Posts Tagged ‘Standards’

Controversial Education Issues: Declining Standards in Public Schools

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

One of the most controversial education issues today is the continuing decline in student learning standards at state schools throughout Australia, which is an issue of concern to both the public and the government. Hardly an election, be it State or Federal, goes past without the education band wagon being wheeled out, with promises of reform and greater spending to cure the problem.

Yet the problem persists despite a myriad of “solutions” being applied ranging from increased spending, shifting the focus onto e-learning and various curriculum and assessment frameworks

.Why is this problem so persistent? Despite intermittent efforts by the media to make teachers the scapegoat for the drop in standards, the blame lies neither with them nor with the students involved. At present, students can only be kept from progressing to the next year level if the parents of the student give permission. This sounds fine in theory, but in reality this permission is rarely if ever given. In the ten years I have worked as a teacher in Australian government schools, I have only seen one case of this.

This means that students are promoted to the next year level regardless of their skill level. The students are aware of this and as a result the completion of set work in the classroom has become optional. It is worth noting that private schools are not subject to this ridiculous situation.

Since there are no standards for moving up to the next year there are many students at any given year level that are well below the expected standard. This not only increases the workload of the teacher taking the class, but also diminishes the learning opportunities of those students who are interested in the work.

Behavioural issues go hand in hand with a poor skill level in a subject, as the student who is behind the expected level is frustrated by work they do not understand due to not having a good grounding in the subject from previous years.

Various solutions to these problems have been put forward including individual learning plans, open classrooms, task based learning and assessment, the list goes on and on. Most of these so-called solutions mean endless work for the teacher while producing no noticable improvement in student outcomes. But the fact remains that none of these reforms address the basic problem of students not being required to pass to a specified standard. There will be no significant improvement in student academic achievement in core subjects such as English, Math and Science until minimum pass standards are re-introduced. Everything else is simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Roger Vanderlely.

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Employment Opportunities In Forensic Science Entail Many Arduous Standards

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

It has grown to be a significant pattern to associate forensic science and criminal justice with adventure, righteousness and justice. The larger demand for experts and also the social awareness of the mechanisms which support the act of justice has driven several academic institutions to produce programs, courses and distance learning platforms specializing in forensics.

There is certainly a lot of authorised forensics colleges you can decide on, depending on personal emphasis and occupation goals. Different courses can prepare people for different jobs. As a result, some will prepare you for crime scene investigations, others for laboratory work, others for computer forensics and so on.

There are 2 forms of courses furnished by forensics educational institutions: a few for BA degrees and others for MA degrees. Each includes a different competence challenge, because a number of the job opportunities connected with criminal justice call for distinctive supplementary training and a lot of years of study. Genetics lab work represents one such domain, and only the best job hopefuls with a solid education in genetics, chemistry, biology and biochemistry are decided on. When the applicant gets approved at one of several forensics schools for a masters degree, but he or she falls short of job experience, extra classes are going to be necessary.

Microscopy, forensic molecular biology, crime scene reconstruction, population data and lots of others are just a few of the programs that are common elements within the curricula of the majority of forensics colleges. Remember that capabilities are made in labs, and if you wish to be a forensic technician for instance, you need to get access to direct lab work to learn methods, strategies and also the basis of the forensic process.

This is in truth the faulty part of long distance training, due to the fact in the deficiency of in school work, skills are going to be more tricky to improve. As a result, long distance education formats continue to be in question even if they are approved.

Overall, the career in criminal justice starts with the application at many forensics colleges. However, the initial qualifying criterion is a completely clean personal record. It is best to have no convictions, zero record of substance use or various other related problems that will ensure you get discredited from the start.

Many states don’t even take applicants who smoke cigarettes, as it is true with Miami. And even if folks have access to specific training, they’ll not become hired so long as they may be endlaved by nicotine. Each one of these may seem to be tough, however the requirements as such are obvious to see and in fact accept.

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