Critics Miss Benefits of ‘No Child Left Behind’
The major charge against the No Child Left Behind Act is that it results in "teaching to the test." But is that really such a bad idea?
The deadline is looming for reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the law that says states getting federal education subsidies must give standardized tests and make regular progress toward 100% student proficiency in 2014. Naturally, there’s a fierce debate going on about whether the law should be extended.
The official justification — that NCLB would make 100% of students proficient — doesn’t pass the laugh test. But the arguments that it harms education, though they seem much more plausible, are also misplaced. And a federal mandate for testing produces important benefits that are well worth the costs.
We were never going to get 100% of kids to pass any kind of test, but that’s the line that’s been used to sell NCLB. States must set goals for the percentage of students who will pass the test in each year, with the goals increasing up to 100% in 2014. Any school with a demographic subgroup of students that remains below the targeted pass rate for multiple years is subject to sanctions.
If you have any experience with politics, you’ve already guessed what the states’ multi-year improvement plans look like. They anticipate slow gains over the first eight to ten years, then a huge explosion in student proficiency in the last few years.
This is, of course, an old political game. You do what you really want to do right away, and in order to sell it to the public, you make impossible promises whose fulfillment is postponed until later.
Nonetheless, I’ve been amazed at how the NCLB coalition has stuck rigidly to the 100% proficiency message. I had expected that by now, they would be preparing the ground for the inevitable clawback. But no — in Washington it’s still all systems go for 100% proficiency in 2014, powered by the magical explosion of learning scheduled to occur starting in about 2011.
But if the official case for NCLB is bogus, it doesn’t follow that NCLB has been a bad thing. The arguments that it harms education, while they aren’t quite as insulting to the intelligence, don’t stand up to scrutiny.
People complain that the school sanctions are severe. But only a few schools are even hypothetically subject to serious sanctions, and those that are can take advantage of huge loopholes.
People complain that implementing the law’s testing requirement is expensive. But it isn’t. And anyway, NCLB showers schools with huge new subsidies — that’s the only reason it passed.
People complain that the mandate produces teaching to the test. But that’s another way of saying it makes sure schools teach what they’re supposed to. Research shows that accountability tests measure real knowledge, not just test-taking skills.
People complain that testing basic skills cuts into other subjects. There’s not much evidence that’s actually happening, but even if it is, it would only be because schools need more time to teach basic skills right. And if kids can’t read, how are they going to learn other subjects?
People complain that NCLB violates federalism. But states can get out of NCLB by simply refusing federal subsidies.
NCLB’s more cogent critics complain that it creates incentives to dumb down the proficiency standard until everyone is “proficient.” But that happens anyway. State standards have always been vulnerable to downward pressure; NCLB changes little in this regard. There’s no evidence that dumbing down is occurring more frequently now than it always has.
When you set aside all the implausible multi-year plans, toothless sanctions, easily evaded school choice requirements, and other window dressing, NCLB boils down to one simple commercial transaction: the system got a big cash payoff, in exchange for which it agreed to give standardized tests and release up-to-date information on how students are performing.
Before NCLB, many states didn’t give standardized tests at all, or didn’t release the results in a timely and publicly useable format. Now they all do. And all 50 states now participate in the Nation’s Report Card, a single national test of a representative sample of students, which allows researchers to conduct cross-state comparisons.
This transparency represents an incredible boon. The amount of empirical research done on education has been growing at a breathtaking rate. Before NCLB, education was a fringe element at best in economics, political science, and other social science disciplines. Now it’s everywhere. A lot of that research is due to the data made available by NCLB.
Our knowledge of what works and what doesn’t in education, and how best to measure it, is finally starting to grow after a century of dead ends and wrong turns. For example, it’s now common knowledge in the education field that what counts isn’t achievement levels, but year-to-year growth in achievement. How many people grasped that ten years ago?
This explosive increase in accurate information can only be good for the public — and for the cause of real reform, since defenders of the status quo rely primarily on myths and innuendo.
Sure, some states may tamper with the definition of “proficient.” But the raw scale scores are publicly available, and independent researchers can, and do, use these scores to perform legitimate analyses to inform the public of how students are doing.
