How We Are Teaching Children to Think Inside the Box Essay

When children come home from work snip, pargonnts usu on the wholey sit down with them, go through their homework folders and ask their child, so, what did you learn at inform now? Twenty twelvemonths ago, the child may nourish commented on what they learn in art, harmony, social studies or geography. Now, a child forget comment only on what they learned in their reading circle or in their mathematics book. The fault for this lies within the No nipper left hand bum (NCLB) Act. Standardized testing has turned t apieceers into test proctors and schools into testing facilities. Students be no longer receiving a broad reproduction that covers many an(prenominal) subjects instead, their erudition is streamlined to fit the content that is on the convertible tests.The NCLB Act is non working as it was int cobblers lasted, and as a result the American children atomic number 18 f in alling even further behind other developed demesnes. In fact, American students argon ranked 19th bulge of 21 countries in math, 16th in science and last in physics (DeWeese 2). The No squirt left Behind Act needs to be tossed stunned before we do irreversible damage to the training system. It is non similarly late we can turn everything around by getting ease up up of costly convertible tests, break students receive a broad education that includes classes in arts and music, which will better prep ar them for advanceder education, and give control rump to the individual separates.In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted by Congress, which was int hold backed to close the learning crevice between flannel students and minority students. The NCLB promised to promote accountability amongst teachers and school administrators, as soundly as assuring that all children would be proficient consort to standards rope by the individual states in reading and math by the end of the 2013-2014 school grade (Ravitch 2). In addition, NCLB stated that by the e nd of the 2005-2006 school-year every classroom in America would have a highly qualified teacher (Paige 2). The most reliable elbow room that the drafters of No Child Left Behind proposed collecting the data that they needed in club to keep track of accountability and progression was by mandating that each state issue theirstudents in grades 3 through 12 a standardize test yearlyly that covers the subjects of reading, writing and math (Beveridge 1).The test that is issued is given to all students, whether they atomic number 18 Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, disabled, etc. and schools argon graded based on the proficiency of their students. Each state countersinks a yearly goal that increases each year based on the mandates of the NCLB Act, in which all students will be degree Celsius percent proficient in those three subjects by the year 2014 (Ravitch 2). On paper, the NCLB Act looked kindred a blessing to schools that be situated in plains of diminished-incom e, minority areas and advocates for children with learning disabilities because these tests were meant to highlight the schools that are doing gravely and ensure they receive funding and training in order to turn the score around (Darling-Hammond 1).In a letter that is addressed to parents on their website, the U.S. division of learning explains that the NCLB Act provides more resources to schools through funding and allows more tractableness when allocating the gold (3). According to Linda Darling-Hammond, a Professor of pedagogy at Stanford University, the funding allocated by NCLB less than 10 percent of most schools budgets does not hurt the needs of the under-resourced schools, where many students currently get by to learn (2). Another way schools get their funding is through the taxes that we pay. It commences sense that schools located in an area that has higher income would receive more funds than schools located in a low-income area. What happens is that with t he limited funding, schools in low-income areas need to prioritize funding to raise the standardized test lots of their students because once a school fails to show profit in their standardized test heaps, they are placed on probation the second base year and parents are given a choice to leave the failing school, taking their child and the funding attached to that child to a school that is rated better.In the third year of a schools failure, students are entitled to free tutoring after school according to Diane Ravitch, a explore professor of education at New York University (2). The funding provided by NCLB is say to help pay for the free tutoring, barely, like was stated before, the funding provided is not enough. What happens when a school is mandated by law to provide resources, but it cannot take care room in their budget? Thats justifiedly, they cut funding elsewhere. In an article written by Angela Pascopella, the Austin Independent School district superintendent P ascal D. Forgi superstar explains that NCLB also requires that schools in need of mendment set aside 10 percent of their local Title 1 funds for professional development this creates no flexibility in budgeting (1).When schools need to reconstitute their budget in order to pay for tutoring and retraining teachers, the arts and music programs are the ones that suffer most. NCLB places so overmuch emphasis on the endpoint of the standardized tests. Can