Expert answer:English Paper on UnEqual Rights to Marriage
Answer & Explanation:This assignment should be 8 to 10 pages long, excluding the title page and
References page. There must be five sources at minimum in the References
page.Below are my previous assignments for you to use and incorporate into this final draftWk4 Annotated Bibliography.docxWK5 First Draft.docxWk6 Project Second Draft.docxBelow are samples of what is expectedWeek_7_Final_Draft_Directions_and_Document_Format.docxWeek 7 Final Draft Sample.docxweek_7_final_draft_directions_and_document_format.docxweek_7_final_draft_sample.docx
week_7_final_draft_directions_and_document_format.docx
week_7_final_draft_sample.docx
wk4_annotated_bibliography.docx
wk5_first_draft.docx
wk6_project_second_draft.docx
week_7_final_draft_directions_and_document_format.docx
week_7_final_draft_sample.docx
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Running head: YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
Your Topic Goes Here
Your Name
Your University
1
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
2
Your Topic Goes Here
Start with the attention-grabbing story: Capture your readers’ attention right away with a
detailed story, an anecdote about the problem, or another technique. You will explain that if this
happened, there must be a problem that should be solved.
Identify the topic: This idea lets your readers know what your paper is about in general
terms. Express the purpose: This idea allows readers to understand the purpose of your paper.
Establish your credibility: You may have some experience with this topic, and this is your
opportunity to tell about it briefly. You may not be an expert, but you have included the ideas of
experts in your paper; identify two or three standout sources that lend credibility to the topic.
Emphasize why the topic is important: Few readers will care about a topic unless you
make them care. Briefly identify effects and indirect effects that you will develop in the second
section. End with your thesis statement. Be clear and concise about your solution and why it will
succeed; start with your solution and then identify reasons for why it will work.
Problem Analysis
Problem Analysis: This section details the history, causes, and effects of the problem.
Offer background information: Historical or background information will put your topic into a
broader context. You will detail how and when the problem began and continued to be a
problem.
Detail causes of the problem: You will identify, explain, and support with research the
causes of the problem.
Explain effects of the problem: The negative effects of the problem, including indirect
effects, will be explained using research.
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
3
Be sure to include a visual, with a title, caption, and source information. See the Week 5
Lecture for more information. Include the visual closest to where you will explain it further or
connect it to an idea. An example follows.
Figure 1: No Child Left Behind Act Being Signed into Law, 2002
Figure 1: President George W. Bush is flanked by members of Congress and students as
he signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. Source: Save Education (and GOP
Consistency): Dump No Child Left Behind (2010).
As shown in Figure 1, NCLB was signed into law in 2002 and the image above reflects
the good intentions that this initiative engendered: the president and smiling members of
Congress, including Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat, and John Boehner, a Republican, along
with children in front of the American flag. Despite their best intentions, these tests have not
fulfilled the promise of raising the quality of education in our schools, and have instead left a
trail of broken promises, high school dropouts, and no substantial returns on investment. As a
result of standardized tests, our children have been left behind and are falling to the bottom of the
heap!
Solution
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
4
Continue with Section III, where you will identify and describe your plan to solve the
problem that you previously discussed in Section II. You will also explain why your solution will
work better than other ones, and what distinguishes it from others.
Name your solution and why it will be successful: Your solution should have a catchy
name and include two to three reasons why it will be successful.
Also, in this section and section V, you must prove the ideas put forth in your thesis
statement, which was the statement of what your plan is and why it is the best solution. Retrieve
your First Draft from the Dropbox to address any errors in the thesis statement that were marked
by your instructor. The direction of the remaining sections will be determined by your plan and
why it will be successful, so be sure to look over this section of the First Draft.
