Do+here

One for, one against....[|How to do this]...


 * First || Last || For || Voucher Plans ||
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 * First || Last || For || Charter Schools ||
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 * First || Last || For || Open-Enrollment ||
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 * First || Last || For || Magnet Schools ||
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 * First || Last || For || A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (1983) ||
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 * First || Last || For || Merritt Pay Teacher Compensation ||
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 * First || Last || For || Full Service Schools: ||
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 * First || Last || For || No Child Left Behind Act - 2001 ||
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 * First || Last || For || Authentic Assessment- ||
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 * First || Last || For || High-stakes tests ||
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 * First || Last || For || School Business Partnership Programs ||
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 * First || Last || For || School Choice ||
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 * First || Last || For || Mandatory Pre-school ||
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 * First || Last || For || Common Core Curriculum ||
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 * First || Last || For || the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFK) ||
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Use this space to explain why you are for or against, which ever you have been assigned || describe || The members of this commission were appointed by the Education Secretary Terrel Bell. This report was the result of an eighteen month study. The report concentrated primarily on secondary education. Secondary schools curricula were closely examined and it was found that the curricula no longer had a central purpose unifying all of the subjects. ||
 * Link || Name || for or against
 * For || Breit, Darin R. || I am all for Voucher Plans! They allow parents and guardians of the students to recieve tax money that they can use to pay for their childrens education at a school of their choosing. This would make the good schools grow and make them alot better. The good schools would be benefiting by getting more students, and in turn getting more money to improve their schools instruction plan and allow technology and oporational upgrades. || **Voucher Plans**-Parents and guardians recieve tax money that they can use to pay for their childrens education at a school of their choice. Voucher plans fund schools overall improvement. ||
 * Against || Busser, Jacob L. || I am against Voucher plans because they have potential to lead parents/guardians to focus on issues other than the quality of a school's academic program. Some parents/guardians may decide to send their sons or daughters to a particular school only for the make-up of the learner population or the availability of religious instruction. ||^  ||
 * For || Gartamaker, Kimberly K || I am more for this school! I think that with the number of students to teachers the students that are having a hard time will be able toget more help,and not left in the dust. I can also see that they may be able to control the students better than the public schools. If there is a trouble maker in the group they can do more to counter act, where as a public school just had to put up with it because there is no where else to send these kids. The kids that go to this type of school more than likely are happy to go to school and want to learn, unlike the public schools where they are forced to go, and do not want to be there or learn. || Charter Schools-A semiautonomous school, freed from many regulations imposed on other public schools. They can be established groups who develop a plan and receive permission to operate from the appropriate authorizing body in the state. ||
 * Against || Grassel, Tyler J. || I am against this type of school! The fact that they want to try and make the education better for everyone but schools want to teach all the students the same. When teachers go out to find a way to teach the students better does not mean it will work. Giving a teacher a different contract to find out what will work and what will not work is wrong in the way that the teacher wants to teach. When a school gives the teacher a contract they should only be given one contract and no more. The charter contract puts added pressure on the teacher to make sure that the different ways of teaching work. ||^  ||
 * For || Hanisch, Alicia T. || I say yes to open enrollment! A prime example of this is a few blocks away from my home. A student I went to high school with lives about 2 miles away from Washington High School, in Sioux Falls, but she lived outside the WHS district so she had to attend school much further away in Brandon so she open enrolled at WHS which was much closer to her home. || Open-Enrollment- Allows a parent or guardian to send a student to any existing school within the school district. In some instances, open enrollment may extend across school district boundaries. ||
 * Against || Helling, Jason T. || I am against open enrollment. This affects multiple things people may immediately think of when it comes to enrollment. In small schools, like the one I came from, just a few students can make a school go from class A to Class B or visa versa. Schools moving up and down in these classes not only affects the athletic teams, but also will affect the financial situation with a school. Schools may be to start traveling farther to games, which will be more expensive. The smaller schools may have to expand on their class rooms due to an overwhelming amount of new students coming in. ||^  ||
 * [|For] || Hudelson, Devin T. || Magnet schools are an interesting concept. They help children excelling in a certain area improve their abilities and students improve the abilities of students needing help in those areas. They are more like open enrollment they promote racial integration because they enroll learners from all residential areas in a district, unlike traditional schools which take all learners from neighborhoods which may not have a variety of races living in it. || **Magnet Schools**-schools that have a specific theme, like specialization in science or math, they enroll students from all areas of the district. ||
 * Against || Kerkvliet, Chalsea || Magnet schools are comparable to a private school, they specialize in ceratin academics, and recruit certain level of learners. Magnet schools do not offer the best benefits to all social classes. ||^  ||
 * [|For] || McClanahan, Clarissa J. || The report suggested five new basics to be added to the curriculum of America's schools. These basics included four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, three years of social studies, and half a year of computer science in America's high schools. Specific standards were established as to what should be accomplished by these five basics. || //**[|A Nation at Risk:] The Imperative For Educational Reform(1983)**// is the title of the 1983 report of [|American President] [|Ronald Reagan]'s [|National Commission on Excellence in Education]. Its publication is considered a landmark event in modern American educational history. Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing (and still present) sense that American schools are failing, and it touched off a wave of local, state, and federal reform efforts.
 * [|Against] || Olesen, Heather M. || This report was very weak at best. -- //A Nation at Risk// did a good job of pointing out the problems in American schools, but was not able to identify the fundamental reasons for the problems or address the political influences in the public education system (Peterson, 2003). ||^  ||
 * [|For] || Ollerich, Julie E. || Americans value hard work and results, and our capitalist system hinges upon rewarding such results. Incentivized teachers will work harder and produce better results. Merit pay programs will help recruit and retain the nation’s brightest minds. Teachers are already underpaid, so merit pay would help address this injustice. We are in the middle of a teaching shortage, and merit pay would inspire potential teachers to give the profession more consideration as a viable career choice. || **Merritt Pay Teacher Compensation -** paying teachers differently based on the results they produce in the classroom. ||
 * Against || O'Neill, Amanda M. || I would be against Merritt Pay Teacher Compensation because sometimes it is not the teacher's fault that he or she is producing poor results in the classroom. I know administrators try to spread out the talent of students to teachers but at times it doesn't always work out in the teacher's favor. The same could go for a great group of talent in the classroom and put the disadvantage to another teacher. ||^  ||
 * For || Poncelet, Susan M. || I would be for full service schools. For some families it is difficult to get to different places to obtain some of the outside social services their families and especially the students need. If the services are paid by the government and not by the school distict, it is a benefit having the providers in one central location. I would think it would also lessen the time students are out of the building for appointments because they wouldn't have to leave to begin with. || Full Service Schools: ||
 * Against || Rensch, Cera ||  ||^   ||
 * For || Rosberg, Brittany D. || I am for the No Child Left Behind Act. This act is essential because it makes it easier to see which students need more assistance in the classroom and therefore can be helped to catch up easier. It is also an important act because it forces students to not let any students fall through the cracks by making sure all students are up to par on the standards that have been set in our nation. || No Child Left Behind Act - 2001-- ||
 * Against || Sober, Miranda L. || While many may see positive reasons for the No Child Left Behind Act, there are also many negatives,one in particular relates to the use of standardized test. Outcome of students academic achievement cannot be evaluated in one test and is not affective, it is their overall achievements that should be looked at. Many find standardized testing, in which this Act is accountable for, can be very biased. ||^  ||
 * [|For] || Thompson, Colleen || While multiple-choice tests can be valid indicators or predictors of academic performance, too often our tests mislead students and teachers about the kinds of work that should be mastered. Norms are not standards; items are not real problems; right answers are not rationales. What most defenders of traditional tests fail to see is that it is the form, not the content of the test that is harmful to learning; demonstrations of the technical validity of standardized tests should not be the issue in the assessment reform debate. Students come to believe that learning is cramming; teachers come to believe that tests are after-the- fact, imposed nuisances composed of contrived questions--irrelevant to their intent and success. Both parties are led to believe that right answers matter more than habits of mind and the justification of one's approach and results.A move toward more authentic tasks and outcomes thus improves teaching and learning: students have greater clarity about their obligations (and are asked to master more engaging tasks), and teachers can come to believe that assessment results are both meaningful and useful for improving instruction. When students leave high school or even college they are expected to be able to function in our world based on a certain standard set of skills. It is great for students to have a well rounded education and a plethora of content knowledge, but if they cannot apply their skills to any content or task, teachers or schools have not prepared them for the real world. || **Authentic Assessment**- is an umbrella concept that refers to the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful," as compared to multiple choice [|standardized tests].Authentic assessment can be devised by the teacher, or in collaboration with the student by engaging [|student voice]. When applying authentic assessment to student learning and achievement, a teacher applies criteria related to “construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and the value of achievement beyond the school.