Even the demographic data collected for NCLB are valuable. In my last study, which showed that competition from school vouchers improves education in failing public schools, I used demographic data from NCLB reports because they were the only up-to-date source that had all the data I needed.
What the issue really boils down to is whether we’re going to know anything about education outcomes or not. Regardless of whether NCLB is reauthorized or not, some mandate for standardized testing as the price of getting federal subsidies is indispensable. If the feds are going to subsidize education — and it seems that no force on earth can stop them – they might as well demand transparency in return.
Greg Forster is a senior fellow at the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
42 Comments
1. dan:No Child Left Behind is a fine idea – all the critics really are a$$holes. Of all the things we dilettantes in the comments section blather about, we all have actually had long, long experience of education in the USA. NCLB is a sound response to an obvious problem: if they are not passing the tests, they do not understand the subjects. Period. The education industry is bloated with idiots whose profession seems to be to distract people from the fact that if you do not know -
Bah. Does this even need to be spelled out? NCLB is a fine bill. The critics are assholes.
May 16, 2008 - 4:32 am 2. Alice Roddy:Children love to learn in meaningful context. I seriously question how teaching to multiple choice tests promotes the sort of learning that children love. I read that children are burning out by fourth grade.
Take a look at the huge experiment going on in homeschooling, especially among eclectic and unschooling home schoolers. Learning is fun. It is child’s play.
NCLB is one (of many) reasons my granddaughters are at home with me rather than in a government school. When they are in their teens they will take some tests and I’ve no doubt they will do very well. In the meantime their learning is collaborative, meaningful and, to a great extent, self-directed.
Could the lessons of the home schoolers be applied in some way for the benefit of children in school? Perhaps so, if the people who fancy themselves to be experts would get out of their mental ruts and see.
May 16, 2008 - 5:47 am 3. Fred Beloit:I have worked as a teacher and have worked in educational publishing. In my opinion teaching is: (1)deciding on what students should learn in a concrete way. (Example, this week children will be shown the differences between an apostrophe and a comma. Not the children will learn about the value of punctuation.) (2) Teaching the differences in some interesting way. (3) Testing the differences using a baseline of acceptability (Did I succeed as a teacher?)
Deciding that children will understand something is so vague, it cannot be tested. I cannot really know what you understand. I can only know what you can do (Example, place an apostrophe above the line and a comma on the line.)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching to a test, if the test measures how you demonstrate you know the right stuff. All educators need to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Preparing-Instructional-Objectives-Development-Instruction/dp/1879618036
May 16, 2008 - 5:48 am 4. Maisy P:NCLB actually pushes the public schools to be more flexible with teaching methods. One of my sons is a very visual learner with an auditory processing disorder. In order for him to succeed on these tests, the school has become far more proactive about finding alternative learning programs many of which are hands on and computer based rather than the traditional sitting at a desk listening to a teacher lecture. Before NCLB, good teachers would have explored alternatives but most had little incentive to vary from the mainstream.
May 16, 2008 - 6:05 am 5. Matthew Ladner:One of the a-holes here, although a “cogent” a-hole
I agree with much of what you have written, even about there not being much evidence of dumbing down specifically due to NCLB as yet.
As you point out, however, the tests are backloaded. The pressure for a race to the bottom will increase substantially after 2011, and as you also point out, no one is putting forward a proposal to fix this problem.
The mere sanction of labelling hundreds of schools failing creates a tremendous pressure to dummy the test down. It is what happened here in Arizona when the state tried to enforce decent standards.
May 16, 2008 - 6:19 am 6. Aj:Well done.
The biggest problem teachers have is they don’t want accountability.
And it’s laughable that, in terms of NCLB, they want more $. As if more federal $ will lead to anything more than more ways for educationalistas to WASTE it…on multi-cultural activities, gay pride days, anti military bigotry, etc.
Of course, Bush gets no credit for spending more $ than any president on education. They still say he has not funded it enough.
Obama and Hillary think the way to improve education is to “pay teachers more.”
Sure. As a state employee who works twice as many hours and days per year for less $ than teachers, that disgusts me.
