The Battle for Education Continues

There's an article today at CNN dealing with the origins of "No Child Left Behind" that gives us a view of a group of professors supposedly influential to President Bush. It would be interesting to know how influential their ideas really were. I don't know of any links between anyone in the administration and the schools but several mentioned are big enough that it's not impossible to imagine. The ideas are certainly similar, but then the idea of testing students isn't exactly a novel idea. I mean, I grew up being tested in my classes. It wasn't until I arrived at Grad School that I found out that tests were not popular anymore.



The teachers I know tend to be down on the President's plan. They argue that the testing doesn't reflect what students have learned. There is certainly truth to that, we all know people who are very smart but poor test takers. And my experience (and it is admittedly limited) is that the process is flawed. I am all for teaching reading and math primarily, but high school students back home now have a math class and then they are taught math a second time during a period that used to be dedicated to another subject. It's a shame that we have to take away other knowledge to make sure our kids can add. My hometown school has scored among the highest in the state since the testing began and Delaware is doing pretty well in the testing ranks nationally. Yet, we still have to have our kids do extra math just to stay ahead. There is also another issue that teachers have complained about, the issue of the rising bar. Since my old high school rated so well, they are now expected to do even better the next year. If they fail to perform better, then they risk becoming a "troubled" school and face a number of challenges. That seems unfair and unrealistic.



There must be a balance somewhere between testing kids to death and letting them go without requiring anything. Rather we like it or not, testing is the most accessible way to monitor how children are learning. But it is also undeniable that treating school like a mill won't solve the problem either. We could surely use some more creativity not only in the discussion but in the class room as well to solve this problem.