Pierce Article

Many emotions and thoughts ran through me as I read this article. First, just the term NCLB causes my stomach to wretch and a grimace to appear on my face. I appreciate the fact that the government wants our students to attain a level of education that is on par with the rest of the world, but giving one test a year and deciding if the students has improved or not is not the answer, especially for students who are English Language Learners. When I first arrived at my school I encountered two young women who had taken the HSGQE four times. They were to take it two more times each before they had passed all their sections.

As a teacher I have felt intense frustration and pressure as a result of federal, state and local mandates for testing. As this article points out, often times the three agencies load teachers down with mandates and requirements for testing. These mandates and requirements load teachers down and make them feel boxed in as to what they can teach and how far they may be able to adapt and be creative with the material.

As I was reading this article I kept thinking of that dreaded time that occurs about a week or two before actual testing. During this week, teachers print off practice tests and require that the students take the practice tests. The teachers then spend the days before actual testing going over the practice tests with their students and “teaching” them test taking skills. In LKSD there is a week set aside in the writing curriculum map for Standardized Test Prep. I have always thought that this sort of cramming for tests is silly and ridiculous. Teachers should be helping students get ready for tests throughout the year and be working reading strategies into their lesson plans. What I have found throughout the last few years is that my students usually know what it is they want to say on essay or short answer questions on tests but often they don’t know how to say it. Consequently, I have spent much time modeling how to answer questions and discussing what words like “explain”, “describe”, and “tell” should look like in an answer.

I agree with the author that more Staff Development is needed to hold teachers up to the same standards we hold the students to. I can think of one school in particular whose students have not met AYP for a number of years and, according to a teacher there, “never will”. This angers me immensely. First, if staff were not only trained how to differentiate instruction and how to teach students reading strategies they can apply when taking tests but also required by the principal to who evidence of teaching these things in their lesson plans I think that teachers would be finding out that the students who will “never do it” will begin to show us that they can do it and that they can be successful, even if it is not the way that President Bush requires us to.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the state of Texas has lowered their passing requirements for their state tests? Considering that NCLB stems from Bush’s education plan when he was governor it seems only fitting that it hasn’t been successful there. Apparently even students in the great state of Texas aren’t too successful in passing tests that are designed to trick students so that they fail.