In this youtube clip, President Obama (the then Senator), addresses some restrictive policies that underlie the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, enacted by former President Bush. Prior to his presidency, Obama proposes some structural modifications to the Act. First, he asserts how the assessment plans for NCLB are inadequate and lack the teacher input. Consequently, the teachers themselves are unaware of the specific conditions and terms that underpin this policy. Then, he questions the true standardized requirements for varying schools across the states, and how there is bound to be (and already is) a divide among states for test results. Such high measures are established a priori, but so many schools are provided with insufficient resources to produce higher results, based upon the standards already in place. Thus, instead of formatting schools so that they meet a comprehensive score, each school should be monitored throughout the year in different intervals, meeting more minimal and realistic goals. Obama argues that we should recognize the differences in cognitive abilities across the states, and not set up these schools with such a policy that will doom them to failure, or so that they need to dumb down their standards just to meet a goal, however reaching that goal might be.
As a result of implementing more standardized test measures by which these schools must abide, other resources, such as the arts and music, are slowing disintegrating from within. The textbook defines autonomy as "the psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one's behaviors." Schools should be a place in which students learn to foster their creativity and autonomy in certain aspects of their lives. If we are establishing policies that force students to take rigorous exams and cut out music and the arts, then where does that leave the students? It inevitably leads to to follow those strict rules, and inhibits their potential for pursuing domains that could allow them to flourish. We are by no means given decision-making flexibility in that systematic orientation of building a well-rounded self, as the school systems should be doing.
The main issue is that it is so difficult to administer other forms of intelligence tests that are not quantitative, objective, or standardized. Individuals might picture his or her as a disproportionate hierarchical system, with absolutely no flexibility to decide his or her educational path. As Obama mentioned in the clip, teachers had no input in this policy, so their autonomous qualities as teachers were compromised and disregarded. Although the educational system must adhere to some basic level of routine and structure, it all boils down to providing students with a genuine choice, and encouraging everybody's state of autonomy and intellectual freedom.
In what ways do you think schools could promote autonomy? Do you think the educational system could somehow effectively tap into intelligence without the use standardized testing?
As a result of implementing more standardized test measures by which these schools must abide, other resources, such as the arts and music, are slowing disintegrating from within. The textbook defines autonomy as "the psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one's behaviors." Schools should be a place in which students learn to foster their creativity and autonomy in certain aspects of their lives. If we are establishing policies that force students to take rigorous exams and cut out music and the arts, then where does that leave the students? It inevitably leads to to follow those strict rules, and inhibits their potential for pursuing domains that could allow them to flourish. We are by no means given decision-making flexibility in that systematic orientation of building a well-rounded self, as the school systems should be doing.
The main issue is that it is so difficult to administer other forms of intelligence tests that are not quantitative, objective, or standardized. Individuals might picture his or her as a disproportionate hierarchical system, with absolutely no flexibility to decide his or her educational path. As Obama mentioned in the clip, teachers had no input in this policy, so their autonomous qualities as teachers were compromised and disregarded. Although the educational system must adhere to some basic level of routine and structure, it all boils down to providing students with a genuine choice, and encouraging everybody's state of autonomy and intellectual freedom.
In what ways do you think schools could promote autonomy? Do you think the educational system could somehow effectively tap into intelligence without the use standardized testing?
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