Hope they enjoy (another) summer off…as I work.
May 16, 2008 - 6:26 am 7. MPH:I was talking with my mother today (a public school teacher) about the declining quality of her students, year over year.
I realized that when I was in 8th grade, the school I attended decided to integrate all qualities of students into homogeneous classrooms. The purported reason was that this was more equitable and the more intelligent students would raise the standards of the rest of the class.
This was a disaster year — yet now it is the norm. There can only be one reason — administrators will sacrifice the top students in order to marginally improve the average student’s test scores.
What happened to the calls to get rid of the Dept of Education? Every year we continue federal control over education, the worse things will get — end of story.
May 16, 2008 - 6:37 am 8. politicalreacharound:None of you people see what is wrong with a system that punishes bad schools but rewards good ones? The rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer. Oh yeah I forgot that is one of the pillars in conservative thinking. Helping everyone is socialism and conservatives only worry about their own.
May 16, 2008 - 7:35 am 9. dan:“The rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer.”
Shove it up your ass, Karl.
May 16, 2008 - 8:15 am 10. Townie:MPH:
The calls to get rid of the Dept. of Education were still alive with Ron Paul, but too many “Republicans” went with McCain because he plays to the “conservative” Iraq policy delusions.
May 16, 2008 - 8:26 am 11. Alice Roddy:Fred wrote (in part): In my opinion teaching is: (1)deciding on what students should learn in a concrete way. (Example, this week children will be shown the differences between an apostrophe and a comma. Not the children will learn about the value of punctuation.) (2) Teaching the differences in some interesting way. (3) Testing the differences using a baseline of acceptability (Did I succeed as a teacher?)
In the teacher centered program described here there is a significant problem with step (2): getting the children interested.
There is another way, a child centered way, in which the adult fills in the child’s needs as they appear. F’rinstance, the child wants to write something and needs a comma or an apostrophe. You give them what they need. You make the comparison. The child is interested and learns it readily. No repetitive exercises needed although the explanation may need to be give again before it sticks.
From time to time the teacher can compare what the child has mastered with a curriculum and engage the child in activities to fill in the gaps. Children who know the teacher will help them pursue their own interests are willing to follow the teacher’s interest from time to time.
Learning happens best when the learner is interested. As our classrooms are now, we will always lose some students at step (2) and step (3) becomes a measure not just of the success of the teacher but of the level of interest of the students. Some children may be considered not quite bright when their only failing was not being engaged.
May 16, 2008 - 9:35 am 12. Dan:I debate with several friends who are all teachers about standardized testing, and they all hate it. It makes their lesson plans boring and their ability to keep material interesting extremely difficult. Also one of the biggest complaints they have is the dumpster mentality that the students get in. Spend a year loading my head with facts on one subject, take the test at the end of the year, pass and then dump all of that useless knowledge to make way for next years subject. Has there ever been a test where students have been asked to retake a test they had passed a year earlier to compare results. I think the amount of retention would be horrible and pretty much prove that students in American High Schools are not learning a thing.
May 16, 2008 - 10:30 am 13. obladioblada:I have mixed feelings about the administrative minutiae of NCLB, but have observed a big change in schools’ motivation to support struggling students. Before NCLB many students fell through the cracks because they weren’t eligible for special education services, but still weren’t meeting grade level standards. After NCLB those students were given academic improvement plans and remedial services which would not otherwise have been provided. NCLB forced the schools to address those kids’ needs.
May 16, 2008 - 2:07 pm 14. biglar:As to “teaching to the test,” that is what always has happened in school, at least in any conventional setting (esp. if you combine that concept with designing the test to measure what you want kids to know). It seems to me the biggest problem is that states (I take FL as one example) test but ONCE per year, creating one pressure-laden opportunity for testing, and and necessarily narrowing the focus of testing due to the “short” test time (a few hours/year). So the problem is (a) limited test focus, not testing per se, so that “teaching to the test” then narrows the focus of learning, and (b) high-stakes poker for both teachers and students. Both of these problems can be solved, in my opinion, by creating tests that cover much more ground, spread more evenly over the year.