"Evaluating by asking for the behavior the learning is intended to produce. The concept of model, practice, feedback in which students know what excellent performance is and are guided to practice an entire concept rather than bits and pieces in preparation for eventual understanding. A variety of techniques can be employed in authentic assessment." [|New Horizons for Learning] ||
 * [|against] || Thompson, Patrice || A well designed standardized test provides an assessment of an individual's mastery of a domain of knowledge or skill which at some level of aggregation will provide useful information. That is, while individual assessments may not be accurate enough for practical purposes, the mean scores of classes, schools, branches of a company, or other groups may well provide useful information because of the reduction of error accomplished by increasing the sample size. Standardized tests, which by definition give all test-takers the same test under the same (or reasonably equal) conditions, are also perceived as being more fair than assessments that use different questions or different conditions for students according to their race, socioeconomic status, or other considerations. ||^  ||
 * For || Trapp, Jeffrey L. || I am for high stakes testing because you are making me. High stakes testing are good in the fact that they test the proficiency of students abilities. It shows if students are learning what they are supposed to. It also helps show if teachers are teaching the correct material to their pupils. This can help schools evaluate their teachers and if they are teaching well or not. It may help weed out the teachers that should not be teaching. It also helps show what children may need more attention than others and who need one on one time for help. || **High-stakes tests** are a [|test] with important consequences for the test taker.[|[1]] Passing has important benefits, such as a high school diploma, a scholarship, or a license to practice a profession. Failing has important disadvantages, such as being forced to take remedial classes until the test can be passed, not being allowed to drive a car, or not being able to find employment. ||
 * Against || Vander Brink, Alisha || I do not think high stakes tests are the bast way of evaluating. Some people are not very good test takers so this could make them get consequences that they do not deserve. Also students could understand the information but get high anxiety and not be able to take the test. There should be different ways to evaluate people so they can take a test that will prove themselves the best. ||^  ||
 * For || Willson, Todd R. || I really like this idea, it gets children involved in a business (subject) that they like to participate and learn more. I wish that we had this in college when I first attended, it would gave me an advantage of learning if I liked the particular job and wanted to continue down that path to obtain my education. || School Business Partnership Programs ||
 * Against || Wilson, Alisha N. ||  ||^   ||