No Child Left Behind... Or Are They?
Have you heard about this act (NCLB) that was passed in 2002? I only know a little about it, but probably not enough to write a full blog. However, what I know has frustrated me to no end so I must 'get it out of my system', and I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic, too.
SEC. 1001 of the NCLB Act states that ‘The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.’ Sounds pretty amazing, right? Do you know any teachers? I know a handful, and none of them supports this act because of how poorly it has been implemented within our nation's school systems.
One of my friends is a special needs instructor for high school students. Many of her kids perform at a fifth grade math level... yet they are REQUIRED to take the national math assessment at the 11th grade level! So, when that school performs poorly on the exam because they are testing special needs students at a totally illogical and unacceptable level, what happens? Children's morale decreases, funding decreases, teachers are reprimanded for doing a poor job, etc... I can't imagine much good coming from such a process.
Why don't we encourage our youth to do their best? Push them harder to think rather than memorize answers to a stinkin' assessment. Encourage them to ask questons during class that promote healthy discussions instead of sending them to the principal's office for becoming so excited about something that they voiced their opinions in class. Why don't we have a performance-based compensation system and reward those teachers that rock it out and produce stellar students?
I fully believe that teaching is one of the most important professions in the world. Our instructors are ridiculously underpaid for the value they bring to this nation. Furthermore, there are many who should simply no longer be teaching - tenure (or something) has taken the place of caring for some teachers. They care so little that their impact on our children's future is null and void. But with a reduction in the population of graduating college students in the teaching profession, some of those long-time teachers have to stay on so we can fill classrooms. It's a sad dynamic, really.
Anyway... I'm not saying this NCLB act is entirely ridiculous, but perhaps it should be revisited and updated to make more sense. The concerns of many public school districts resonate across our nation, and the issues are far and large bigger than just this one act. I guess the fact remains that not all great ideas are implemented successfully, and that my friends is how many children do become left behind.
SEC. 1001 of the NCLB Act states that ‘The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.’ Sounds pretty amazing, right? Do you know any teachers? I know a handful, and none of them supports this act because of how poorly it has been implemented within our nation's school systems.
One of my friends is a special needs instructor for high school students. Many of her kids perform at a fifth grade math level... yet they are REQUIRED to take the national math assessment at the 11th grade level! So, when that school performs poorly on the exam because they are testing special needs students at a totally illogical and unacceptable level, what happens? Children's morale decreases, funding decreases, teachers are reprimanded for doing a poor job, etc... I can't imagine much good coming from such a process.
Why don't we encourage our youth to do their best? Push them harder to think rather than memorize answers to a stinkin' assessment. Encourage them to ask questons during class that promote healthy discussions instead of sending them to the principal's office for becoming so excited about something that they voiced their opinions in class. Why don't we have a performance-based compensation system and reward those teachers that rock it out and produce stellar students?
I fully believe that teaching is one of the most important professions in the world. Our instructors are ridiculously underpaid for the value they bring to this nation. Furthermore, there are many who should simply no longer be teaching - tenure (or something) has taken the place of caring for some teachers. They care so little that their impact on our children's future is null and void. But with a reduction in the population of graduating college students in the teaching profession, some of those long-time teachers have to stay on so we can fill classrooms. It's a sad dynamic, really.
Anyway... I'm not saying this NCLB act is entirely ridiculous, but perhaps it should be revisited and updated to make more sense. The concerns of many public school districts resonate across our nation, and the issues are far and large bigger than just this one act. I guess the fact remains that not all great ideas are implemented successfully, and that my friends is how many children do become left behind.
Comments
So, as you know, Leah is a 1st grade teacher. She has had students who have already done a second tour of first grade and still fail miserably at passing the proficiencies. Do you know what that means? They get a free pass through the rest of elementary school no matter how poorly they do. Now all teachers do is teach to the test because that is how they are judged.
However - a performance based reward system won't work either. There still has to be a "base" level of achievement, and how do you judge their growth. Leah and I have had long discussions about this, and pretty much the only way to do it would be to reward GROWTH, not performance.
She has children who don't know their alphabet when they come to her, and read 2nd grade level when they leave. However, other teachers who get the "smart kids" show very little improvement over the year.
For example, last year, she had something like 12 of her 20 kids who didn't reach benchmark ("Average") in the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, when benchmarks are MUCH higher (ie: 12 words a minute to 40 words a minute or something) only 4 of her kids didn't reach THAT benchmark.
So not only did she bring up 8 kids who were woefully unprepared for 1st grade, but the rest of her class also improved that much during the year. (And to be honest, of the 4 that didn't meet the requirements 3 are literally 1-5IQ points from retarded and 1 was functioning autistic but didn't do well testing)
Anyway, I agree NCLB sucks, but as for a performance system it would be really, really hard to implement.
$.02 off.
If someone has horrible personal skills but is an excellent teacher people would more than likely give them a poor review.
You may THINK you know about their teaching skills, but you never actually see another teacher in action. The only way you would have to judge them as their peer would be how you see them as a teacher, perception wise.