Distinguish your solution: Your solution should be unique, so here’s your opportunity to
explain what sets it apart from other equally good solutions. What is missing from other
solutions, and what makes your solution the better option? Some solutions may be untested just
as yours is, and you will argue why these other untested solutions won’t work as well as yours
will. Essentially you must argue that your solution is the best solution compared to what is
currently being done about the problem, as well as what others have suggested in solving it. The
only conclusion that the reader will have is that your solution is the only one that anyone should
consider, as all other possibilities have been eliminated as viable. Please note that you are
advancing your unique solution to the problem. This solution may be partly based on what
someone else has proposed, but if so, you must document and cite their solution. Do not feel
compelled to propose certain solutions just because research exists for them. Very often the
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
5
problem still exists because the solution being enacted to solve it is simply not working, and
nobody is willing to admit it.
Major steps in operationalizing your solution: Identify the major steps that must be taken
so that your solution can be implemented. The major steps may also include minor steps, so be
sure to include those as well. This part is the nuts and bolts of your plan: what person or entity
would be in charge of implementing the solution, what is their expertise, where are they to be
located, when exactly will they begin, and so on.
Summarize the deliverables: This section ends with your explanation of what deliverables
can be expected when the solution is implemented.
Benefits
For Section IV, or Benefits, detail how the solution will bring about benefits. In your
paper pitch, you briefly outlined the benefits of your plan, why the investment is worthwhile, and
the materials or resources needed to start. In this section of your draft, you will expand on these
ideas, specifically organizing your paper according to the aspects detailed below.
Offer a costs/benefits analysis: In this part, you will prove to the reader that your plan is
worthwhile in terms of time, energy, money, or a combination of these three. A chart or graph
will show clearly that these benefits outweigh any costs. To determine the benefits of the
solution, look back at your thesis statement at the end of Section I in your First Draft; your
benefits should prove what you outlined earlier in your thesis. If you are using a solution that is
partly based on one from research, you will include the numbers from this source and cite it. If
you are using your solution not based on anything you have found in research, you will have a
reasonable estimation of the numbers without the need for a citation.
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
6
Identify necessary materials or resources: Include the materials and/or resources that are
needed to make your solution a successful reality. Look back at the previous section, Section III,
for your major steps in operationalizing your solution. Determine what is needed if these steps
are to be followed. You don’t know yet what will be needed in the long term; at least in the short
term or to get started, identify the materials and resources needed.
Add in a chart or graph as discussed in Week 6 Lecture. Be sure to have a title at the top,
all text in Times New Roman 12, and a short explanation at the bottom. An example follows.
Figure 2: Cost of Current Testing System vs. Proposed Testing System
8
7
6
5
Cost of Current Testing
System (in billions of
dollars)
4
3
Cost of Proposed Testing
System (in billions of
dollars)
2
1
0
Year 1
Year 5
Year 10
Figure 2: This chart shows the cost of the current testing system in billions of dollars in blue in
Year 1 of the program, and then again in Years 5 and 10. The proposed testing system is shown
in red in the same 3 years: Years 1, 5, and 10. Clearly, the proposed system will save billions of
dollars in the short term as well as in the long term.
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
7
Conclusion
The final section of the paper is the conclusion. This is not the area just to repeat earlier
information. It will be two paragraphs in length. End with memorable ideas and details,
including a call to action, that sell the solution to the reader.
End with contact information and the next steps: Include contact information, which
would be your e-mail address (a fake one is fine) and how the audience should contact you. Also
indicate what the next steps would be for the audience.
Thus Section I Introduction, Section II Problem Analysis, Section III Solution, Section
IV Benefits, and Section V Conclusion are detailed in this Final Draft. Be sure to address
feedback you have received on the First Draft from Week 6 and the Second Draft from Week 7
to improve your paper before you turn in the Final Draft. The length of this document is about 8
to 10 pages, including the title page and References. Add References below. The minimum
reference sources for this Final Draft is five. Proofread carefully and then turn in this document
to the Dropbox by the deadline identified by your instructor as your last name first FINAL Draft
Paper.docx. Good luck!
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
8
References
Put your sources cited in-text above here in alphabetical order, starting with the first line flush
left and hanging indent of the second and each subsequent line. Each in-text citation
should have a corresponding reference entry here.
