aprilhenry ([info]aprilhenry) wrote,
@ 2008-05-02 06:55:00
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Left Behind by Bush’s Policies?
If No Child Left Behind is so great, then how come so many teachers hate it?

Teacher turned author Jordan Sonnenblick wrote about it for School Library Journal. You can read it here.

And the Oregon science teacher who was just named National Teacher of the Year and got to meet Bush took the opportunity to tell the president that No Child Left Behind is censoring creative teachers like himself because of its heavy reliance on tests.

Read more about his effort to speak truth to power here.

Are you a teacher? What do you think of No Child Left Behind?



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[info]selimsa803
2008-05-02 02:24 pm UTC (link)
I don't want to sound like a cranky conspiracy theorist (boy, did I pick the wrong week to give up Mt. Dew) but I think you always have to ask yourself "Who is benefitting here?" Clearly, the students aren't. NCLB is designed to fail so that private enterprise can take over public schools with public funding. Many Bush cronies (including his brother) own or have major stakes in "supplemental educational" providers, test and support material publishing companies, etc., that are having a windfall with NCLB.

(Not a teacher but a parent whose child is caught in the tightly woven net of NCLB.)

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[info]aprilhenry
2008-05-02 05:37 pm UTC (link)
Sounds a lot like the war.

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[info]quiller77
2008-05-02 02:41 pm UTC (link)
We don't quite have the same policies up here, and it varies a lot from one province to another, but my hubby (and the whole teachers' association) doesn't like standardized provincial testing because of the same tendency of teaching to the test. But is doesn't sound near so rigid here as it is down there.

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[info]aprilhenry
2008-05-02 05:36 pm UTC (link)
There must be a balance - and it sounds tilted.

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[info]kidlit_kim
2008-05-02 04:22 pm UTC (link)
Here's a good one for you... my fourth grader has had a ton of homework this year. Our standardized testing period is over and suddenly, we have almost no homework again! We only have 12 more school days, so maybe it's also part of the winding down period.

I'm not in favor of NCLB. Our school tests well, and we haven't seen the cuts in music, art, PE and other programs that some have. But, I see so many creative teachers and would love a chance to see what they could really do if given the chance.

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[info]aprilhenry
2008-05-05 05:32 pm UTC (link)
It just seems so rigid and compartmentalized. My daughter's third grade teacher - the one everyone prayed their kid would get - has left teaching altogether.

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[info]saraclaradara
2008-05-02 11:18 pm UTC (link)
Hi April - I can't get to the link about the Science teacher speaking out to Bush and I'd really like to because I posted Jordan's piece on a political blog I'm a front-pager on here in CT and it's created a complete ruckus about NCLB so I'd love to post a link or at least excerpts from that article.

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[info]aprilhenry
2008-05-02 11:20 pm UTC (link)
Try this:

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1209439538120880.xml&coll=7

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