you really blame the school districts for re-emphasizing the importance of standardized tests when their funding relies on it? States were rig in charge of providing their own sagacity tests in order to provide a more focused education to their students and ensure that the students meet the states standards of proficiency. Tina Beveridge explains that in 2007, the Washington perspicacity of Student Learning (WASL) cost the state $113 million and many districts eliminated commandment positions as a result, despite the use of sti mulus money. As budgets are cut nationwide, the funding for nontested subjects are affected first (1). The fact that the dissemination of funds is based on the outcome of the standardized test scores means that we are blatantly failing the inner-city schools. A school will be placed on probation if they fail just one kinsperson ranging from proficiency of Caucasian students all the way down to the proficiency of the students who are just learning the English language.Schools located in higher income areas hold outt really have to worry as much close budget cuts because those schools are located in areas that are predominately white and with parents who are active in their childrens education. On the other hand, schools in low income areas have to provide tutoring and other mandated actions in order to improve their proficiency rates, all the age their students are learning in crumbling facilities, overcrowded classrooms, out-of-date textbooks, no science labs, no art or music v ar.s and a revolving entry of untrained teachers (Darling-Hammond 2). After a few historic period of a school not showing improvement through their test scores, their entire statement staff could be fired. We just saw this happen last year in Providence, Rhode Island. The school board terminated 1,976 teachers because of insufficient results and the need to make budget cuts (Chivvis 1).The turnover rate forteachers is already extremely high, as much as 50 percent leave within 5 years in urban areas (McKinney et al 1) and the pressure of working in a low-income school district where schools are lacking basic training necessities is not all that appealing. The inability of low-income schools to offer teachers incentives because of funding, and with the added stress of job security, it makes one interrogate how any highly qualified teachers are in the classroom. On net of that, the curriculum for students has gotten so narrow that it has taken a lot of the creativeness and indi vidualization that once attracted the best of the best to the teaching profession. Susan J. Hobart is an example of one of those teachers who used to love doing her job because she was leaving her mark on her students, in a positive way. In Hobarts article, she tells of a letter she stock from one of her students prior to the NCLB Act. The letter explained that Hobart was different than other teachers, in a good way. They didnt learn just from a textbook they undergo the topics by jumping into the textbook. They got to construct a rainforest in their classroom, have a fancy lunch on the Queen Elizabeth II, and go on a sa off the beaten track(predicate)i through Africa (3).The student goes on to explain that the style of teaching she experienced during that time is what she hopes she can do when she becomes a teacher too. Unfortunately, that students dream will most likely not come true because the fact is that when schools are placed on probation, like Hobarts school, they teach te st-taking strategies similar to those taught in Stanley Kaplan prep courses and spend an exuberant amount of time showing students how to bubble up (1). With all the time and energy macrocosm placed on teaching children to read and write, you would cerebrate that they would be proficient by the time they record in college, right? Wrong. 42 percent of community college freshmen and 20 percent of freshmen in four-year institutions enroll in at least one sanative course 35 percent were enrolled in math, 23 percent in writing, and 20 percent in reading, according to the Alliance for comminuted study (1). Schools are so reliant on the standardized tests in order to gauge how students are understanding material that they have slacked-off in other areas like teaching basic study skills and critical thinking skills.When most of these kids graduate from high school and enter into a college setting, especially the ones who need to take remedial courses to catch-up to wherethey should b e when they graduate, theyre taken completely off guard with the course load and they will either succeed in managing it or struggle for the first few semesters, but the majority will drop out without a degree (Alliance for Excellent Education 1). High school is meant to countersink students for higher education or to enter the workforce, but the government is expenditure millions of dollars in order to remediate students and doing what high school teachers were meant to do (Alliance for Excellent Education 3). So, who is to blame? The supporters of No Child Left Behind greet that there are some faults to the Act, but those like Kati Haycock believes that although NCLB isnt perfect, the scrubbing administration and Congress did something important by passing it.They called on educators to contract a new challenge not just access for all, but achievement for all there are no more inconspicuous kids (1). Supporters feel as though