I am still waiting for the No Child Left Behind legislation to catch up with the grade level I teach. So far, the only changes I have encountered have been a greater focus on the numbers our school generates on standardized tests and an increase in the amount of professional development required. What is needed is for the changes to take root in the lower grades so that the students reach high school with a solid base of knowledge that we can then build upon. Too often, in my district at least, we find that we must waste valuable classroom time covering things that should have been mastered at the elementary or middle school level. I have had to go over simple grammar elements such as parts of speech because I find that my students can not even use nouns or adjectives correctly in their writing. Until a change occurs at the lower level I will not be able to uphold my end of the bargain at the high school level.
Right now we spend too much time teaching to the test because the district is so concerned about the numbers they produce and how they will then be affected by NCLB. Although it is not explicitly stated, we are encouraged to focus on doing what it takes to get more students to pass the Regents exams through a biannual review of how our school matches up against other local school in passing and graduation rates. It doesn’t feel as if this legislation is helping students in our school, which happens to be in a community of mixed ethnicity and economic backgrounds. I would like to see this work to help the students who need it instead of pushing them through the system, or worse, pushing them aside in the interest of attaing “the numbers.” While I agree with the ideals behind the No Child Left Behind legislation, I have not seen it implemented in away that will allow it to succeed. It is commendable to want to hold educators and students to a higher standard, but then the system itself has to be held to an equally high standard so that change can be accomplished.
Technorati tags: education nclb philosophy
