Unfortunately, there is great controversy in the debate over educational testing. This especially revolves around SAT scores, and other standardized tests that many believe are placing students at a disadvantage. Recently, SAT scores declined significantly, which made many in power to blame schools as providing inefficient educational programs. As a result, many states began increasing the number of tests and their weight in terms of school funding as a way to entice schools to achieve better scores. Essentially, some believe that standardized tests are not the most accurate ways to measure intelligence and student achievement. Many students do not perform well on tests, and research shows there may be a clear racial bias in regards to cultural elements not translating well into a standardized test methodology.
Despite loosing some power over the last few decades, parents do still have a number of choices in terms of their children's educations. Parents may not be able to pick particular teachers, but they can choose whether or not their children will attend public, private, or more alternative charter...
Greater parental involvement often leads to greater child success, and so parents can use their ability to choose, as well as devotion to governing over their child's academic performance to guarantee greater levels of success.
The chapter also outlines a number of issues concerning diversity in higher education. There are a number of different sources which posit that diversity in a university environment is beneficial to all students involved. This has pushed many universities to try to recruit more minority students in order to provide a more multifaceted student body. Currently, affirmative action plays a big role in recruiting and funding minorities in universities all across the nation.
Finally, the chapter explores how well the group model aids in understanding the difficulties associated in developing educational policies. This model shows how each group is different, and how they influence each other. Yet, these groups are not always in accordance with each other. Thus, the model also shows how group conflict can create problems in effectively reforming school and university policies.
