My Thoughts on NCLB & the Politics of Education (Especially Reading)

Being a first year teacher, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure because of NCLB. Like many others have already stated, I agree that the act had good intentions, but somehow along the way, it went bad because of unrealistic goals & requirements. According to the Wikipedia article, NCLB's goals are to improve performances of U.S. schools by increasing the standards that states & schools are accountable for, to give parents more flexibility & choice in where their children go to school, and put more of a focus on reading. While these goals sound good on paper, they are unrealistic & causing some schools to actually harm the education they provide their students.

I truly think NCLB needs to be done away with or at least completely revised. Statistics show that there have been increased test scores & levels of proficiency in reading & math, but so what??? I don't think this proves that students are actually becoming more successful learners; it just proves that some districts have found ways to manipulate the system & teach skills necessary to do well on the standardized tests. In some aspects, I don't blame schools for "teaching to the test" because they are scared of what low test scores will mean for the future of their district. It scares me that the Dept. of Ed. even threatens to withhold funding if a school doesn't abide by the "rules."

One part of NCLB that I agree with is requiring all teachers to be "highly qualified." Teachers SHOULD be an expert in their specific field so they can give their students the best education available. The problem though: where does the funding come from to allow current teachers to become highly qualified if they aren't?....

Also, I am "on the fence" on the issue of standardized tests. Yes, I agree that there should be a benchmark we hold all students to so we can compare & assess the students of our country. However, there are SO many downfalls of these tests. They put way too much pressure on teachers, students, administrators, etc. Too much is riding on these tests. I don't think they truly assess student ability either. For example, in no shape or form do these tests show students' enthusiasm & love for reading. Shouldn't that account for something? For example, there could be a student who scores very high on a Language Arts Literacy standardized test but HATES to read. Down the road, this students' hatred for reading will without a doubt affect his reading abilities & job performance, regardless of his high test scores when he was younger. I wish teachers were given more freedom to teach a love & appreciation for reading, and not just drill work so their students will score high on the tests.

I read in the Wikipedia article that NCLB has actually caused some schools to LOWER their standards so more students can perform well on these tests. (ie: only focusing on how to manipulate a multiple choice question) This is awful! How can anyone argue this is a good, beneficial Act if schools are LOWERING their expectations for their students.......awful.......

I hope that NCLB gets revised & made more realistic. I also hope that TEACHERS have more of a say in how NCLB looks in the future. We are the professions here, aren't we? I'd want a trained doctor making the rules & regulations for a surgery I had to undergo, not the president. This is no different; the experts, aka teachers, should have more of a say in making this NCLB Act work.