Thoughts on NCLB and the Politics of Education (Allie W., Susan W., Rachel M., and Mary R.)

No Child Left behind is something that most educators feel very strongly about. Most are either for or against it, and are passionate either way.

Everyone in our group agreed that there needs to be some accountability for what is going on in schools. Mary used a quote to sum up her thoughts, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and she continued by saying that all people who are part of raising a child need to be held accountable including administration, faculty, students themselves and parents. Rachel feels that schools indeed need to be held accountable but the way the government in measuring accountability is flawed. Susan noted that since this law, there has been a change in test scores as noted on the New Jersey report card saying that there seems to be some closing of the gap between black and white achievement and Hispanic and white achievement. However, she wonders whether this is due to NCLB or in spite or NCLB. Allie agrees that accountability is needed but, like Rachel said, there is a faulty way of evaluating and assigning it. She also says that the standardized tests used to measure Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) can be different throughout all the states so when we are comparing progress, its like comparing apples to oranges. Different states are testing different standards, yet we are holding everyone accountable for the same thing.

It seems as if all members of this group had a problem with standardized testing. Rachel thought it was useless to use only a test to determine the amount of learning. Allie agreed that it was unfair to use this single tool to assess all the work that a child was doing throughout the year. The time during the year that the test was given is also a problem because it attempts to assess children on the knowledge gained in a whole year before the year is over. Along with standardized testing comes the risk of “teaching to the test” says Allie. A lot of times in urban schools, teachers spend a lot of time preparing children for the one week of testing and the students miss out on other important and enriching parts of their education. Mary agrees and adds an anecdote about a school in Newark she observed in. She saw a lot of this test preparation going on. She said that teaching test preparation was responsible for taking away from other activities. However, in the particular school she was in, she said that the staff was extremely creative and dedicated to making this tedious task enjoyable for their students.

To the testing discussion, Rachel adds that there might not even be as much improvement as most people think. It may be a result of tweaking the scores. She adds that “teaching to the test” provides children with no useful information to apply in the real world. Susan is a business education teacher so she doesn’t have a particular test to teach to(and she is thrilled about it!) but often observes her colleagues preparing the students in their math, English and science classes. She also comments on the meaningfulness of test preparation activities in comparison to the real-life skills that she can impart to her students in business education classes.

Mary disagrees with the idea that teachers need to use teaching techniques that are based on “scientifically based research” saying that it takes away from the “teachable moments” that teachers look forward to. It also takes away from a teacher’s individualized style if he/she can’t try things in a classroom that have been tested and proven to be “good teaching.”

It is also agreed that funding is a problem. Susan says that it is not fair to hold schools responsible for a new law that was implemented but then not provide the funding needed to make it work. Rachel finds it scary that the funds could be withheld at any time if a school decides not to cooperate. Mary also says that if the government wants teachers to continue their education then their needs to be funding to help. Allie agrees that it is best to model for a student the importance of education by being lifelong learners ourselves and continuing our education.

It is evident through this legislation that politics are a part of education. Allie believes that political policies will probably become more pervasive as time goes on and pressure from the higher officials trickles down. Mary is wary of the progress being reported saying that the government can play with the numbers and reflect what they want to.

In general, this group thought that NCLB was a good model in theory. However, it was not very well thought/planned out and there are many gaps in it. Susan hopes that politicians will have a reason to go back and rework the plan in an attempt to fix the problems with it. Until then, we will do the best we can with what we have and work our very hardest to help every child achieve their personal best.