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I can't believe I'm going to get into this...
In theory, NCLB is great. In practice, unless you are from a wealthy, upperclass neighborhood where mommy and daddy give a damn, it doesn't work and it never will work. NCLB will only work IF the STUDENTS want to work. I have 5 students who flat out will not do work, and because I push them to do work and fail them, they told me they will fail their standardized test so that I get in trouble for it. Why am I going to get in trouble for it? Because despite the fact they had different science teachers for the last 10 years or so, I am the teacher on record. I am their science teacher for the year they took the exam. So the results fall back on me. When they fail the test, it becomes my fault.
I also believe the reliance on standardized testing has lead our children to not be able to think. They are so accustomed to have a question, and be able to pick out the answer from the few in front of them, that they are unable to complete the simplest task that invovled a small amount of thinking. Five times this year, I asked for an opnion paper about something we researched, ie- stem cell research, genetic engineering, evolution, etc. Each time, I recived a research paper in return, not the required paper. Hell, last time I had 60 movie review of the movie GATTCA, when all they needed to write was a one page reaction on how they would feel living in a world like the one in the film.
NCLB is one of the reasons I will be leaving the education world in June. I will not be held accountable if the students and families are not held accountable. I will not stress myself out daily when they will not take a book home and do homework, and I will not exhaust myself when the parents won't care enough to make sure they do work either.
When society has come back to the point where responsibility comes back to students and parents, then I will come back to teaching.
But I'm not holding my breath.
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Just keep swimming
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