The major topic discussed in class this week was standardized assessment. This brought me back to junior year of High School. This particular year, we had to take the SAT's. In the fall, we take what is known as the PSAT, which helps to show students what the exam will be like and to show the range your score will most likely be in. England would consider this a high stakes assessment. It is high stakes because you have to take your SAT's to get into college. If you can't get into college, then you can't get a good job (at least thats what our parents tell us). From her book, she would consider "high-stakes assessment to be dangerous." Of course they are dangerous to students. We get ourselves stressed, nervous, and constantly thinking that we are going to do poorly on this really important exam. How can any student perform to their fullest potential under these conditions? It creates unfairness among the student population. Students who can afford to pay for SAT prep courses are not going to be as nervous because they have been practicing for a long time. Other students who cannot afford this probably have only seen the exam when they took their PSAT's. This is another area of our educational system that leads to a rift between poor students and rich students.

In her book, England also stated "standardized assessments give only a snapshot of what a student knows (or does not know" on a given day." I really liked that she mentioned this. I think that some days students are not on the top of their game. Especially when they are under so much pressure to do well, it is hard not to break under that pressure. I also liked this quote because there is so much more that students have learned throughout their schooling than the three subjects that are on the exam. I like that the new SAT has a third writing section. When I took the SAT's there were only tow parts, math and english. I did not like this because what if you were bad at one or both but great at social studies or science. I like that they added the third writing section because I think this section really gives students a chance to shine.

In Kozol's chatpet, aside from the assessment testing, he mentioned school conditions. The following link gives a visual as to what he is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eJITwQHsjI
There are many schools where the conditions are so bad, that they are unsafe to the health of students. THere are exposed pipes anbd who knows what else is in the air. According to Kozol and the video, it makes students not want to attend schools. I know that if I went to a school that was rat infested and it took me an hour to get lunch, I would not want to go there. This is another reason why there is an unfair situation in our system. Students who really need to go to school to stay out of trouble and make a better life for themselves cannot. They learn that no one cares about them because they do not even have a decent school. I think that these are the schools that are screaming for funding. I think that our government should give more money to these schools. If they cannot do that, then they should shut them down. They should send the students to other schools that can provide them with a safe learning environment.