Writing Compentacy Test

Although the belief may be that our education system is an effective one, a more thorough look suggests that we have a system that promotes short term memorization vice long term retention. After reading "The Case Against Summer Vacation," "Standardized Tests: The Interpretation of Racial and Ethic Gaps" and "Test revision may pinch taxpayer" it forces us to realize that long breaks from school work are a hindrance and that test taking has become a game of preparation vice recalling learned information. This is increasingly true to those who may not have the means of sufficient test preparation and live in lower income areas where the level of education isn't as high as other areas. Does summer vacation assist in a student loosing information learned during the school year? Yes, but it also assists in proving that we have a flawed education system that promotes short term memorization.

Memorization of a subject for a test is not ideal for long term retention and unfortunately, because of the current structure of the education system, teachers, who are worried about their own "statistics" on how well their students are doing, are forced to assist in the memorization process typically through study guides and pretest reviews. Some think the problem with the education system is the long summer break that American students receive. There are statistics that show, on average, all students lose roughly one month of progress in math skills for every summer break (Drehle 36). As I was growing up students didn't lose a month of progress just because of the summer break but because we were never trained for long term retention as teachers always fall back on one main idea, that students memorize the terms for the test following each chapter, then forget them to prepare for the next chapter. Those that believe the summer break is to blame are trying to make change as education reformers have been trying to extend the school year for at least a generation (Drehle 38). Perhaps the school year shouldn't be extended, maybe education reformers need to look at how the information is being delivered and focus on those areas that need focusing on as those lower income areas seem to be suffering the most.

Students that are minorities in lower income areas have typically proven to score lower on tests than white students not from low income areas. This holds true as results from Waco, Texas show us that "minorities score lower than whites on standardized exams" where whites fail at a 37 percent rate and blacks fail at a 75 percent rate (Standardized Tests). This concept is amplified when we take a look at the summer break statistics, where low-income students lose up to three months in reading comprehension when compared with middle-income students (Drehle 36). So do low-income students have tougher exams and affected by the summer break more? No, they live in low-income