No Child Left Ahead

In an AP story about the No Child Left Behind Act:

Before Congress passed it in 2001, she said, federal officials had no way to track state progress of roughly 50 million children who attend public school.

Now, she said -- even with nearly 2 million uncounted -- parents, teachers and educators have a better idea of how 23 million are doing because of the law's requirement that children be tested annually in third grade through eighth grade and once in high school.

Spellings also said the law marks a watershed for closing the racial achievement gap. In previous tests, she said, schools could always produce better results by reporting test scores for an entire grade or building. Now, schools are required to report test scores and show progress for different groups.

The schools, she said, 'are working on those student groups as they never have before, and that is because of No Child Left Behind. Yes, we need to continue to press them to serve each and every child, but we have made huge progress.'"

...

OK, Ms. Spellings. Can I ask you one question? Have you ever heard of a report card? Yeah. It's a sheet of paper with grades on it -- sometimes cardboard. Teachers and parents sometimes use this as a measure of progress for their child.

My opinion on No Child Left Behind is that it's hurting the schools.

Yes, a regulatory, consistent test is a good measure of how a student is improving -- but only on THAT test. This is the problem with SAT's...kids can train to beat the test.

Yes, it's fair to measure student progress when doling out federal money for schools -- but shouldn't you be ADDING federal aid to schools that are having trouble, not punishing them? Are you insinuating that the teachers don't care, or that they are not doing their job?

Perhaps, Mr. President, they have old books, poor school equipment, no money for hands-on field trips? Perhaps you should be HELPING them?

Personally, I find CSAP is hurting our schools. For months, kids are trained on CSAP and CSAP only. Why? Because it means the difference between tens of thousands of dollars in funding?

Do you think the schools will care if a child is smart or dumb, or do you think they will care more about how well they can handle the CSAP test?

Go to your local bookstore, in the education section. See all the SAT books? Yes, there are HUNDREDS of them. Why? Because this is major test measure colleges use for admitting new students!

Go around the corner...see the crib notes? Now, why would a student want to just learn the "main points" of a book, and not read the whole book? You guess it! Cause they want to pass the English test!

CSAP is a distraction in our schools. History and Science are being left behind. Gym is being left behind. Art and music, two wonderfully important programs that allow a child to express themselves -- the most primary instict of a human being -- are being left behind.

And you can say all you want about reading and math, which are both very important...but would you call Pablo Picasso a dumbass?

Why must we use two very specific skills, and two very specific skills only, as our measure? And why must we punish the very students who need help the most?