May 16, 2008 - 2:38 pm 15. dan:Presumably these facts and figures on the test required by NCLB are the same fundamentals of any sound education. If the teachers are talented to the extent required by their certifications, they should have no problem fitting them into their teaching style. Part of the point of NCLB is to impose the only kind of coercion allowed by federal law – the federal spending powers – for the improvement of student performance. The premise that the law addresses is that there are two problems where underperformance is concerned, aside from inherent individual ability: home life (i.e. parents) and teachers, especially teachers’ unions. Well, the government can’t really address this aspect of family life in any meaningful way – thank God! NCLB is a reasonable measure to address the problems with the kind of insularity associated with self-policing guilds like the teachers’ unions. This need not be interpretted as a punitive expedition against teachers and unions, just a way for the federal government to get involved. Of course it will have its drawbacks; all government interference does, being vitiated by political necessities. But the basic appproach is sound, and, under the circumstances, seems rather necessary to me.
May 16, 2008 - 2:54 pm 16. Sgt. Mom:In Texas there is the TAAS, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, which students must pass to graduate from High school. In my daughters’ senior year of high school, she made casual mention to me one evening that she had to take the TAAS that day – this after the local newspaper had been filled with lamentations about the unreasonableness of the demands that the TAAS placed upon teachers and students, and the cruelty of not letting seniors who flunked it attend graduation ceremonies. She shrugged and looked at me with mild astonishment and said, “No problem”.
May 16, 2008 - 2:56 pm 17. AJ:Of course, she went to a Catholic school, which paid strict attention to a certain level of academic standards, and it was not a school in the best part of town, either; Hispanic working class, on the south side of San Antonio, who paid tuition and demanded the very best of their children and the teachers who taught them. I’ve always rather laughed at the people who whined that the TAAS was too hard, that some kind of hardlined assessment of what their children had learned in school was some kind of unbearable, horrible and discriminatory hardship.
“rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer. Oh yeah I forgot that is one of the pillars in conservative thinking.”
Most teachers I have met have Marxist leanings. That’s why they steer clear of the dreaded Real World.
Funny, the Dems do all they can to keep blacks poor and voting for them, while conservative try to aid the poor constantly, esp the religious folks, but the left does not read or think.
The richest people in the world are ALL Democrats.
May 16, 2008 - 3:04 pm 18. AJ:“All educators need to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Preparing-Instructional-Objectives-Development-Instruction/dp/1879618036”
Ha! Teachers don’t read or want to improve themselves. That’s why they chose this profession. Most, especially the Vets, come to work, put in the hours, and collect a paycheck. That’s socialism, and it’s the same with state gov’t jobs. Very sad. Very European.
May 16, 2008 - 4:28 pm 19. Alice Roddy:Just a reminder that universal statements about people such as, “All so-and-sos are this and that,” are seldom true. AJ, in my experience it is not true that “Teachers don’t read or want to improve themselves.”
NCLB seems to assume that children don’t want to learn, teachers don’t want to teach, principles don’t want learning to happen in their schools but that all this can be changed by treating them as miscreants and applying maximum pressure. I fear we are simply making our schools unpleasant places to be.
Stop a moment and think about how you actually learn. What do you do in your spare time? Does it involve learning something? Can you recall spending time with a child and realizing the kid was learning a great deal? Was it a stressful experience or a pleasant one?
I’m a home schooling granny in order to preserve my granddaughters’ love of learning.
One final question: does testing serve the child’s learning or the adult’s desire evidence that it is happening? I think we make a grave mistake when we confuse one with the other.
May 16, 2008 - 9:02 pm 20. Gozer the Carpathian:I’ve looked at this problem from several directions and all I can say is that there isn’t a perfect or one sized fits all plan.
1. Home schooling. Of the dozen or so home schooled folks I’ve dealt with over the years the quality I’ve seen varies as widely as any public school. Depending on how much (i.e. only home schooled) time they spend at home these kids often end up socially stunted or at least a bit more of outcasts then they should be.
