Educate Yourself Essay

School is the site for information. Teachers teach. Students learn. However, a trouble exists. in that location ar many low-performing schoolings, such as Parham Elementary in Cincinatti (Bhatt 1). Therefore, well-nigh students are non receiving the cultivational activity they need. However, this sewer be remedied. It has been proven that these schools can be developed into more(prenominal) productive environments (Bhatt 2). To improve education, class existence needs to trim in size, the emphasis on exchangeable examen must be lowered, and traditional teaching strategies must change.Currently, students are not receiving the optimum education they need to succeed in life. With this lack of seemly education, students are growing up without the fundamental k without delayledge to be commensurate to strive for success. An abundance of students are failing in school and are not equal with their peers due to traditional teaching techniques and poor school environment Bhatt 1). Changes must be instituted to ensure the success of future generations which lies in the hands of aboutly uneducated students.There are many reasons wherefore the education system is slowly dwindling into oblivion. Overpopulation in the classroom has wrench a rising epidemic (Helfand 2). The overcrowded classes make it hard for a teacher to teach lessons to so many students. Because of this, students do not receive the single(a) attention from the teacher theyneed in rules of order to grasp information. For example, at Carwise Middle School in decoration Harbor, Florida, the average class has 30 students. Teachers, such as Sarah Jaehn, teach to 186 students a day at Palm Harbor Middle. She said, If class sizes were smaller I could mother fun once more (Helfand 2).Jaehn, and others like her, feel they cannot get a good deal accomplished with such greathearted class sizes. Also, standardized scrutiny is so overly emphasized in schools that it affects the way teachers p erform. Mary Lee Smith found that teachers gave up construe satisfying books, writing, and long-term projects, and foc apply instead on word recognition, recognizing spell errors, language usage, punctuation, and arithmetic operations. (Shepard 2). With theemphasis on standardized testing, the teaching methods gain changed.Much observation has been completed in order to determine wherefore education is at the level it is. Lorrie Sheprard, the dean of the school of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a member of the Naitonal Research Councils Board on Testing and Assessment, completed involved large photographic plate teacher surveys and field studies. She concluded that, The efforts to improve test scores have changed what is taught and how it is taught. For example, teachers in elementary schools eliminate or greatly reduce cartridge clip on social studies and science to spend more time on tested subjects (Shepard 2).This has proven that students do not lea rn as much as they need because they are busy learning information for standardized testing instead. Teachers are teaching to the test sooner than teaching the full of life call uping type of learning that is used in the square world. This is shown by Linda Darling-Hammond and Arthur Wise, the authors of Beyond Standardization State Standards and School Improvement. They discovered thatteachers stopped with child(p) essay tests to create more tests like the standardized ones to jock evolve the students (Shepard 2). How is this in fact stand bying students if they are just learning to hold back a test instead of learning critical thinking which testament help them in their work areas in the future?To illustrate how education needs to be altered we should view the results from Steven Adamowski. He was the superintendent in three school regularises for 13 years and studied education emend thoroughly. This led to the miracle work he performed at Parham Elementary in the Cinci nnati in the public eye(predicate) School system. From 1995-1998, only six part of poop graders in that location were handout the states reading test, compared with the 28 percent of the rest of the district and almost half of the fourth graders statewide. To change this, Adamowski entered in1998.Then, the results started to climb. By 2003, 56.4 percent of fourth graders were passing the state reading test opposed to the six percent from 1995-1998. These results occurred because he removed poorly performing teachers and replaced them with motivated teachers who can gestate students to learn. He also brought more faculty and staff which enabled the class sizes to reduce so there can be more personalized learning environments. Adamowskis work proves that education can be improved as long as there is the go away to do it. (Bhatt 1-2).Experts in the education field have been researching extensively to target these problems and to find a way to fix them. Steven Adamowski stated th at teacher evaluations must come just about because they help identify weaknesses. He then discussed that proper training can be individually directed at these weak areas. He also declared that this motivates teachers to learn more, therefore beingness able to teach more (Bhatt 1-2).The real experts, teachers, say they have more on their plates when delivering lessons to a class with 30 students (Helfand 2). This is because they have to manage with interruptions and cannot specially educate each student individually. Lorrie A. Shepard argues that high-stakes testing is thought to improve education, but on the contrary, this standardized testing does more harm than good. She has found that teachers are forced to teach to the test rather than with methods where students actually learn (Shepard 1). Thus, students are again not receiving the education they need. Vivian Troen, joint author of Whos Teaching your Children, discussed that teachers mostly work isolated instead of share ideas and learning from one another. She believes that teachers need to work together in order to create an environment in which students desire to learn (Ruark 1-2).Whenever a problem exists, there is not always a solution to it. Luckily, in this case, there are many simple solutions to improve education. Educators should use helpful, but particular test preparation activities within the normal class plans. A diverseness of original material should be introduced to keep students interested so that no generalized knowledge is taught in preparation for a high-stake test (Shepard 4). This way, there is no specialized teaching to the test but instead real teaching. Teachers should also work as a team instead of as individuals (Ruark 1-2).That way, teachers can learn new teaching methods and think more creatively instead of the usual notes and test format. Teacher evaluations also must be instituted(Bhatt 2). Then, weaknesses can be identified and proper training can be utilized so te achers are prepared to teach. This will ensure that the students will be receiving the proper education they need. Essay tests should also be used more to challenge students and force them to think critically (Shepard 2). This willhelp students be prepared in life when they need to actually think rather than use memorization. Discussions should also take place dealing with what is being taught and on current events as well (Shepard 2). This will urge students to comprehend more attentively and will help them learn more about what is happening in the world around them.Teachers play one of the most important roles in students lives. Teachers mold them into the human beings they will be as adults. Unfortunately, for such a pivotal responsibility, teachers are not permitted to provide students with the worthy education that students will use for the rest of their lives. This can change, and must change. The students now are our future and must be given the essential tools through edu cation.