What Changes Could Be Made to Our School's Structure?

This week, I watched many TED Talks and read articles about the structure of schools and how there are possible changes that could be made to schools. The three changes that stuck out to me the most are the school calendar organization, grade levels organization, and standardized testing. 

NEA, the National Education Association, suggests changing the traditional school calendar but keeping the same amount of school days (Álvarez). They believe that the calendar should involve “more frequent breaks, fewer long periods of in-session days, and shorter vacations,” and they also say that the calendar would be “based on 180 days… but with the time distributed evenly,” (Álvarez).

Now, being a student, I enjoy my vacations especially the two and a half months in summer but I think it would be interesting to go by the new calendar. I don’t want to get rid of breaks but if shortening them prevents the awkward period at the beginning of the year where you don’t remember a single thing you learned last year, then I don’t think a change in the school calendar couldn’t be such a bad thing.

                      (Liverani)

Another idea for change that I agree with is the standardized tests. According to a study by the NEA in 2015, out of more than 1,500 educators “teaching the grades and subjects required to be tested under No Child Left Behind (grades 3-8 and 10-12 in ELA and math) indicate that a vast majority of these educators —70 percent— do not believe their primary state assessment is developmentally appropriate for their students,” (Walker).

I understand the reason for the standardized test especially to see what a student knows and what the teachers and the school can improve on but are these tests solving anything? I watched a TED Talk called “Our Failing Schools. Enough is Enough!” and the speaker, Geoffrey Canada, talked about the standardized testing in schools through an educator’s perspective.

He stated that the problem with testing is that it’s completed in April and he says “You know when we’re going to get the results back? Maybe July, maybe June. And the results have great data… but you’re getting it back after school is over. And so, what do you do? You go on vacation. You come back from vacation. Now you’ve got all of this test data from last year. You don’t look at it. Why would you look at it?” (“Our Failing Schools…”).

I don’t like the standardized tests that we have to take but if there’s a way for it to improve, I think the tests would be more effective. I think that by having these tests in April are pointless and a waste of money much like what Geoffrey Canada stated, but if these tests were to take place closer to the middle of the year, I think it could help, because when schools get the results back, they have time to change and make improvements in their school.

Another interesting idea to change is grade levels. What if the grades were based on the ability of students rather than being grouped by age? Many educators that believe that this could be a serious solution. NEA states that “each child’s ability to learn something new depends on both the individual child’s prior experiences and skills and on the particular concept being taught. While one child may be developmentally ready to learn multiplication, another child of the same age may not,” (Walker).

Would it be so bad to change the grade levels? I’m not totally against this idea but I’m not totally for it either. I think it would help a lot of children succeed more if they’re grouped based on the academic levels but I also think that it’s good for children to be with others of their age. I think it would be interesting to see if this idea of changing how grades are organized work and if it works better than grouping by age.

Works Cited

Álvarez, Brenda. "How Would Educators Change School Structure?" NEA Today, National Education Association, 3 Feb. 2014, neatoday.org/2014/02/03/how-would-educators-change-school-structure/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

"11 Facts about High School Dropout Rates." Do Something, 2019, www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates#fn1. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Liverani, Chris. Math Exam. 8 Feb. 2018. Unsplash, 2019, unsplash.com/photos/ViEBSoZH6M4. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

"Our Failing Schools. Enough Is Enough." TED , TED Conferences, May 2013, www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough/up-next#t-606665. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Walker, Tim. "Survey: 70 Percent of Educators Say State Assessments Not Developmentally Appropriate." NEA Today, National Education Association, 18 Feb. 2016, neatoday.org/2016/02/18/standardized-tests-not-developmentally-appropriate/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.