Put your sources cited in-text above here in alphabetical order, starting with the first line flush
left and hanging indent of the second and each subsequent line. Each in-text citation
should have a corresponding reference entry here.
Put your sources cited in-text above here in alphabetical order, starting with the first line flush
left and hanging indent of the second and each subsequent line. Each in-text citation
should have a corresponding reference entry here. Look up the correct format, because
sources have different formats depending on their type and location.
Put your sources cited in-text above here in alphabetical order, starting with the first line flush
left and hanging indent of the second and each subsequent line. Each in-text citation
should have a corresponding reference entry here.
Put your sources cited in-text above here in alphabetical order, starting with the first line flush
left and hanging indent of the second and each subsequent line. Each in-text citation
should have a corresponding reference entry here.
Running head: MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
MORE than Standardized Tests
Sammy North
DeVry University
1
MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
2
MORE Than Standardized Tests
Brittany, an honors student in Atlanta, Georgia, had worked hard her entire academic
career to celebrate what would be her proudest moment in high school: commencement. She
wanted to walk across the stage to the flash of cameras and smiles of her family just like her
classmates, and then journey off to a college in South Carolina where she had already been
accepted. So she gathered her proud family members from Chicago and Washington, D.C., to
come to share in her joy. Brittany watched as her classmates put on their caps and gowns, and
walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. But she did not; she waited all during the day
to get a last-minute waiver signed. She continued to wait through the night, but it never came.
She began to realize that if she graduated, it would not be quick or easy. Her problem was that
she had not passed one of four subject areas in the state’s graduation test, which students must
pass to earn a regular diploma. She is not alone. Thousands of students, such as Brittany, every
year do not make it across the stage at graduation due to failing these state tests. And many of
them, such as Brittany, were honors students who had fulfilled all the other requirements of
graduation except this one (Torres, 2010).
Stories such as this one are far too common and should not happen, and we have the
power to change the status quo, so that no student should have to follow the same path as
Brittany. This problem can be solved, though like Brittany’s case, it will be neither quick nor
easy.
The purpose of this proposal on replacing standardized tests with end-of-year subject
tests is to convince readers that changing assessments in education will improve education, and a
strong educational system will result in several positive outcomes. The problems and their
outcomes as well as the solution are the result of thorough research on these tests. Though I am a
MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
3
novice scholar, I will include several sources that will establish my credibility regarding
standardized tests. The ideas of Hillocks (2002), McNeil and Valenzuela (2001), and Ravitch
(2011), who are all experts on this topic, will help to establish my credibility.
Everyone is affected by the strength of our educational system, from the students and
their ability to succeed in college and in the workplace, to the employers who hire them—and
everyone in between. Every taxpayer is a stakeholder in education, because these tests are paid
for by tax dollars, and the return on investment in education is not where it should be.
Standardized tests should be abolished and replaced with end-of-year subject tests because they
will save time and money, lead to increased mastery of core subjects, and diminish dropout rates.
Problem Analysis
This problem resulted on the one hand from national concern with global competition.
When Sputnik rose into the sky in 1957 and Americans were concerned that Russians were
outgunning us in the Space Race, millions of dollars were poured into math and science
programs to bolster teaching and resultant learning in these subjects. The 1965 Elementary and
Secondary Education Act helped to fund these efforts. Confidence in our educational system was
renewed when Americans set foot on the moon in 1969, but by 1983, it had eroded. Its quality so
alarmed the government that its 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, warned that a “rising tide of
mediocrity” would undermine this country’s place in the competitive 20th century (as cited in
Zhao, 2006, p. 28). By 2001, the Bush administration authorized the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act, which began in 2002 and runs parallel in thinking and intent to the Race to the Top
(RTT) initiative, started under the Obama administration in 2009. NCLB mandated high-stakes
tests for all states and imposed a carrots-and-sticks strategy of rewards and punishments if test
scores were not consistently high. The thinking is that students and teachers will work and learn
MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
4
more if there are serious rewards or punishments; teachers get financial rewards and schools are
lauded by the media if they do well, but teachers face termination, schools face closures, and
students are retained or not allowed to graduate if they do poorly (Nichols, Glass, & Berliner,
2012). Furthermore, it is thought that tests help produce a world-class education by encouraging
students to reach their full potential, improving our collective productivity, and reestablishing
our competitiveness on a global scale (Madaus & Russell, 2010).
