To test does not mean to educate! Passing a test is not credible proof that a child is educated. And teaching to the test interferes with critical thinking skills while weakening communication and problem-solving skills.
No Child Left Behind mandates massive additional testing—17 added tests per year not counting practice tests and all the state and district tests already in place. The non-partisan Government Accounting Office projects that between 2002 and 2008, states will spend between 1.9 and 5.3 billion dollars, strictly for NCLB tests (monies for the testing companies.) If you consider the more expensive indirect costs of teacher hours, practice tests, student preparation, teaching to the test, etc., you are looking at considerable funds that could be better used to implement enrichment programs considered key by local and state school authorities. Tests should only be 1 tool in an arsenal of accountability measures. To be used as the 1 and only credible measure of student performance is not at all scientific and smacks of artificial, arbitrary hoopla.
There are 10 student groups under NCLB: total population, special education, English language learners, white,African-American,Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic, other ethnicities, economically disadvantaged. To satisfy Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), each of the 10 groups must have a certain increment of students to pass the standardized test assigned, and 95% of the group members must take the test. By 2014, 100% of students in each of the 10 groups must pass. If any 1 of the 10 groups in a given school fails to meet the AYP increment for 2 consecutive years, then punishments begin which exacerbate the problems rather than fix them.
To teachers in the trenches, NCLB is as nonsensical as having a federal law or mandate that punishes doctors and hospitals if 100% of Americans do not have adequate good health by 2014, or punishes police officers and departments if there is not a 100% reduction in crime by 2014. Teachers can just do so much. They cannot be expected to cure the ills created by negligent or authoritarian parenting, negative peers, drug and alcohol use, and jobs requiring over 20 hours per week.
Transfers you say? This fix matches the name of No Child Left Behind—noble-sounding but empty. There are scant few open seats in passing schools to accommodate the overwhelming numbers of eligible children from failing schools. Very few students can escape, leaving the majority to tough it out in schools that are even more compromised with less funding.
The public school system certainly needs reform, but not more standardized tests! It needs among other things--
>more equitable appropriation of public funds
>implementation of academic programs with a high success record
>lowering pupil/teacher ratio for reading and math
>higher pay incentives for seasoned teachers willing to teach in
substandard schools
>concerted effort to identify and address the needs of struggling
students BEFORE they fail
>properly implemented inclusion teams with special education experts
and trained paraprofessionals available for working with
classroom teachers (No more dumping, please!)
>universities to non-judgmentally lend their services to troubled
schools, and schools to interact with and accept help graciously
>local and state school boards to investigate the psychological and
educational impact of laws and procedures and to discard the
counterproductive ones (ie--tracking, whole class punishment, too
much nightly homework)
>establishment of effective class management skills so that
discipline is relied upon less
In addition, the public school system needs an intermediary system to handle struggling, misbehaving students who are not responding well. Rather than zero tolerance or suspensions and expulsions, chronically disobedient students are temporarily removed from class sooner. Rather than being awarded unsupervised free time on the streets, they are given structure and academics, as well as whatever they personally need to counteract the root problem (ie--conflict resolution, behavior modification, anger management, drug counseling, coping with stress, depression and anxiety, specialized tutoring, study skills training)
Too expensive? According to the Children’s Defense Fund, one year in prison costs states 3 times more per person than what is spent on educating 1 child for 1 year. A structured intermediary system to handle troubled children until they are able to learn with behaving peers, will divert some of our "disposable" youth from a sure path to prison or the morgue. No child is dispensable. No child deserves to be left behind.
Research has proven that children learn best if they are allowed frequent breaks to play. Yet recess is disappearing. Research has proven that speech and interaction with peers are crucial. Yet many children are ordered to be silent during lunch. Research has shown that excessive homework does not promote learning. Yet children are expected to do hours of ill-planned busywork at home nightly.
As for higher education, I support reducing interest rates for subsidized college loans. I envision making college available for any needy Louisiana student who wants it—via tuition college credits in return for community service like teaching, tutoring, child care, daycare for seniors, roadwork, parks and recreation, maintenance, hospital, library, etc. In order to earn tuition, a student must meet mandatory community service hours while attending college and keeping up grades.
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