Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
But let's go back to your classroom.. you say you have 5 kids who are doomed to fail.. that means you have what..25 kids who are possibly going to succeed? Would you say that just about every teacher in your district is going to have similar results due to the kids coming from fairly similar backgrounds?
Assuming your classroom is composed of a fair cross section of the community, you, personally shouldn't be in trouble. Maybe the school, but as I recall, there are allowances for lower expectations of schools in certain areas.
At some point, there has to be a choice made between what's best for our students and what's best for our schools. I'm completely convinced that NCLB is great for our students and can be devastating and even unfair to some schools. In my mind though, the benefits definitely outweigh the costs.
I think it's really great that a quality education is now available to basically anyone who wants one... or is that bad?
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My classroom is not a fair representation, at all. I'll be first to admit it. The computer that made the schedules somehow came out with my teaching 3 college prep (level a) classes and an elective. I have 5 students that deliberately failed the standardized test. I won't know until June how many people failed the test. I have about another 10 who are failing for the year, and about 10-15 who are sitting on the fence, of about 60 total students. I am fortunate that I mostly have students who care about their studies and want to go to college. My mother is the opposite. She teaches inclusion on a general level. She has the students who don't care, are behavior problems, and generally don't want to be there.
I agree with some parts of the law. I believe that reform in education does need to occur. I'm not entirely sure how it going to occur, but I don't believe that NCLB is the answer. There needs to be some changes in the law.
My main disagreement with the law is how the students are being tested, particularly with the middle/high school cohort. I teach Biology. The students are tested on Chemistry, Biology, Physical Science, and Envrionmental Science, for the most part. I am held responsbile for the student failing the entire test. He may have gotten all the questions correct in Biology, but because he didn't learn anything in Chemistry the year before, he failed that part, he didn't do so hot on the environmental science because its not a required class-not to mention the last time he had any teaching on envrionmental science was in 6th grade and hes now a junior in high school, and Physical Science he is supposed to remember from freshman year.
On a state level, for science, NJ is petetioning to allow the testing after the year of the test. I support this fully. So now, after taking Biology, the student will be tested on only Biology. This grade comes back to the teacher teaching the subject, not the unfortunate person who is held accountable for the previous 10 years of teaching.
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