Chapter 12 Notes

Excellence  has been the rallying cry and focus of educational reform. Accountability: teaching to test-what was tested becomes what is taught. Schools teach what is being tested this way students can achieve a high score on the standardized tests.

Authentic or performance assessment: Advocates claim that authentic assessment involves performance test that get closer to how a student applies the knowledge rather than how they store it in their minds. One way is through portfolios, students show off their best work. Teachers determine the learning progress through this.

Constructivism: Is a theory of knowledge acquisitions built on the idea that the learner interacts with new information to  construct meaning from it. It provides a fram of reference of organizing classroom practices so that students learn all content areas.
Active learning process: learners build and add to their understanding of concepts, rules and strategies through direct hands-on experimention.
Scaffolding: the teacher uses clues, questions and hints to extend students understanding.

Many reformers have also been concerned about excellence of character: one way they see that reform can occur is through character education: which is defined as the effort to help the young acquire a moral compass, a sense of right and wrong and the enduring habits necessary to live a good life. One major approach is to teach more directly and more vigorously the moral values that are already embedded in our culture. The teacher confronts students with ethical issues and moral lesson that are integrated in the lesson.
Service learning: knowing about justice, compassion and courage is one thing, making them a part of one’s life and practicing them diligently is another. Reformers realize schools can create opportunities for students, beginning at the early grades to help one another and the adults in the school buildings.

No Child Left Behind Act: Reactions have been mixed in how federal aid is distributed. that is has been inadequately funded by the federal government. Another concern is its provision that if any student fails the state test for 2 consecutive years, the school is rated as failing. States lack uniformity. Each state sets its own standards and designs it own assessments of the standards,and passing scores for the assessment.

State educational reform: one common theme is the call for excellence
common elements in state reform: an increase in graduation requirements, more academic learning time, standards based education, higher expectations for teachers, higher salaries for teachers

School choice: a reform that has been put in place in both state and local school district levels is to offer families more choices about where their children will attend school. School choice-an important aspect of access and educational opportunity. Parents argue that poor parents should have a choice in the schools their children attend, just as wealthy parents do. It is a parents right and it ensures access to educational opportunities