2. Private Schools. Just because you pay for it doesn’t make it better. BUT I still find private schools provide more control and better learning environments because they’re more inclinded (though they don’t always) listen to their parents and students. Plus, since the parents are paying for it they’re often (again not always) more likely to pay attention to what their kids are doing and taking an active role in the whole affair.
3. Charter Schools. Choice and competition in Public schools? No way! Personally I’ve seen this work wonderfully and fail completely as well. Unfortunetly the biggest problem I’ve seen with this idea is getting them going since you’ll probably only find these in better neighborhoods or at least organized larger areas.
4. The Japanese Style. Personally I think there’s lots of great things to the Japanese style of teaching/schools. The biggest problem with it is we could not possibly take that system here to America because of the cultural differences. Plus this system does produce very capable students good with the basics and “hard” classes, but those that require interpretations not as much. (Again though that’s a generalization)
In the end I do believe our children’s educations can only be guarenteed by the parents and the student. The parents need to push their kids and support them, and the kids need to make the most of every opportunity they can get.
May 16, 2008 - 11:58 pm 21. Grace Farmer:Teaching to the test is a waste of time. No real and lasting learning takes place.
In high school we had what was called the English V test. It was all grammar. We were taught the grammar to pass the test…not taught the test. Very few failed.
What if all of learning was geared to one task? What a waste. In my software development I have ended up learning a lot about excel … WOW relational learning as well. The government needs to get out of the classroom, too bad the teachers are hamstringed by a system that does not let them really practice their craft.
May 17, 2008 - 6:38 am 22. Calvin:“AJ, in my experience it is not true that “Teachers don’t read or want to improve themselves.””
Alice, I said “most,” not all. Most I have met, or taught alongside in Los Angeles, had NO interest in bettering themselves. They were veterans, lazy, and all about the paycheck. It’s the same in the state gov’t job I now have. That’s what socialism does: makes people WORSE. See here:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/socialism_makes_people_worse.html
Yes, there are fine teachers who work hard. Most of them, like me, were young. But when the Unions in big cities makes certain you can do the bare minumim and never get fired, well, people naturally become jaded and lazy.
I appreciate your response.
May 17, 2008 - 9:17 am 23. Alice Roddy:So, Calvin, why do teachers become jaded and lazy? Did they start out that way or did something happen to young people who sought a rewarding life teaching?
I suspect that some of the same factors that turn off children turn off teacher too. Little children learn all the time (assuming they are not regimented too much in a pre-school). Play is children’s learning and learning is children’s play. And yet a few months ago I read in Newsweek that children are burning out by fourth grade. If so, why?
Let’s ask the right questions: why do children and teachers burn out?
One reason is that they are doing is insignificant busywork. I’m sure you can think of others.
Is there anything in standardized tests that will prevent burnout? Is it possible that testing contributes to burn out?
May 17, 2008 - 12:03 pm 24. Wacky Hermit:Alice Roddy’s child-centered learning doesn’t work for many students. It works for my kids because they see me model good grammar, practical math, etc. at home. I give them the opportunities to ask “Mommy, how did you add those fractions just now?” For a child growing up in a home where those things are not modeled, the child-centered approach will not work. How do you know to be curious about apostrophes and commas if you’ve never seen one and never been taught anything about them? How will you learn if your teacher is waiting around for you to ask, but you don’t even have the words to ask?
No educational method is universally good for every child.
May 17, 2008 - 12:41 pm 25. Tim:I taught for 15 years in the public school system. I was forced to be a guide rather than a teacher. My students were expected to “discover” concepts like the Pythagorean Theorem. I could not take it any longer. I now teach basic math at Job Corps. All of my students take the TABE when they first come on center. If they score at a 9th grade level they move into GED classes. If not they come to my class. I teach basic math skills: multiplying and dividing whole numbers, fractions, decimals and integers along with teaching my students the basics of dealing with percentages. I routinely see multiple grade level jumps in virtually all of my students within the first three months of instruction. If public schools would get rid of the nonsensical way they try to teach math our public schools could see the same results. Our children are being short-changed because many teachers do not like math. I should probably not be writing this because if public schools adopted a common-sense approach to teaching math I would probably be out of a job! There would be no need for Job Corps if the public schools were not so inept.
