No Child Left Behind is strangling U.S. education

[Fpqxz]

From the Washington Post

For more than a decade now we have heard that the high-stakes testing obsession in K-12 education that began with the enactment of No Child Left Behind 11 years ago has resulted in high school graduates who don’t think as analytically or as broadly as they should because so much emphasis has been placed on passing standardized tests. Here, an award-winning high school teacher who just retired, Kenneth Bernstein, warns college professors what they are up against.

TL;DR In the name of high-stakes testing, we are depriving our students of other critical skills and areas of study.

[kefkaownsall]

Seriously people have been saying this for years

[Material Defender]

I love how No Child Left Behind was the one big piece of domestic legislative from the Bush administration and it's still hurting us.

[Sylvana]

I believe there are a lot of problems with American education, starting with the excessive protection unionized teachers have and carrying on through to the parents and the no child left behind act.
However, as valid as the article writer may be about the pathetic literacy of the students, the things she points to as the problem are false. Standardized tests are far from the best measure of success, but they are better than a great number of alternatives, specifically outcomes based education.

The real problem here is that test scores affect school rating which in turn affects public funding. This creates a situation where schools are encouraged to manipulate the system to get the best scores and thus the best funds. While it is admirable that the principles of no child left behind attempts to add accountability and minimums, the way it affects funds is a significant issue. Especially when taking into account that pathetic teachers cannot be fired because they are union protected.

What is instead needed is a comprehensive curriculum reform, and holding individual teachers accountable to their real performance. Then, and this is important, let children be left behind. The biggest hamstring to education is trying to force everyone though the system. I see it locally, and in American education. A real quality minimum standard needs to be established, and children need to be allowed as many years and opportunities to understand that information and truly pass.

There are many problems with education, but standardized tests are not one of them. If The tests are causing only a narrow set of the curriculum to be focused on, then the problem is with who set up the test. A test is just as capable of allowing for the full curriculum and understanding to be tested if the test itself is set up correctly.

Schools really need to be independently audited to make sure that they are working for the best of the students and not just dragging on the common denominator. You can try and legislate anything, but without independently auditing and holding the individuals accountable nothing but the bare manipulated minimum will happen.

[rookie]

I love how No Child Left Behind was the one big piece of domestic legislative from the Bush administration and it's still hurting us.

That and the Patriot Act.

[Material Defender]

I love how No Child Left Behind was the one big piece of domestic legislative from the Bush administration and it's still hurting us.

That and the Patriot Act.

Hrm... and they say Obama's trying to ruin America by reforming health care.

[TheL]

I believe there are a lot of problems with American education, starting with the excessive protection unionized teachers have and carrying on through to the parents and the no child left behind act.
However, as valid as the article writer may be about the pathetic literacy of the students, the things she points to as the problem are false. Standardized tests are far from the best measure of success, but they are better than a great number of alternatives, specifically outcomes based education.

The real problem here is that test scores affect school rating which in turn affects public funding. This creates a situation where schools are encouraged to manipulate the system to get the best scores and thus the best funds. While it is admirable that the principles of no child left behind attempts to add accountability and minimums, the way it affects funds is a significant issue. Especially when taking into account that pathetic teachers cannot be fired because they are union protected.

What is instead needed is a comprehensive curriculum reform, and holding individual teachers accountable to their real performance. Then, and this is important, let children be left behind. The biggest hamstring to education is trying to force everyone though the system. I see it locally, and in American education. A real quality minimum standard needs to be established, and children need to be allowed as many years and opportunities to understand that information and truly pass.

There are many problems with education, but standardized tests are not one of them. If The tests are causing only a narrow set of the curriculum to be focused on, then the problem is with who set up the test. A test is just as capable of allowing for the full curriculum and understanding to be tested if the test itself is set up correctly.

Schools really need to be independently audited to make sure that they are working for the best of the students and not just dragging on the common denominator. You can try and legislate anything, but without independently auditing and holding the individuals accountable nothing but the bare manipulated minimum will happen.

Well, considering that Florida requires that 10 minutes of a 45-minute class, every single school day, be devoted specifically to prepping for the FCAT (standardized test), I'd say that standardized tests are causing problems.

[Sleepy]

They are most certainly a big part of the problem. The way a class is taught corresponds to the testing system, and these multiple choice, standardized tests are forcing students to memorize answers, not learn any sort of critical thinking.

[Sylvana]

Well, considering that Florida requires that 10 minutes of a 45-minute class, every single school day, be devoted specifically to prepping for the FCAT (standardized test), I'd say that standardized tests are causing problems.

