Teachers, NCLBA?

Question

What do you think about NCLBA? Are we teaching to the low? Are we teaching at grade level?

Are Students being left behind if they are in the high?

Answer 1

We do spend too much time teaching only what is tested, which means we leave out a lot of the supplemental information that makes the subject meaningful. We try to aim so everyone can pass, and to do that we have to water down the curriculum. Even with the option for Pre-AP classes, the gifted students are not really challenged because Pre-AP classes are at the same level that regular classes used to be at before NCLB.

NCLB is designed for an ideal world where you can get every student to learn all the material-but some of them just can't grasp certain topics, no matter how hard they try. And for those kids, are we really looking out for their best interests by forcing them to learn three different ways to solve a quadratic equation, for example? When are they going to use that in life? We need to focus on preparing the kids for what they will need after they finish high school, whether they are going to go to college or straight into the work force.

Answer 2

NCLB is wrong. Ooops, I should qualify that, it is only wrong if you expect schools to nurture children, if you expect teachers to educate children, and you expect children to become good people, contributing citizens and actually learn how to make things happen in the real world.

If on the other hand, if you expect schools to judge children, sort them into arbitrary categories, then make resources and support contingent upon their "deserving" those resources and support according to the arbitrary judgments of people who do not even know nor care about them, then NCLB is great.

Here's what research shows about how valid testing is:
"Performance on the Ohio Proficiency Test is most significantly related to the social-economic living conditions and experiences of the pupils to the extent that the tests are found to have no academic nor accountability validity whatsoever.

It is extremely important to know that findings do not single out students and districts in which levels of disadvantagement are high as being the only sector where the test is invalid. The findings clearly indicate that the range of performance across all social economic levels lacks validity in terms of assessing academic performance. "

Randy L. Hoover, Ph.D., Department of Teacher Education, Beeghly College of Education, Youngstown State University

quoted from: Forces and Factors Affecting Ohio Proficiency Test Performance:A Study of 593 Ohio School Districts
http://www.cc.ysu.edu/~rlhoover/OPTISM/online_toc.html

Translation: What the tests do best is distinguish the rich from the poor. They do not do anything to help anyone learn, they do not help anyone teach, they do not improve the lives of anyone, except the testing services who get lucrative government contracts to administer the tests.

If you want accountability for actual education then you need some way to count what is educational. An educated person has the ability to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively on self-selected goals and aspirations. Standardized test scores do not count anything that is relevant to education. Until we have a test for those qualities of mind I just mentioned, then testing is worse than useless. If you want schools to actually educate children then NCLB is a problem, not a solution.

Answer 3

I'm probably not your demographic, since I'm a private class teacher and my classes aren't subject to NCLB, but my parents are public school teachers and I hear quite a bit about it.

Quite frankly, I think it's ridiculous. I agree somewhat with the original theory behind it - that every child deserves an excellent education - but NCLB takes the stand that a child's education can be completely standardized. That's absurd. Kids aren't standard, they can't all be taught the same information, in the same way, and be expected to retain it at the same level. They're not robots to be programmed.

I think that there do need to be basic levels set for what kids are expected to know, but I also think it could be done differently. Subjecting them to constant testing and forcing teachers to "teach to the test" isn't getting anyone anywhere. If anything, it's setting our school systems back - teachers aren't allowed the time to truly teach. If a percentage of their students isn't "getting it", all they have time for (a lot of the time, anyway) is to get those students prepped for the test and move on. This is a disservice to our kids, but the teachers' hands are tied.

I think NCLB is the worst thing to hit our school system in many, many years. We need to allow the teachers to truly teach, to reach their students in ways that make sense to them. I'm not saying we need to do away with testing or anything, but it's really gone too far.

JMHO...

Answer 4

As a special education teacher, I feel that NCLB is only for average students. The low students and the special needs students are still being left behind.

Answer 5

It's not so much the idea or even the tests that bother me, it's really the philosophy that goes much further that everything in the classroom can be standardized by people who have never been to your classroom, seen you teach, or have even been to your school.

I have a master's degree from one the most prestigious schools for my major. I've taught for many years, and am expected to continue my education through summer classes and in service training for the rest of my life to ensure that I stay at the top of my game, yet I'm not allowed to make even the simplest decisions. Very soon I'll not even be able to put things on my bulletin board that do not fall in a state rubric. Everything has been thought out by someone else... everything.

Fortunately, there are more rules than there are people to ensure that I follow them. And for many of us, we learn to survive and teach when we can.

Answer 6

Its an ideal we can never reach, not ever "Gifted" students read at grade level.

Answer 7

Grab a McGuffey Reader from the 1880s and tell me if we are short-changing student learning.