After Completing The Weekly Readings, Provide A Thoro 175394

After Completing The Weekly Readings Provide A Thorough Responsein Yo

After completing the weekly readings, provide a thorough response in your own words to the weekly questions posted below. Please make sure you submit a one-word document with all your answers. A minimum of 550 words and a maximum of 700 words (font size 12, single-spaced) are required for each complete assignment. Please follow APA format in your work. Please remember to include one or two sentences identifying the habits of mind (Links to an external site.) you have used to promote the reflection of the readings.

Paper For Above instruction

In the first chapter, Ravitch emphasizes that enhancing curriculum and instruction yields more significant improvements in educational quality than reforms focused solely on structural changes such as school choice and accountability measures. From my perspective as an educator, I largely agree with Ravitch’s assertion. Throughout my experience, I have observed that when instruction is engaging, relevant, and tailored to student needs, student outcomes improve more noticeably than when structural reforms are implemented without curricular quality enhancements. For example, schools that invest in teacher development, curriculum alignment, and instructional strategies often see better student performance and engagement compared to schools that merely introduce standardized testing policies or school choice initiatives without addressing curricular content and teaching methods. Such evidence suggests that teacher quality and curriculum relevance are critical drivers of effective education.

Public perception tends to favor structural reforms, perhaps because they appear more tangible and politically appealing. For instance, school choice and accountability measures are easy to communicate as concrete actions that can be implemented quickly; they often promise quick fixes to complex issues, thus garnering support from policymakers and parents seeking immediate improvement. Conversely, reforming curriculum and instruction is more nuanced, requiring ongoing professional development and long-term commitment, which may seem less visible or immediate in impact. Consequently, public discourse often frames school improvement around structural changes rather than classroom-level instructional quality, despite research indicating the greater efficacy of the latter.

In chapter 2, Ravitch discusses the transition from standards-based reform to a testing-driven approach, highlighting how testing became a dominant means of accountability at the expense of curriculum development. On page 16, Ravitch advocates that tests should follow curriculum rather than dictate it, emphasizing that assessments must serve instructional goals rather than override them. This shift was largely driven by the movement to establish clear, measurable standards which, although well-intentioned, eventually became intertwined with high-stakes testing, leading to what many describe as "teaching to the test."

The debate over content standards, especially for subjects like history, exemplifies this tension. Initially, standards aimed to define what students should learn, fostering curriculum development accordingly. However, as testing became the primary measure of success, educators and policymakers increasingly tailored instruction to prepare students for standardized assessments, often narrowing the curriculum to tested subjects and skills. For history, this meant less emphasis on comprehensive understanding and critical analysis, replaced by superficial coverage of testable facts. This change in instructional focus alters daily teaching, shifting from inquiry-driven, discussion-rich lessons to test-preparation exercises. The content covered becomes dictated by test formats, often sacrificing depth and context in favor of memorization and procedural skills.

In the era of standards-based instruction, daily teaching is informed by clearly articulated learning goals aligned with standards. Teachers design lessons around these goals, aiming to develop specific skills and knowledge. However, when accountability testing is emphasized, instruction is often narrowed, with teachers concentrating on test strategies and practice tests to ensure student success. This shift impacts pedagogical choices, often reducing opportunities for innovative and critical teaching methods that foster deeper understanding. The content taught tends to become more superficial, focused on rote learning and subskills required by standardized tests, ultimately undermining the broader educational objectives of fostering critical thinking, creativity, and civic awareness, as discussed in the chapters from The Politics of American Education.

References

• Carnegie Corporation and Institute for Advanced Study. (2010). The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy. Washington, DC: Carnegie Corporation.
• Johnston, M. P. (2010). Secondary Data Analysis: A Method of which the Time Has Come. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 3, 63-70.
• Labaree, D. F. (2004). The peculiar stability of American education. Teachers College Record, 106(10), 2059–2087.
• Loewen, J. W. (2010). Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press.
• National Research Council. (2012). Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
• NCES. (2014). The Condition of Education: Standardized Testing and Its Impact on Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
• Ravitch, D. (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books.
• Ravitch, D. (2011). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. New York: Knopf.
• Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering Toward utopia: A Century of Public School Reform. Harvard University Press.
• Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. ASCD.