High-Stakes Testing, the Standardized Classroom, and the...

â€Å"The world’s greatest problems do not result from people being unable to read and write. They result from people in the world-from different cultures, races, religions, and nations-being unable to get along and to work together to solve the world’s problems.† These statements by James A. Banks have made a profound impact on my view towards multicultural education and the nation’s current trend of standardization and high-stakes testing. Scholarly research shows that the emphasis placed on testing and standards, mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, is causing teachers to focus entirely on basic skills in reading, writing, and math (Banks Banks, 2010). This focus on basic skills is taking much needed time and attention away†¦show more content†¦Thus, when AYP is based on academic achievement levels, the subgroup rules create negative unintended consequences for the students they were designed to help, by disproportionately subje cting racially diverse schools to sanctions under NCLB.† This consequence also threatens to increase the growing dropout and push-out rates for students in these sub-groups (Darling-Hammond, 2007). This paradox is not just affecting low-income and minority students, but also students in non-minority groups as well. When there is no time for focus on skills that students need to participate in social change, these students will not learn to question practices within society or to work with other students from all different groups and backgrounds in order to effect change. Classes in schools which may contribute to multicultural education, such as social studies and foreign language, are being cut completely in order to spend more time on reading and math (Au, 2009). According to Au (2009), since multi-cultural anti-racist perspectives and content are not deemed legitimate by the high-stakes tests and classroom standards, the end result is that multicultural, anti-racist content and perspectives and not being included in the instruction time or curriculum. This reinforces the notion for white students that they are the dominant group in society, and works against the goals of multicultural education. In hisShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesconceptualize broadly. As the essays in this collection document in detail, paradox pervades the time span we call the twentieth century, no matter how it is temporally delineated. Never before in history, for example, had so many humans enjoyed such high standards of living, and never had so many been so impoverished or died of malnutrition and disease. If the period from the 1870s is included in a long twentieth century (and perhaps even if it is not), migration served as a mode of escape from