Hey Everyone:

I'm a senior in college (University of Tampa) and I'm still very involved with my high school back home. My alma mater recently received a D on the FCAT, which is the standardized test that students must take in high school, among other grades.

I feel as though firstly that these standardized tests are unfair and really put students and teachers in a very unreal situation. In those words I mean why should a school's success or failure be based on a test, especially when a school is only a few points off from being a C or B school.

Does a D school students really lack the same education as a C or B school student? I've been trying to think of ways that myself and other young people can work to reform our schools now--in ways that won't cost thousands or millions of dollars.

For instance, I would like to speak at my high school and start a $500 essay contest in which students must write a 1,000 word essay on an important national topic of their choice--such as education reform, the environment, etc.. Mainly because I don't believe our students are being challenged enough in order to become successful individuals down the road.

Our students today must be challenged and teachers must actively research and implement programs and ideals that keep students involved, idealistic, and makes their learning hands-on.

Do you guys have any other ideas or ways that I could work with my high school to raise their FCAT reading scores and get students more actively involved in their education?

Thanks,

JM

Well I don't really have any good advice for you, but you're gonna have a hard as hell time trying to get kids interested. They've been trying to do it where I live for years. You can't make someone want an education.

Good luck with that though.

Do you know why you're school got a D? I know at my old high school, it wasn't always so much the material as the fact that A: They counted special ed as people in the student body when special ed are on a different track in the school and therefore, don't take the tests, and B: We had a BIG problem with truancy, so with people skipping, we failed. (Although, I'm pretty sure all but one of the four public high schools where I live failed, too, and some of those are dubbed "middle class white" and "wealthy and brilliant" schools...)

That's all off track, but I think one of the first steps you should do is find out if there is a specific reason as to why your school failed. After that, your ideas could work, but if your school has any of the same type of people as my alma mater, the people who would most benefit on the test from doing the incentive will not do the incentive.

Finally, there does need to be a reform in education because there are people out there who can't do more than basic math, basic english, but are amazing in other areas -- like music, art, phy ed. -- where a lot of the general population lacks in. Sadly, the standardized tests do not allow for those people, and try to turn us all into the same in a culture that tries to promote individuality, which is also a problem.