What is NCLB (No Child Left Behind)?
- Standards based education reform based on standards and standardized testing. Standards and tests were set by states. (This is changing as states adopt the National Core Standards)
- Considered to be "high-stakes" testing because if schools did not show student improvement federal funding could be jeopardized as well as other punitive measures.
General Goals of Education for the 21st Century
1. Basic skills mastery. This includes general content and is relevant to job preparation at all levels.
2. Critical thinking
3. Social skills and collaboration among diverse audience.
4. Development of a work ethic.
The testing requirements of NCLB have led to increased teaching time devoted to reading and mathematics. There have been very little improvements in reading and modest improvements in mathematics. Both subjects are frequently considered to be very dull and tedious with drill and kill approaches according to research with both students and teachers disliking them. Education time for science, social studies, art, music, PE, recess has dropped or even been eliminated. These changes are more pronounced in schools with a higher poverty level.
Student performance on standardized tests does not measure critical thinking skills. In fact, it's rarely taught. Project-based, inquiry-based, and problem- based collaborative projects are often not part of the curriculum. An emphasis on test scores has been shown to increase drop-out rates rather than increase a work ethic.
2 comments:
So true. High stakes testing is so unproductive. Thanks for highlighting this in your nice post. Would be so much better if more people would see how important it is for children to develop their higher order thinking through hands on materials and projects versus memorizing for a test. Here is Florida, if a child does not pass the third grade FCAT, they are retained. What does that say to a child if they are failing in third grade? Why not have more of a developmental approach, where a child is continually encouraged to grow and explore, not to focus solely on passing a test to arbitrarily be able to prove themselves worthy of additional education?
Colleen
The FCAT sounds like just the start in Florida. It was about that time that I developed a dread of report cards- I knew that you got your report card and it said if you were "promoted" or not. It was sometime before my mom told me that if you weren't going to the next grade you'd know long before.
Post a Comment