What does it mean to say a school is doing well - Essay Example

? What does it mean to say a school is doing well? What does it mean to say a school is doing well? The educational system is a complex and critical issue of the modern society. Our education translates our future and the need for further developments. The educational arena is facing troubles as the growing concepts of globalization, diversity and standardization are being accepted. The familiarization of these concepts in the business and professional area emphasizes on the importance of educational curriculums to be revised and reformulated in a manner to incorporate the changes in the modern economy. Nowadays, the educational systems are criticized for the lack of coherency, completeness and measurability of the outcomes. This paper aims to support a reform in terms of educational systems and supports the rationalization of educational system to increase the credibility of the learnt concepts and their practical advantages being enjoyed by the larger society. It would revolve around the basic concepts that a school really requires so that it can be said that it is going well (Eisner 2001; Karen 2006). The educational systems are basically aimed at providing conceptual and theoretical knowledge to the students. These students are hence, equipped with theories, knowledge and power to use that knowledge. But this only what we expect of the educational environments and systems. The reality, however, is sometimes different. The lack of supervision on the students and the educational institutes give rise to newer and more complex problems. The students are often found to be guilty of breaking the rules of the school like rules on plagiarism, attendance, assignment submission, copying, bribery and so on. Those these appear to be a few general issues yet the implications of these issues are devastating. The ignorance or acceptance of these threats leads to a substandard or deteriorated educational environment where learning is affected badly due to undue lenience. There is a need to properly incorporate these general yet complex issues as the students can easily be involved in the violation of local school regulations and laws preventing copying and cheating including the copyright laws. The adherence to the regulations and laws further develops awareness in the minds of students who will take responsible professional position in the future. The awareness and importance of laws and regulations to be followed can only be developed in the early learning phases; hence, it is unjustified to ignore these important areas in the core policy making of educational systems (Eisner 2001). The rationalization of education system is the concept, which according to the research and my personal opinion, forms the basis of a powerful and knowledgeable future generation. The rationalization approach mainly focuses on the consequences of any educational activity. The future or goal oriented approach to education is simply a move towards a better learning environment and future outcomes. The use of the standard educational system cannot be classified as completely irrelevant to the future development or useless but the rationalized system obviously tends to be more fruitful. The goal oriented approach to education leads to a better system where education is seen as a ways of achieving goals. The schools need to be provided with clear understanding of what is expected of them rather than what is expected of the students in the future. The clear indication of the outcomes of the system, policies and instructions simply direct a person, an institution or a system towards a known goal. The achievement of those goals also motivates the people involved and help in maintaining the pace of achievements in the future. The rationalization approach is not a generalized assumption of achieving goals, but it rather provides a target-setting approach which helps in the measurement of the outcomes achieved (Eisner 2006). The targets in the educational system need to be realistic and measurable. However, the quantification of knowledge forwarded to the students or learners is somehow immeasurable. We cannot quantify the standard of education provided. The only measurable instrument is the result that students achieve. Those results are dependent not only on the knowledge but the memorization of the curriculum content. The students may be unaware or unclear about the concepts yet they may perform well merely by attempting the exam as they are directed to do so. In that, a high pass rate may not a true indicator of the school’s performance or a better future of the country or the individual. On the other hand, it should be noted that the measurement of results places some additional sense of responsibility on the school/college faculty to improve the educational system. The rationalization concept develops and furthers accountability, calculability and measurability of the educational performance (Eisner 2001; Panzica 2008; Karen 2006). All these recommendations above together can help the school to perform better but a question arises after implementing these reform that whether the school is performing well now or not? Currently it is seen that the performance of the students in schools is measured through standardized testing. The state and authorities do not assume that this type of testing can have some shortcomings too. The above written recommendations will definitely enhance the performance of the school but the school cannot be said to be performing well because it lacks many important features. The performance of the students should be analyzed and monitored in a different way such that they really are able to perform well. The most important thing in education is the implementation of those skills in practical life and this type of question is never asked by the authorities who are conducting the standardized tests. Issues and problems that are faced in real life by the students should be handled by them in an efficient manner and this kind of problem solving has to be noted down by the authorities. With the features that are mentioned above it can be seen that education has no more remained a source of knowledge but has become a commodity for the state and the students. Many believe that education is to be achieved only so that the monetary condition can be improved. In such a situation can we really say that the schools are performing well? (Eisner 2001). In the current condition of the schools it can be said that they are really not performing well. The students should be given a way through which they can form their own purposes in life through education. It is these schools which provide the students with the opportunities to know about themselves and act in a similar fashion. Cooperating and leading is one of the features that should be taught in these schools so that the students really know how to control themselves in real life outside the classroom. In the schools today it is seen that the personal talent of the student is never cultivated rather the curriculum applies to every student. For a school to be performing well it is necessary that individuality is recognized as a domain. Every student should be given an opportunity to prove himself so that he can cultivate the talent in accordance to his beliefs. The students should be given opportunities to choose the subjects which they want to excel in and how they want to study in it. In other words the curriculum should be designed in a way that the students become keen to learn. Above all the level of satisfaction of the students should be monitored as it is this level that would ensure the keenness of the student to learn. The school should not always set up goals for the students but should let them serve their own goals. Achievements should be monitored on the basis of the work that the students do and not on the basis of the curriculum that the school has designed (Panzica 2008; Eisner 2001). The recommendations of standardized testing and rationality should be analyzed as they do not form a part of the performance of school. Rather the students should be given an opportunity to mould themselves in a way that they perform well in the practical life. For a school to be performing well it is necessary that the practicality and goals of the student are monitored. Student satisfaction and personality should be monitored and this can help in deciding as to if the school is performing well or not. References Top of Form Eisner, E. W. (January 01, 2001). What Does It Mean To Say a School Is Doing Well?. Phi Delta Kappan, 82, 5, 367-72. Panzica, S. E. (2008). Standards-based reform and No Child Left Behind: their effects on kindergarten practices. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ball State University, 2008. Greg Gelpi, Donnie Fetter, Julia Sellers. “Some Educators Still See Problems with Act” The Augusta Chronicle. Augusta, Ga.: Jan 8, 2007. pg. A.01 Bottom of Form Read More