May 17, 2008 - 3:29 pm 26. Cash for transparency at Joanne Jacobs:[...] Child Left Behind is creating transparency, if not proficiency, writes Greg Forster of the Friedman Foundation on Pajamas Media. When you set [...]
May 18, 2008 - 5:11 am 27. Desert Sailor:Hey “Dan”, Something tells me you don’t have any kids or any kids with a learning hardship. If fact your “well thought out” commentary seems that of an administrator based point of view.
Spelling, reading, writing, and basic math, that’s all I expect from an elementary school. Nail those down and you have a great basis for future learning in expanded subjects.
Unfortunately for my youngest son, that has not occurred. At least no through the WA state school system. Their answers were steadily postponed, further assessment, let’s review post WASL…have you tried using “SYLAN” (expensive private educators = off hours teachers)?
NCLB is a mockery of education. It teaches a testing format AT BEST. No where does it motivate a child to look outside the test or explore an idea.
Now, let me expand YOUR horizons. I had the pleasure of trying to help my wife motivate and work within the admin nightmare of the school systems of WA state FROM BAGHDAD. A wonderful experience in and of itself.
So when I returned and received a “would you like to sign your kid up for extra WASL mentoring after school hours?”…I blew my top! Extra wasted time, extra money spent on fuel outside of normal bus runs, hours cut into my family’s quiet time?
Yeah you guessed it, me and the principal had some quiet time of our own.
So if being a critic of NCLB makes me an asshole…so be it. By the way, do you do that act in person? I’m thinkin’ THAT would be fun too.
May 18, 2008 - 3:21 pm 28. Troy Camplin:Except that in the real world of teaching, this is what is actually happening:
Students are being taught test-taking strategies rather than content. Rather than being taught how to read and how to understand a passage, the “tally method” has been developed, where students are taught to simply count the words, and whichever word occurs most and matches one of answers, that is the “main idea.”
When I was teaching middle and high school English, I was told not to teach poetry or novels, but only very short pieces — especially essays — because only short essays would be on the test.
So when people talk about teaching to the test, they mean that content is being thrown out for test-taking strategies that have nothing to do with learning any sort of content. Education has been moving away from content toward more and more contentless strucutures and methods of “how to learn,” which NCLB only makes worse.
NCLB is a complete disaster, culminating the disastrous direction education has been going. Education has been getting worse and worse the more it has become federalized, and NCLB has only made things worse. If its purpose was to prove that the federal government is all but worthless at helping anything improve, then it did its job.
May 19, 2008 - 12:40 pm 29. retro:Anytime we allow the government do OUR job, we end up with exactly that which we deserve for having done so.
NCLB is simlpy the latest chapter in the long history of our government intentionally producing a dumbed-down and basicaly illiterate and ignorant voting public. You know, the kind that bases their vote on a five second soundbite they heard on the National Ritalin Tube.
Until Americans are ready to seriously address the single biggest problem with our education system, that being the government’s involvement in something they have absolutely no business being involved in, we can expect nothing more than the status quo. A continued decline in the overall quality of education for all Americans.
May 19, 2008 - 1:27 pm 30. Susan:I’m not knocking homeschooling as I spent nine happy years homeschooling my bunch, but, the question is, what about kids in public schools? Is NCLB helping them?
I am in Special Education in a rural school. Before NCLB, kids on IEP’s or individual educational plans were allowed to just coast through. But now, they have to take the tests like everyone else and suddenly everyone cares if they learned something or not. I have noticed in my classroom years since NCLB, is that the teachers are now getting the idea that the bare minimum effort in teaching will not cut it and they have stepped up their efforts. The really lazy and incompetent teachers are starting to quit because it is too much like work now. We had three leave our small district this year who should have, and would have, been gone a decade ago if not for tenure. I say if NCLB will weed out these types of teachers, Halleluia.
May 19, 2008 - 5:14 pm 31. RattlerGator:Good point, Susan. We should not be dismissive of the very necessary “floor” that NCLB established.
It matters, and it is important.
