I was thinking about No Child Left Behind lately (who can't in my profession?) We are testing kids to death. We counted up how many days a year our kids are spending on district or state tests. 15 days a year. How many days are they being tested for current reading or math levels? At least 10 days a year. That's 25 days of testing, not counting unit tests, chapter tests, or blood tests! ;o) This year, a splattering of our 4th graders have been randomly selected to take a National Test (NAEP). The letter we had to send home to 1/2 the grade level was written as if the students were being chosen to go on Jeopardy - what an awesome opportunity they have to be "compared to other 4th graders in the nation." Whoo-hoo. Big deal. Hey, it's just another test!
We're raising a nation of "which answer is it" thinking instead of "what can I think of on my own" thinking. Hopefully when our kids are grown and are running the country, all issues posed to them to solve will have 4 choices to choose from - and eeny-meenie-miney-mo to the right one. No Child Left Behind. My left foot. Teaching has become 'test prepping' - and only those things that MIGHT be covered on the test. Forget the rest. Forget learning to think on your own, let alone outside the box. I worry for the future of these kids.
That's my 60th post. All about the law "No White-English-Speaking-Middle-Class-Male-Self-initiated-Child Left Behind." Don't get me started..........
3 comments:
Amen to that! At our last PTO meeting the principal excitedly announced that our ENTIRE 4th grade had been chosen and what a great thing it was for our school. I leaned over to the lady sitting next to me who is a teacher and said "Great, one more day less for actual instruction. I'm sure that will help them prepare for the test." We can only pray things will change.
60 posts??!? what-a-mi-le-stone!! :)
I loved this post! My kids aren't in school and so I don't know why I've felt such disdain for the NCLB program. However, this post made me feel justified. I think you should write ol' Barack a letter and see if you two can't come up with a better plan. Oh, and I will e-mail you soon about how to paint the stripes...
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