EDU 510 Assignment 4 IMPROVING DISTRICT SCHOOL TEST SCORES

Background of K-12 District Schools

The K-12 District schools in the United States where formed with the aim of providing holistic education to students.The department of education frequently conducts performance surveys on K-12 District schools to establish the quality of education offered by the schools.The students are given test exams to evaluate their performance.The performance index obtained is used to rank the schools in terms of merit and good management.The school management boards therefore have every incentive to ensure that their assessment grade remains to be very high.This motive sometimes makes the K-12 District school management boards to engage in unethical practices of excluding disabled students from participating in the assessment, (Messick, 1989).

Background of K-12 District Schools

Mostly, the able bodied students were the ones who would be involved in the performance assessment.Disabled students could be excluded from participating in the performance assessment with fears that they could lower the grades for their schools.The school administrators could be given incentives to deliberately exclude disabled students from participating in the performance assessment.This necessitated enacting reforms that would change the state of affairs and start involving disabled students in the good performance assessment.These standard based reforms have gone beyond just including the disabled students to crafting measures on how these students can best perform in these regular assessments.

Recommendation on Assessment Goals

Regular state assessments should be conducted with the aim of constantly monitoring and improving student performance.These regular assessments ensure that the quality of education is always maintained high for the betterment of student performance.Proper accommodation of these students should be advocated for. The disabled students should be properly identified and classified.Designing and constructing evaluation tests should be given priority in order to ensure that there is no bias in conducting the performance assessment.Student driven goals should be embraced where the students are given an opportunity to set realistic goals that they work for and attain as opposed to teacher driven goals.

Recommendation on Assessment Goals

Regular descriptive feedback to students by teachers should be embraced and encouraged because it gives the student an idea of the progress made in academic performance,(Pace, 2015).The teachers should continuously advice the students on those key areas where the student should improve on in order to enhance academic performance.The U.S Department of education should provide more freedom and flexibility to the states in order to ensure that no child is left behind in the process of accessing quality education.Proper policy framework should be encouraged with the aim of ensuring that the students are ready to proceed with their careers after college.

District Professional Development Task Force

The District taskforce on education should undertake a program of progressive training of the teachers in order to ensure that they possess the required skills to deliver in class.Teacher training institutions should be established in all states to facilitate this noble program of training and improving their skills.The District taskforce on education should ensure that the education curriculum is continuously revised in order to ensure that the education offered reflects the needs of the country.Policy on how to improve student performance by crafting a system of motivating the students should be introduced into the schools to ensure that the quality of education is enhanced.

Personal Reflection on Quality of Education

The K-12 District schools can provide holistic education if properly managed.High quality education should be all inclusive by ensuring that both the able bodied and disabled students are involved in the assessment programs that the school carries out.Regular assessment on the quality of education offered by K-12 District schools should be encouraged because it frequently monitors the performance on education, (Camilli, 1994).Regular assessment on the quality of education helps identify the areas pf weakness and put measures in place to address the weakness.It is important for the students to be given an opportunity to create self-driven goals that they can work towards and achieve.

Personal Reflection on Quality of Education

Regular teacher training is very important in enhancing the quality of education offered in the K-12 Districts schools.Regularly trained teachers have relevant skills that are required in ensuring that the quality of education provided to students remains to be holistic.The school curriculum should be revised time and again to ensure that the education offered in schools is relevant and that it reflects the prevailing educational demands.Alternative assessment programs should be embraced and used to ensure that the disabled students are engaged in the assessment programs.Accommodation facilities for the disabled students should be developed to ensure that these students obtain high quality education.

Personal Reflection on New Technology

New technology has over time proved to have a central role in turning around educational performance.New technology should be used to simulate syllabus curriculum that is used to deliver education to students.New technology should also be embraced to develop electronic learning programs that can help students get education from home,(Erickson, 1996).The school syllabus and course content should be developed in soft copy and administered to students.Technology should be used to develop the student assessment tests.This technological advancement can greatly reduce biasness in conducting student assessment tests.

Personal Reflection on New Technologies

Technology can be used to increase and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in rolling out education service delivery.Technology could be used to install internal audit control systems that could be used to detect internal weaknesses that could be affecting the quality of education.Identification of internal control weaknesses could help the school management to correct the weaknesses that may affect performance in the school.New Technology could be used to create strong database for the course content that is delivered to students in class.Technology should be used to enhance the delivery of education service to students in class.

Reforms on the K-12 District Schools

One of the major reforms witnessed within the K-12 Districts for education delivery is approval of the use of technology in the education system.The introduction of the standardized assessment programs that involve the disabled students is another key change introduced within the K-12 Districts schools.Introduction of new accommodation facilities for the disabled students should be encouraged at all levels of education.The assessment program should be free of bias and should ensure that the results reflect the real state of affairs at the ground.Special and alternative assessment methods should be embraced with the aim of ensuring that there is inclusiveness in the process of service delivery to students.

References

Camilli, G., & Shepard, L. A. (1994). Methods for identifying biased test items. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Erickson, R. N., & Thurlow, M. L. (1996). State special education outcomes 1995. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R. L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement, (3rd ed). New York American Council on Education/Macmillan.Pace, L., Williams, M., & Moyer, J. (2015). Building Consensus and Momentum: A Policy and Political Landscape for K-12 Competency Education.