www.nclbcommission.org Click on it. They want everyone to give their opinions and suggestions. This is your chance now, if you really want to let the NCLB commission know what you think.
Renee This is what I submitted: In the last several years, I have witnessed a systematic dumbing down of the classroom due to the over-attention given to testing, test scores, and the mistaken idea that students will learn more if we test them more. Classrooms that used to be places of joyful learning, where students were invited to be creative while learning the basics, where children loved to read and talk about books, where students did science investigations and serious mathematics, where teachers were honored and celebrated for their professional expertise, have turned into places of gloom and doom, where students are stressed and teachers have been devalued and distrusted, where once-thoughtful, supportive administrators have thrown away everything they know about children's learning in favor of easily-counted data that is largely reflective of simple, surface learning rather than the deeper reflective learning of real problem-solvers. I have watched how, in a short period of half a decade, children who once loved to read have turned into children who view reading as a chore, because reading has been reduced to decoding, passing tests, reaching fluency benchmarks, and the racking up of points for taking computer quizzes. The most insidious result of this law is that schools all over the country have been forced into a situation where test scores dictate who is considered a learner, who is considered proficient, who is considered below average, who gets to advance to the next grade and even graduate from high school, even though the test-makers themselves have said over and over that no one test should ever be used for high-stakes decisions. Shame on the writers of this pitiful excuse for education reform. In future years, when the children who are in school right now are running our country, we are going to see the damage that has been done by this law. It is time to do something serious to change the details of this legislation. It's time to take an extensive look at what is being done to children who have had recess taken away, who are no longer allowed time for art and music, who are forced to go to summer school, Saturday school, Intercession programs, and other "remedial" programs if they do not make the grade according to test scores, and who will certainly grow up to be non-thinkers and non-learners if something is not changed. Thank you for asking! I hope you are planning to listen! "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of crisis, remain neutral." ~ Edmund Burke _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
