls and the floors of this place look like this and I even had a leak in my room for half the year. Despite this, staff continued to have expensive workship luncheons, expensive cups to drink coffee out of, and not to mention new bathrooms and lounge.





Your statement addresses assessments and as an instructor I go through the same things at the college level. I can give an all essay exam and students complain. I can mix it up and students still complain. I now mostly do a mixture of essay and a project, so those students who prefer hands on can get the hands on, and those who prefer answering questions can get to answer questions.
Reply:So...when are you running for President of the Public School system?
Reply:College tuition. Just about every year, my alma mater raises its tuition and fees, not because it needs the money, but because it has to remain "competitive" with the other schools that have raised theirs. (And every year, those other schools look at what my alma mater has done, and raise theirs... they don't need more money either). The "tuition space race" has become increasingly stupid, and the colleges should just cut it out.