benefits such as holding teachers responsible for all students, including those with disabilities, and weeding out the schools that have a long history of doing poorly outweighs the negatives and that with time, the NCLB Act can be reformed to work as efficiently as it was enacted to work. Ravitch disagrees, stating that Washington has neither the knowledge nor the capacity to micromanage the nations schools (3). We have to agree with her as concerned citizens and parents. While the NCLB Act meant well when it was passed, its time to acknowledge that the government has spent billions of dollars trying to improve the education of Americas youth, yet 10 years subsequent American students are still falling behind the mark set by other industrialized nations and the 2013-2014 school year is quickly attack upon us.Not only are we falling behind spherically, but minorities are still struggling behind Caucasian students. The gap between Caucasian students and minority students, that was intended to close through the NCLB Act, has remained just as far apart. E.E. miller elementary School, located here in Fayetteville, NC, just released their annual report card to parents. The chart below shows the break-down of students who passed both the reading and math tests provided at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. African American children, Hispanic children, and children with disabilities are still lagging far behind their Caucasian peers. African American children passed at 49.4 percent, 25.5 percent of students with disabilities passed and Hispanic children passed at rate of56.9 percent. Remember that the NCLB necessitates this school, on with every other school in the Nation, to be at 100 percent proficiency by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.SourceEducation First NC School Report Cards, E. E. Miller Elementary 2010-11 School Year, in the public eye(predicate) Schools of North Carolina State Board of Education, Web, 26 Oct. 2011.In order to put this chart more in perspective, below is the 3-year tr end for E.E. Miller. picSource Education First NC School Report Cards, E. E. Miller Elementary 2010-11 School Year, domain Schools of North Carolina State Board of Education, Web, 26 Oct. 2011.While math scores are steadily improving, reading scores (the solid line) are declining. E.E. Miller has been on probation for at least 3 years, having provided tutoring to children who were struggling last year. even so with those efforts, the end of the year test suggests those students are still struggling in reading. These mandates are not working. States are spending millions of dollars per year to fulfill all of the required obligations without any fruition. We need to put education spending back into the hands of the states with more substantial federal funding. The federal government cannot expect every public elementary school, middle school and high school in this nation to fix a problem that has been prevalent for many, many years with this one-size-fits-all approach to learning. It will not happen with No Child Left Behind, and it definitely will not happen by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. We can no longer sit and watch while students in America struggle to compete on a global level in nearly all subjects. teachers are not educating our nations students to think critically and to form their own ideas or opinions instead, teachers in failing schools are stuck teaching a curriculum that directly corresponds to what is being tested, and we are failing to prepare them for higher education. The future citizens we are mold will be of no use to society if they cannot think for themselves, which will happen if they remain in the current system. We need to undo this one-size-fits-allcurriculum and re-broaden our childrens education to include subjects that will teach them think distant the box.Works CitedAlliance for Excellence in Education. Paying Double wretched High Schools and Community College Remediation. Issue Brief August (2006). All4Ed.Org. Web. 3 0 Oct. 2011.Beveridge, Tina. No Child Left Behind and Fine Arts Classes. Arts Education Policy Review 111.1 (2010) 4. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. Chivvis, Dana. Providence, RI, School Board Votes to Lay tally All Teachers. AOL News (2011). Web. 28 Oct. 2011.Darling-Hammond, Lisa. No Child Left Behind is a Bad Law. opposing Viewpoints. Web. 14 Oct. 2011.DeWeese, Tom. Public Education is Failing. Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. Education First NC School Report Cards. E. E. Miller Elementary 2010-11 School Year.Public Schools of North Carolina State Board of Education. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.McKinney, Sueanne E., et al. Addressing urban High-Poverty School Teacher Attrition by Addressing Urban High-Poverty School Teacher Retention Why Effective Teachers Persevere. Educational Research and Review Vol. 3 (1) pp. 001-009 (2007). Academic Journals. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. Paige, Rod. No Child Left Behind A Parents Guide. U.S. Department of Education (2002). PDF File. 28 O ct. 2011.Pascopella, Angela. Talking expound on NCLB. District Administration 43.7 (2007)22. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.Ravitch, Diane. Time to Kill No Child Left Behind. Education Digest 75.1 (2009) 4. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2011.