Academic achievement
Academic achievement is commonly understood as the success individuals attain in educational settings, typically assessed through grades and test scores that reflect the fulfillment of academic goals set by students, teachers, or educational institutions. The measurement of achievement can vary, with some advocating for assessments centered on factual knowledge while others emphasize skill development. This discourse is often complicated by cultural biases, as knowledge and skills can differ widely across diverse societies. Factors influencing academic achievement also include socioeconomic status and access to educational resources, with students from lower-income backgrounds often facing greater challenges.
In the U.S., legislative initiatives like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 emphasized standardized testing to evaluate educational performance, although this approach drew criticism for prioritizing test preparation over tailored teaching methods. The subsequent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provided states with greater autonomy in developing their assessment standards. Ultimately, while improving academic achievement for all students, regardless of race or gender, remains a shared goal, educators and policymakers continue to debate the most effective strategies to achieve this objective, with personalized instruction methods, such as Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), showing promising results for particular student needs.
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Academic achievement
Academic achievement refers to a person’s success in education. It is based on how well the academic goals of students, teachers, or educational institutions are met. Success in meeting these goals is typically judged using grades and test scores. If these assessment tools show that academic achievement is good, the student, teacher, or institution will be considered successful. If the results are poor, new strategies for teaching and learning will be implemented to improve them. Over time, many different strategies have been tried in both public and private schools in the United States and in other parts of the world.
Overview
Although it is widely agreed that academic achievement measures successful completion of educational goals, there is some debate about what those goals should be. Some believe that assessment tools should focus on knowledge of specific facts, while others believe they should focus on skills. Both options are open to charges of bias, since knowledge is not consistent across cultures, and certain skills are understood to be particularly reliant on natural aptitude or IQ. Typically, educational institutions try to measure a fair blend of both knowledge and skills when they create exams and grading rubrics.
In addition to natural aptitude, academic achievement is influenced by several other factors as well, including socioeconomic status and access to resources. Statistically, individuals from lower-income families have fewer opportunities for a successful education than those with access to more resources. Correspondingly, a key approach to improving academic achievement has been to increase public funds for schools in impoverished neighborhoods.
Another approach is the increased use of standardized exams in classrooms. Advocates of these exams say that it is important to measure skills and knowledge in consistent and concrete ways. They seek to accumulate data about the performance of individual students, and by extension the teachers and schools that work with those students. This data is used to determine which schools are succeeding and which need help to do better. In the United States, the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the primary federal law for K–12 education, caused standardized exams to become increasingly prevalent.
However, No Child Left Behind was also widely criticized, particularly for its focus on standardized testing. Many educators feel that this method compels them to “teach to the test” rather than tailor lessons to the unique needs of their students, which they feel is the most effective way to improve academic achievement. Additionally, numerous studies revealed that the act failed to have any demonstrable effect on either overall standardized test scores or the achievement gap between White students and students of color. In 2015, the No Child Left Behind Act was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA gave states more flexibility in deciding their own standards for measuring schools and student performance than No Child Left Behind.
Critics of standardized testing argue that improvements will come through more individualized instruction that would allow curriculum to be reshaped according to each student’s current knowledge and skill level. Teachers taking this position advocate instead for individualized instruction. Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are one example of an individualized instruction program already in common use. IEPs have been shown to produce positive results for students with special educational needs.
A key concern for educators and lawmakers alike is improving academic achievement for students of all races and genders. While most agree that this is the ultimate goal, there is as yet no consensus on how best to achieve it.
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