Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
Any teachers who are "teaching to the test" (which is really quite a misnomer, to my mind, but that's another topic altogether) are part of the problem, and any administration that allows this or caters to this is even worse. It's bad, lazy teaching - pure and simple. That's not the fault of the program, is it?
Can we all agree that there should be accountability in education just like in every other profession? Can we all agree that students' abilities should be measured as part of that?
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Except that is the only way they can teach, at least that is the problem here in Texas. There have been many guidelines placed on what students MUST learn by the end of the school year, given by grade level and by subject area that there isn't any leeway to teach "outside" the test. The TEKS (which are those guidelines) are the guidelines for the test, and teachers MUST follow them (no ifs ands or buts, they are accountable for what TEKS they do every day of every week of every month). If the TEKS are the guidelines for the TAKS tests (which is what grades 3-12 take here) then the teachers ARE "teaching to the test."
Do you think my mom, a teacher in the school district for almost 40 years, likes the NCLB? No. She agrees that the accountability is great, yeah teachers should be accountable for their students. But what about those teachers who teach all they can, do all they can to help the students, yet the students fail. The illegals who are fresh out of the border and start school MUST take the TAKS test. Most of these people can't speak a lick of English, yet they have to take the TAKS, in English, and pass or else it's the teachers fault. That doesn't sound fair. Of course immigration is a separate issue that we don't need to venture into, but that is the reality that many teachers here face. At the end of last school year, the school district took my mom's classroom away from here and gave her all the "LEP" kids (the 'esl' kids) and had her teach them---"teaching to the test." Why? Because all of her classes were either 90%-100% passing rate, and they wanted her to teach the LEP kids to pass.
If a school goes on AYP, which means they didn't have an acceptable passing rate in some subject (like for a lot of schools in this area, it's math) then they don't get funding. That is what NCLB does, it gives funding to all the school that meet their standards, and to the "low performing schools" they don't give squat, except a 5 year growth plan. Schools can also go on AYP for having a low graduation rate. Now, at 16 years old, kids can choose to drop out of school if they want. Once they drop out, the schools can't have to MAKE them go back (and really, how can you make a 16 year old, these are usually gang members or teens who have multiple babies, go back to school). Yet the school won't meet the graduation standard, and thus won't get any funding and be put on the growth plan.
ETA:
Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
Education is about so much more than how well a teacher can teach a subject.
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YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!