I found this
information very interesting. I looked
at how Brazil asses their students and what I found was intriguing. What they do is they pass out surveys’ to all
the public and private schools, to the children and teachers. Throughout the survey they are asked about
their home life situations and their study habits. Many
children from the early age of 7 are put into the labor force, and they go to
work after school. This survey takes into consideration what students have to
work, students that get to go home and study, and children that do not do
either. From these surveys they randomly
select certain classrooms to take the standardized tests.
It
is very interesting that they only give out the standardized tests to random
classrooms. I am curious if the
classrooms that are chosen are ones with the majority of students that work
strenuous hours after school.
But
here is my question, if only a certain amount of students are being tested,
what amount of students are being left behind?
I like the fact that students and teachers
were asked to take surveys that reflected their home life situations and their
study habits. A child that has a rough
home life might not have the ability to study at home. Or a household that runs a family business,
that child might have to work in the family restaurant. Those are all possible situations that can
happen to anyone in the United States. I
appreciate the fact that teachers are required to take a survey as well. Every teacher in the 2nd grade can
have the same information to teach to their students, but most of them will not
teach it in the same manner. Based on
the way that those teachers were taught or how they were mentored.
I am
always concerned about students being left behind. I worry that government sets these standards,
and they do not see how students are actually functioning in their
classrooms. How do we fix this lack of
communication?
Marcio Eduardo Bezerra, A. L.-K. (2007). The impact of
child labor and school quality on academic achievement in Brazil. Population
Association of America Annual Meeting, (pp. 1-38). Los Angeles.
Hi Jessica, I am with you when you worry about children being left behind. I think both teachers and students are victims here because whoever designed and decided on the tests do not even know what they are looking for so that the changes are done as often as the mind in authority changes. The changes are demanded to be immediately carried out when the previous one is not even fully understood or implemented yet. I think that emphasizing the basic core skills should be that - the basic teaching content, not what the current authority wants or is passionate about.
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