The author, Henry Giroux, of Closing the Achievement Gap, talked about the No Child Left Behind Act and critiqued the problems it may cause. As an example, the emphasized focus on standardized tests in The U.S.A, the Texas miracle education [SIC], and differences in the poverty and upper to rich class privilege. However, the author does acknowledge that tests do sometimes benefit the poverty class, but with an extreme focus on test taking, less funding is going into teaching materials, and this causes the funding to be directed at test taking. There are some critiques of educators, being turned into technicians and commercial representatives because of bribing, depravity, and funding. Interestingly, there was a critique of Texas’s pride in standardized tests because of dropouts and racism, and in the challenges presented by reforming the educational system because of more tests, disadvantaged minorities, and higher education standards (Giroux, 2004, p. 213 – 228). Now, we know a brief summary of Henry Giroux’s argument. We will explore the next step.
The next step will be to pick a new author, Eve tuck or Bryan Smith, and topic, Critical pedagogy, and we will perform more research into these subjects. Hopefully, my topic and new author will conflict and disagree with Henry Giroux because it will add entertainment and curiosity. The library database proved useful, as a quick tool to find peer reviewed resources, so we will continue to use this tool, but my target arguments to summarize are conflicting arguments. Complimentary agreements maybe useful as a small break; however, conflicting arguments are more the focus and fun of this assignment. Also, it will help us to see and explore differing view-points and ideas. Academically and personally, this could be useful for further interest and motivation.
References
Giroux, Henry A, & Schmidt, Michèle. (Sep 2004). Journal of Educational Change.
Vol. 5, Iss. 3: 213-228. Retrieved from
DOI:10.1023/B:JEDU.0000041041.71525.67