The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, was originally proposed to ensure that each student across the nation is at his or her appropriate reading level by the year 2014. A question Kat proposed in class on Monday was is the No Child Left Behind Act actually helping to minimize the achievement gap? I am of the opinion it is not. The initial premise of No Child Left Behind, which was to hold schools and teachers accountable, is a positive thing; however the method by which it is being handled does not seem to be effective.
There are many reasons as to why our achievement gap is at an all time high. While I do agree with the opinion brought up in class that there is a lack of funding in many communities, I do not think that is the core of the problem. The lack of high-quality teachers is the real problem. Schools need to be putting an emphasis on finding caring teachers and principals who have high expectations of their students. While many continue to argue that the root of the problem is money, when we have programs such as "Teach for America", which seeks out individuals with good leaderships skills, that are successful, despite the difficulties they face with in the classrooms.
In addition to the achievement gap being high due to the lack of good teachers, I believe the gap is also high because of the method in which students are being assessed. Many people do not do well on achievement tests (myself included). Testing a child's knowledge based on a linear and often culturally biased test is unfair. We are placing our students in a 'box' based on results from a single test that cannot truly measure intelligence. I know personally that I have always done well in school, but that I don't do well on standardized tests. If someone were to see my results he or she might think my teachers weren't doing a good job. However, if they were to see my school work through out the year they would realize I am mastering the material and making progress. There must be another way to assess children on their academic progress. As it was talked about in the Hammond article, we need to find another way to assess students. I agree, however, I am unsure of what an effective nationwide method would be.
Above is a link to an article that came out this past Saturday. The article focuses on President Obama's emphasis on getting kids into college. In the article, it talks about reforming the No Child Left Behind Act by instead of focusing on grade-level proficiency, there would be more of a focus on college and careers. Reading this reminded me of the Human Capital Theory talked about in one of our earlier readings. I realize the importance of preparing our youth for the economy, and as I have said multiple times I do believe that schools should be preparing kids for their future employers. However I also believe that there is too much of an emphasis on this. Whatever happened to learning for the sake of learning? When I decided to take Multicultural Schooling and Practice at the end of last semester, it had nothing to do with preparing me for our global economy. I took it to educate myself on other cultures and sub-cultures. It is now, after taking this class, that I can use what I learned for my career. The order of the priorities is the problem. Let us first learn to learn, and then see how we can translate it into the work world.
Nonetheless I still support President Obama in trying to find a way to reform NCLB.
President Obama's proposed reforms for NCLB really confront multiple questions of the efficacy of the original law. I am torn about this proposal:
ReplyDeleteNCLB isn't tremendously flawed in its original conception, but the execution renders it highly destructive to educational success. Obama's plan shows promise in countering the destructive trend that standardized testing creates, but it fails to introduce the paradigm shift that Hammond calls for.
Further, while it does allow more more room for teachers to address students individual needs on a potentially cultural level, it doesn't compel teachers to develop tools to adapt to any child's cultural needs within the system.
I don't know... maybe it's what we need for right now.
I like your link to the article about President Obama's reforms for NCLB, now we just have to hope that IF these reforms get passed by Congress, that they would be executed properly, because that is where a major flaw with NCLB is from. Reforming NCLB is a huge step I believe in attempting to fix things, but inevitably there will always be room for more improvement especially when it comes to educating America's youth.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the article was interesting. Though, I found the comments about the article even more interesting. One particular person solely based under achievement on families and stated that teachers were not at fault. His solution to the problem was just to offer more funding to these schools. I think its sad that some people are so narrow minded. He didn't even seem open to or concerned about re-evaluatingn teachers performance. His solution might be a temporary solution that does not get to the root of the problem. I gaurantee that in using his temporary solution, the problems would quickly resurface.
ReplyDeleteThe name of the class is Multicultural Education and the Practice of Schooling.lol. I understand your concerns and think you're on to something when you use the "Progressive" approach of learning for learning's sake. All learning, however, should be useful and able to be transformed into something that makes our society stronger and better in some way.
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