May 20, 2008 - 5:28 am 32. Alice Roddy:What is the ‘floor’ the NCLB establishes? Does NCLB teach children to think? to solve problems? Or are our schools encouraged to teach children to remember facts. Can a multiple choice test measure ability to think and solve problems? In the math section, do the children understand what they are doing or are they plugging numbers into a formula someone else has given them.
May 20, 2008 - 11:51 am 33. Gregory:Alice: I dunno about you, but I spent most of my time in school doing exactly what you mentioned – plugging numbers into formulas.
So what?
Multiple choice questions have also been subject to the ’shotgun approach’ during my day – just blast away and hope you score some marks.
Again, so what?
Only in the USA are elementary issues such as vaccinations and standardised testing even debated, for crying out loud. Yes, yes,shows how much freedom you have, but seriously, to the rest of the world, it just shows how stupid and ignorant the average American is. As if your game shows don’t show enough of that as it is.
What you learn in school is not necessarily the issue; for example, I couldn’t draw a methane molecule to save my life right now (nor can I remember whether it’s an ionic or covalent bond). Or rather, the *details* are not necessarily the issue. What I did carry away from Chemistry class is the atomic model, the fact of the periodic table, the sense of order underlying the field of study. Same with Biology, Physics, Mathematics (Heaven help me if I had to program a Lagrange Interpolating Polynomial now). Even little bits of History give me a general timeline and attitude that the Western civilisation was overall a good thing.
The tests in and of themselves are not the thing; there are ways and means of getting kids to pay attention in class (and a cane used to be one of the best ways). It’s the structure these lessons give the children that’s important. That’s why testing works; it implants that structure inside your brain. The details you will forget within 5 minutes; I should know. But the underlying structure and sense – that will last forever.
May 20, 2008 - 9:15 pm 34. Alice Roddy:Gregory, where we differ is that you believe one learns through fear of punishment, be it by cane or tests. I believe that people learn best by interest and passion. I believe that learning is an integral part of human nature, that individuals seek meaningfulness. Young children show this drive to learn when they learn to walk, to talk, and in every way to grow.
May 21, 2008 - 4:28 am 35. Anonymous:Teaching factoids without context deprives children of meaning. Using rewards such as stickers or grades as motivation distracts children from the inherent pleasure of learning.
Your schooling experience was as it was and you see that as the only education possible. When adults like you see education as essentially a bitter medicine that must be taken, then that is what it will be. But there are those of us who follow a different path.
Some of you agree with NCLB and some of you don’t. I think we can all conclude that education in America is NOT improving. The presidential candidates are saying that NCLB needs revising or to be simply overhauled. Do you find it disturbing that not a single one has a concrete plan to change the face of education in America? I think NCLB is an important factor in determing the future of education in America. I think our candidates need to sit down and have a public debate. We all need to be concerned about education in America as the success of our country hinges on the quality of education our children receive. It’s not getting any better and our future won’t either if we don’t step up to the plate and do something.
May 21, 2008 - 8:45 am 36. Gregory:Alice: So, why is it that Asian students are outscoring you lot, regardless of where they are (either in the USA or in actual Asian countries)?
Fact of the matter is, people are stupid. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m stupid when it comes to picking up girls – absolutely clueless, and you could beat the techniques into me a thousand times and I’ll never get it. I’m also stupid when it comes to certain aspects of time management. And oh boy, am I a completely and utterly stupid carpenter, should I ever try that.
By and large, people are stupid about certain things; including what we consider to be a ‘well-rounded education’ – which in the 17th century would include Latin and rhetoric. Hence, it is not all about the ‘love’ of learning. Education serves a purpose, and is not just a simply defined term.
So, what is education, and what is it for? Can you inculcate the love of learning into someone who’s just not into learning? Others just plain hate reading, and no amount of exciting storylines is going to change that – so can you make them love reading? No, but you can force them to gain certain skillsets, and sink some underlying structures into their heads.
The Asian mindset prizes education above everything else. Our early lives are wrapped around it. Not only are test results examined against the objective standard (Credit, Distinction, High D, etc etc etc), they are also measured against subjective standards (”How come your friend managed to score 85 and you only got 83?”) Believe me, I once scored straight A’s and my mother asked me, “Only 7 A’s?” (of course, she didn’t know there were only 7 subjects).