Another cause of the problem is that these tests are poorly designed and don’t measure
what they should. The NCLB legislation from the Bush administration promised that all children
would be held to the same high standards in core subjects such as math and reading, and school
districts would get funding from the government to force children to take these tests; if schools
did poorly and failed to show annual progress, they would be slapped with improvement plans
and further sanctions. Schools should be held accountable to—and raise expectations and
standards for—all students, and the resultant improvement would benefit everyone. So it’s
logical to conclude that these tests, after being in place since 2002, would improve math and
reading test scores, certainly allowing fewer students into remedial college courses. If these tests
improved complex skills in math and reading, students would not have to take remediation
courses in college at the same rates, but this is not the case, according to Ravitch (2011):
improved scores on standardized tests does not translate into the kind of proficiency needed even
for first year college courses. Students are still taking remedial college courses in large numbers
and at staggering costs to states that must shoulder the burden. Standardized tests will continue to
decrease the class time spent on history and science and increase the number of skilled testtakers who aren’t any better at math and reading, despite No Child Behind legislation and its
promise of improvement through standardized tests (Ravitch, 2011).
MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
5
One effect is a vicious cycle that is counterproductive to the mission of NCLB and RTT:
schools compete for funding based on students’ scores, and those with low-scoring students are
not just penalized, they don’t receive the needed funding, which in turn leads teachers to have
fewer resources left to teach with. So their students are less likely to score well. These initiatives
are aimed at improvement through high standards, great expectations, and accountability, yet real
improvement has not been borne out in the literature. On the contrary, students’ motivation and
teachers’ instructional methods have been negatively affected by these tests, with negative
connections found between these tests and student achievement and graduation rates (Nichols,
Glass, & Berliner, 2012). The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) has shown
little improvement in the years under NCLB (Ravitch, 2011). Nichols, Glass, and Berliner’s
(2012) study about the NAEP test scores in reading and math pre- and post- NCLB concluded
that students were making greater gains in math before NCLB legislation than after it; reading
achievement has been unchanged pre- and post-NCLB. Scores from the two college entrance
exams, the SAT and ACT, actually declined from 2006 to 2010 (as cited in Onosko, 2011), so
skills needed to enter higher education have not improved despite standardized testing programs.
Our poor showing compared to other developed nations continues unabated. The Program for
International Student Achievement (PISA) compares 15-year-olds from 65 countries. We rated
10th in reading, 18th in math and 13th in science, with schools that enjoy autonomy regarding
assessment scoring higher (as cited in Mathis, 2011). Of course, many factors account for
differences in scores between nations (socioeconomic differences, language barriers, etc.), but
this is still no excuse.
Another effect is the performance gap regarding socioeconomic factors. One premise of
NCLB legislation was that our educational system was at fault for the low achievement levels of
MORE THAN STANDARDIZED TESTS
6
students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. If teachers and administrators at school in poor
neighborhoods did a better job, then students from these areas would excel and not become left
behind their more advantaged peers. This has yet to occur to the extent the NCLB wished for.
The narrowing of the achievement gap between higher and lower income groups has not
occurred according to some studies (as cited in Nichols, Glass, & Berliner, 2012) or is
narrowing but at a very slow rate (Nichols, Glass, & Berliner, 2012). Berliner (2010) argues that
inadequate healthcare, insufficient nutrition, lead poisoning, air pollution, domestic violence,
and crime are outside factors among poor children that have more to do with school
achievement than teachers or administrators. Yet these factors are not accounted for in the
current system of standardized testing, and students and schools are being left further behind.
Schools with at-risk students become institutions for test takers. Stress caused by standardized
testing …
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