President Obama says that four out of five schools are "failing" under the current No Child Left Behind Act and urged Congress to rewrite it so it is authentic and fair.
Obama wants the law rewritten by September, but one Republican says that date is arbitrary.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the current chairman of the House education panel, felt that revamping the law is important but says September is not achievable. He wants committee members to get ongoing input from school leaders and state officials.
"We need to take the time to get this right," Kline said. "We cannot allow an arbitrary timeline to undermine quality reforms that encourage innovation, flexibility and parental involvement."
Read more on Yahoo News...
Tell us what you think about rewriting No Child Left Behind and why in the comments.
Posted by +Pat Wyman, author and founder of HowToLearn.com
I believe Bob misses the greatest utility of the current reading and math instruction — the exercise of the mind. Can you imagine a world where students cannot compute a simple problem in their head. We find that older people who continuously use their minds to solve the simplest problems suffer less from Alzheimer’s and other cognitive degeneration. We know blood flow changes in the brain as we work on complex mental issues. Do you believe students can work on theoretical problems when they cannot even master simple mental arithmetic? Also “Approximation” sounds too much like “good enough for government work”. The proposed flaccidity and diminishing of ability is exactly why our public schools need revamped — too much of that “government” mentality goes on in our schools now. Proposing more is not an answer.
I do agree with Bob that standardized tests, to paraphrase Sergiovanni, are an ally of mediocrity. Differentiated learning necessitates differentiated testing. Some of my students cannot take a written test to save their proverbial academic lives. But ASK them the same question and they don’t need you to provide the answer in a multiple choice format. They know it and can explain it. Learning to overcome these obstacles is yet another transferable learning opportunity.
Standardized tests, like standardized curriculum, trend learning downward and eventually cater to the lowest common denominator of students.