You must understand that tests and examinations work best when nobody knows what will be included, forcing you to go through everything that has been taught. Yes, some people cannot have that kind of memory, and are best in the trades. In Australia, for instance, a bricklayer can get paid $1.25 to lay one brick, so over the year, you can earn some substantial amount of money. And there is no doubt that this kind of high-pressure environment is bad – some Japs and S’poreans kill themselves when they fail critical exams. The Japs even call these people ‘ronin’, which gives you an idea of how migh-pressure the environment is there.
So. I’m not saying that the examination system is the be-all, end-all and cure-all. At the same time, I submit to you that it is crucial to have such systems in place nonetheless. Moderation in all things, to be sure.
And believe me, even I can see the need for firefighters, police officers or G.I.s to pass certain tests before they start serving in their roles.
May 21, 2008 - 10:11 pm 37. Zion:Many of the people commenting on here are obviously not educators who are in the trenches everyday. Have you ever looked up the definitions for assessment? For example, a child can pass the test and meet basic skills, but according to the definition, the child is almost illiterate, but they somehow meet basic skill requirements. And we are blindly proud of meeting AYP because we are more concerned about a symbol of learning (test score) rather than questioning what has actually been learned. Secondly, I cannot believe that a so-called Conservative Congress would allow politicians to interfere in education. Again, some people do not understand what it means to be conservative (hint: it does not mean God, Guns, and Gays). Politicians have no place in our school systems because they are there simply for votes, not for the well-being of our children. I wish that President Bush and some of the members of Congress would see even the so-called top tier students that have been created from the so-called No Child Left Behind Generation. They lack analytical skills because as one poster mentioned anyone can guess. The skills are not applicable outside of the classroom. And the list goes on. I am tired of non-educators being allowed to preach to teachers about what they need to do. What really makes me angry is that people like President Bush got their degree based on legacy programs, you know a synonym for affirmative action but people are willing to put up with it because it does not usually benefit women, minorities, or the poor.
Jun 21, 2008 - 9:10 am 38. Peter:> People complain that NCLB violates federalism. But states can get out of NCLB by simply refusing federal subsidies.
That is a joke right? You don’t have to do what I say, but if you don’t I’ll take your tax money and give it to someone else. Of course it violates Federalism in every meaningful way, just like every other Federal program that the states have to implement.
And this comment:
> The biggest problem teachers have is they don’t want accountability.
Accountability is a great thing. But remember the consumer here is the kids, and the “purchaser” are the parents and responsible adults. Not the Federal Government. Schools need to be accountable to their “customers”, not bloated bureaucrats.
Jul 23, 2008 - 9:04 am 39. Pajamas Media » A ‘To-Do’ List for the Next Education President:[...] Preserve transparency of outcomes (i.e. testing). As I’ve written at greater length here, when all the bogus slogans for No Child Left Behind are discounted, the law’s real benefit [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 12:49 am 40. Cognitive Dissonance on NCLB at The Core Knowledge Blog:[...] a line-by-line rebuttal on his blog explaining why this teacher is all wet. Why there’s no evidence that curriculum narrowing is occuring under NCLB. I’m sure it’ll make perfect [...]
Aug 4, 2008 - 2:01 am 41. Pajamas Media » The GOP Can Attract Black Voters — If They Can Stop Being Bigots:[...] president called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” The educational reform law, No Child Left Behind, has the support of the NAACP, but is fiercely opposed by the teachers’ [...]
Jul 1, 2009 - 1:28 am 42. Abbie:As a high school student, I think that the No Child Left behind Act is an unjust Act. I don’t agree with it because not every kid in school is willing to go to school and learn. My parents are teachers and I think that if kids don’t want to learn and strive for a good education, then thats their fault. Let the kids that are willing to work succeed, and the kids that aren’t fail. Taking tons of tests are not going to solve any educational problems. Taking the tests are a waste of time and I don’t think that the public educational system should be punished because some kids did not score high enough on the tests.
Nov 4, 2009 - 8:12 am