No Child Left Behind at a Crossroads

As a former teacher, and someone who is still involved in early childhood education, what frustrates me most about No Child Left Behind is that the accountability systems used are archaic. Current research about how children learn, most notably, Multiple Intelligence Theory, shows that children learn in different ways and are best able to demonstrate this knowledge in different ways. Paper and pencil tests, and teaching to these tests is effective for only some students. The effect of no child left behind is that schools are cutting the very programs that could help the children whose strengths are not logical/mathematical or linguistic.
No Child Left Behind could be much more effective if it used current research.

Two points:
1. Anyone who has taken Statistics 101 knows that evaluating a school based on the test results of 30 3rd graders is statistically invalid. It is as if you predicted the winner of the presidential election by asking a few dozen of your friends. Making policy decisions based on such limited results involves faults in basic math (irony intended).
2. All the emphasis on helping students reach proficiency has meant (at least in our schools) that accelerated students are ignored.

I would like to discuss the fact that the numbers of school days are still at 185 but we have lost instruction time because of testing (3 to 6 weeks a year). America is the only developed country who is having so few school days others are having between 220 to 260 days a year of schooling.
The second issue is to let teachers have the opportunity to assess the tests . We need to take into account cultural differences when we put a test together.
How can we deal with the stress some students have experienced because of testing.

We should also be talking about no child held back. Alot of discipline problems and children being turned off school is due to students spending more time staring out the window or finding ways to entertain themselves as they wait for teachers to finish going over the same thing four or five times. Often the student understood the lesson before the teacher started because they actually did assigned reading or homework. Speaking from experience there are two many children who could be advanced but are trapped in proefficiency.

jeff

The arts, music, art, dance, theatre, creative writing - are serious subjects which encourage engagement, creativity, innovation, problem solving....and craftsmanship...discipline and good habits of mind. The arts are what keep many students motivated and in high school.
The arts also are a means to reach and make learning accessible for many special needs students.

My son was at the beginning of the NCLB testing when he was in 3rd grade (he is now a freshman in High School). He did well in school and his teacher said he did well on his reading. However - all they worked on was preperation for the testing. He left 3rd grade being able to recite the book from the test but not being able to read much else. Thankfully we moved and his 4th grade teacher at his new school was inspirational and though he still does not like to read beyond what is required he is a high honor student in High school. We learned the hard way and blame not only the 3rd grade curriculum and teacher but also ourselves for not catching he wasn't reading. Everyone needs to be involved in a child's education...teachers and parents.

i agree with the arts being so critical to student success. without them its a downward spiral into depression in every aspect of life