Then it seems that the problem is with the administration of the handling of the tests, and not the test themselves.
If you think about it, if a test is comprehensive, then the full 45 minutes of class are effectively preparing for the test, as the class should be going over and learning the work that will be in the test.

What makes these FCAT tests different? I am led to believe they are more narrow in scope, which makes me worry that the 10 minutes during the class is literally just pointing out to students which specific paragraphs to study for the test. (Unfortunately my university classes were a lot like that, but only really the class just before the exam itself)

I think the problem with these tests may be more a fear of failing a student. Leading to lowering the standards too much for it to be a real test. Hence the narrow scope and the obsessive focused preparation.

[rookie]

Sylvana, that is a huge part of the problem. But the other (another?) huge part of the problem is the test scores are related to how much funding or grant money the school gets. The better the school does, the more the school will get. Or something like that. So the administrators are pushing the teachers to make sure nobody fails. They are telling teachers to teach to the test, even if they aren't using that exact language. At least that's been my understanding of it.

[dpareja]

I know there's at least some teachers (might be a lot, I don't really keep abreast of these things apart from reading a forum that has a fair number of US high school teachers posting) who feel that it won't be long until every school in the US is failing under NCLB.

[SpaceProg]

I remember when I took tests at school I HATED long answer questions.  Now I'm glad we had them because I understand now how they worked and what they taught.

[syaoranvee]

FCAT

Level 4s in Reading and Writing, Level 2-esh in Math.  Be stuck in required Intensive Math class for half the year, with future, if not present, dregs of society.

I hate FCAT.

[Radiation]

They are most certainly a big part of the problem. The way a class is taught corresponds to the testing system, and these multiple choice, standardized tests are forcing students to memorize answers, not learn any sort of critical thinking.

Memorization by rote without meaning, that's what we were taught and the younger generations are being taught. I remember how intensive the classes were when it came to the annual MEAP tests. The entire class was (depending on what subject is being tested) focused heavily on teaching only the stuff that would be on the test and that were told to memorize it for the test. There was no meaning behind what the material was about, there was no explanation behind the subject, just that we had to memorize the facts and yes, funding does play a huge factor as many school districts were desperate for that money and most of it went towards the athletic department and seldom was used for academics. I learned this when I was in high school. Also, from what I remember is that the State of Michigan had an annual census of attendance and depending on how many students were present on that day they would give money for each student counted. My high school advertised this every year to us students to encourage us to be present that day. I refused to be part of it and insisted on staying home because I knew that they would partition that money off with most of it going to the athletic department. The State of Michigan also had passed legislation during the late 90's or so that any student that is in any kind of special education program can be kept in the system until the student was 25 years old. However, it must be proven that the student had a significant impairment where they can not or do not have the faculties to deal with college or live on their own; something like that. This can be used and abused as I think is what they were trying to do with me in my senior year but I didn't have a disability that impaired me to the point that I couldn't function. I didn't have a severe developmental disorder. I was in the Emotionally Impaired (EI) group and also partially in the Hearing Impaired (HI) group. I was too smart for HI and EI but they did try to hold me back etc. I call it the Graduation Conspiracy Theory and could go into detail but what I am saying is that in this legislation, if the student was in any special ed class and was proven to be incapable of living on their own and needs further education and care, the State of Michigan says that the student can be held until the age of 25 and the school or district will receive $40,000 per student. The amount may have changed since then but I am saying that schools and districts are so desperate for money that they can, and probably do, lie about special ed kids that are capable of self sustenance and keep them in the system so that they can receive funding for the school or district and more than likely that money is not even going towards what it is supposed to be used for.

So I can believe the stuff about the NCLB legislation and hopefully Obama or another president will see the damage that it is doing otherwise we will probably end up with and Idiocracy style society.

[RavynousHunter]

No Child Left Behind...unless it comes to sex ed.  Seriously, that's the biggest crock of shit I've ever seen.  Giving kids opportunities to succeed, despite failure?  That's cool, but don't drag down everyone else to accommodate the lowest common intellectual denominator.  If a kid's a failure, you hold them back until they either stop being a failure, or they drop out.

And, teacher's need a mandatory, yearly exam to see if they measure up.  If they don't, they can retake it before the start of the next term, but if they fail then, they're fired.  Don't brook shit teachers, they fuck every kid they teach, and we can't afford that bullshit.  Better education leads to better employment opportunities, which leads to a healthier economy.

We still need proper fucking sex ed, too.  But, no, we can't teach them kids how to fuck responsibly, let them figure it out after they've gotten a multitude of STDs.