U.S. Immigration Education: According to reports from The Guardian on October 10 and 24, the Obama administration held discussions on education reform on the 24th of this month, calling for a reduction in standardized testing for students and acknowledging that education in the United States today places too much emphasis on test scores.
Obama suggested that the testing time for schools should not exceed 2% of the overall classroom time; in addition, he stated that the current perception created by the federal government is that test scores are the sole and complete criteria for college admission, a phenomenon that urgently needs to change.
On the 26th, Obama will meet with some school teachers and officials in the Oval Office along with outgoing U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Duncan stated in an interview with The New York Times: "While we advocate for reducing the number of tests, this does not mean we will stop testing students altogether. At least one test per year is still necessary to assess teaching outcomes and identify various shortcomings. I have spoken with many educators, and they all understand the excessive emphasis on test scores and the excessive time spent on testing."
Although Obama does not have the authority to limit testing for students in schools across states and districts, he has issued directives to the Department of Education to lower the difficulty of tests to help regions meet federally mandated standards. On the 24th, Obama also issued a statement strongly urging states and districts to use methods other than testing to assess and measure students' performance in school. During President George W. Bush's administration, an education policy called the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented, which retained annual reading and math tests. However, this policy is now in a dilemma: new education reform policies are emerging, and Congress has yet to find a suitable solution.
Officials from the Obama administration stated that in most cases, tests are either not aligned with the curriculum or are unnecessary. Therefore, he called for relevant agencies to use legal means to limit the testing time of schools based on federally established standards and to provide a template for states to inform schools on how to reduce the number and duration of tests.
Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, also expressed her opinion on the matter: "Our children have to go through so many tests, but not all tests are truly useful; on the contrary, too many tests can take away the joy of education."
According to reports from The New York Times, recently implemented policies such as No Child Left Behind have received bipartisan support from both Democrats and Republicans. This series of education policies raises the expectations of American youth, who are already lagging behind their peers in other countries, and helps improve their performance, in addition to helping to narrow the gap between Black and White students.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump expressed his concerns about the admission standards for the poor in the United States during a campaign event in Florida on the 24th of this month. A U.S. real estate mogul stated that American education ranks only 28th in the world.