NCLB and testing - what do you think?

[donimomof3]

Just wanting to know what you moms and teachers think about NCLB and standardized testing at your school?

At my school we are being pressured to teach to the test. The kids are bored and hate it. I hate it, because that is NOT the kind of teacher I am. Everything in school this year has revolvedd around AYP (annual yearly progress).

I personally think placing too much emphasis on standardized test scores is bad. The kids are stressed, and when they are stressed, they don't learn. The teachers are stressed and when we are stressed, we don't teach the way we should. This pressure on kids is very unhealthy (IMHO). There is so much emphasis on achievement at my school that it is all becoming ridiculous. I don't believe in a competitve classroom. I follow the Tribes program in my class to foster community and cooperation - and competition just doesn't go with this. My students are bright (they divided the classes based on ability this year and I got one of the highest groups), but they are really different. When assessing the learning styles of my students, 19 out of 21 were visual spatial learners, the other two were kinesthetic. Many of the visual spatial kids had kinesthetic as their secondary learning style. These are not kids who learn from sitting doing drill and kill worksheets.

Teachers know what works, and I wish the government and administrators would just leave us alone to teach the way we have been taught to teach.

[Artisan]

Re: NCLB and testing - what do you think?

Originally posted by donimomof3

Teachers know what works, and I wish the government and administrators would just leave us alone to teach the way we have been taught to teach.

Amen!

[EFmom]

I think it is terrible. I am not totally opposed to some standardized testing, but at least in my state, it is way, way, way too much.

Last year at a parent-teacher conference, my dd's kindergarten teacher started telling me that we should read stories in a certain way and always ask certain types of questions at home, because that's what they ask on the 3rd grade language arts exam! I burst out laughing, and said, "Sorry, but I'm not going to suck the joy out of reading for my dd. I don't give a rat's behind how she does on the language arts exam."

Now, I loved this teacher, and dd was reading before she started school. I know where the woman was coming from--this is a great school system, but they pride themselves to a fault on these stupid exam scores and the pressure on the teachers is huge.

Dh is a public high school teacher. I'm in a state that has always had fairly rigorous state exams in order to get a regent's diploma. Since NCLB, though, his enjoyment of teaching has gone to hell.

Now all the kids are supposed to pass the same exam. What this actually means is that the curriculum has been dumbed down considerably as compared to what it used to be, and for the more academically gifted kids, the so-called higher standards are actually much lower standards. Still however, for the bottom third of the bell curve, the test is still much harder than they can handle. So, they are just frustrated and bored, and they tune out in September knowing they won't be able to pass.

Since he has to devote all his efforts into getting the maximum number of kids to pass this one exam, he has had to cut out all of the interesting stuff that he used to like teaching and the kids used to like learning so that he has more time to concentrate on the mediocre crap that the test covers.