I found the book to be both informative and compelling. As an American citizen, I can’t understand why such grand problems exist in our education system, when education, moreover the education that students in the United States are receiving, is intrinsically linked

Clearly, there is room for improvement in the education system in the United States. The question remains: how? There are very distinct problems with standardized testing. Biases, faulty conclusions, even incorrect answers permeate these tests and the students, teachers and districts all suffer. On the other hand, performance-based assessment is inherently ambiguous through its subjective nature. While I do not value the results of standardized tests, many Americans, particularly parents, do. They’re viewed by many as the tested, academic litmus for children’s intelligence because they’ve been in use for several generations and most Americans have taken one at one point or another, not because they yield legitimate results or conclusions.

Authentic achievement, Sacks argues, is more accurate in determining whether or not a student should progress to the next grade. I believe that this is an interesting idea. It makes a lot of sense to assess performance rather than to compare it, especially considering that no barriers or limitations are taken into account in standardized testing. If children are able to hear, firsthand, from teachers how well they are performing in class, (their strengths, not only their weaknesses) they will likely remain enthused about school and learning. Standardized tests do little to help a student’s esteem. They typically prevent capable students from grade advancement or entrance to the college or university of their choice. Performance-based assessment sounds like a great idea in theory and in smaller scale, works well in practice. That being said, I’m not sure whether or not it could work on a national scale for one lingering reason: who would assess each and every student across the country? What one person considers ample knowledge or potential might be considered insufficient for promotion by another. When the first generation assessed this way gets to college, we may find that the educational deficit between students has grown even greater. Therefore, some sort of standard would have to be imposed, as no one person or even group of people could decide on the preparedness of every individual student across the country.

to the future success and prosperity of our nation. Someday these children could be prominent figures in our country, leaders in big business, important writers or scholars. I believe that the government has a compelling interest in the state of educational affairs for this very reason. Also, perhaps the most wi

Some topics in this essay:
Left Behind’, Standardized Minds, Peter Sacks, Richard Khalenberg’s, United Sacks, Sacks’ Minds, Sacks Khalenberg, School Choice, standardized tests, education system, standardized testing, system united, performance-based assessment, education system united, George Bush’s, standardized minds, education reform, , classes public schools, results standardized, failing schools, schools districts, social classes public, results standardized tests, mixture social classes,