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One reason, at least in North Carolina, is the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act. There are teachers here who are passionate about education. Many of
by groovy2shoes 13y ago
One reason, at least in North Carolina, is the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act. There are teachers here who are passionate about education. Many of them feel as though any creativity and skill they have as an educator has been revoked by the state. They no longer have the freedom to create their own lesson plans. Efforts to encourage students to reach beyond the curriculum are stifled. All that matters is what grades they get on some multiple choice test that was mandated by the state.
Even students enrolled in more demanding programs like AP and IB are expected to pass the standardized end-of-grade tests. Now that's two (sometimes three, for students enrolled in both) standardized tests students need to be prepared for.
The people who've dedicated their lives to teaching no longer get to decide what's best for students. Only politicians get to do it now.
To put it in software development terms, imagine a customer giving you requirements that specify not only the desired product, but exactly which programming languages, design patterns, and frameworks you have to use. Now imagine realizing that the tools mandated by the requirements aren't quite a good fit for the solution, and you have 9 months to ship or you fail. How quickly would you drop that client?
The No Child Left Behind Act has led us to a school system where the government -- rather than the students -- is the client of the teachers. More like All Children Left Behind.
- fossuser 13y agoI've heard this argument before, but I've never really understood it. Aren't the mandated exams extremely easy? Isn't the barrier to pass so low that they don't really matter that much anyway? Why would this be that big of an issue? I'd also assume that having some sort of standard by which to judge public education is difficult, but I can sense the need for some sort of standard. I went to public school, and while personal anecdotes aren't that valuable - the quality of teacher varied wildly from great teachers who made memorable impacts to teachers so damaging I still remember how horrible they were years later. If standardized testing is the issue then what's a better way to work towards improving it? Better teachers? Being able to fire bad ones? It's a complex problem.
- groovy2shoes 13y agoIt's more than just standardized testing. A letter of resignation was discussed on HN about a year ago [1], and that sentiment is far from unique. Teachers, especially the ones who are passionate about education, are leaving the school systems in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties in droves. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4713000 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4713000
- yardie 13y agoI was a student in one of those demanding programs. While we didn't have NCLB exams we had standardized tests every year. Even for AP students. At the most they were a minor distraction. Our teacher spent 1 day going over the prep material, you'd be surprised how even basic, long division becomes hard once you move up to higher maths, then the next day we took it. For participating and not intentionally hosing the test, as we threatened to do, we had a pizza party (just about the only reward a school can give you) and moved forward with the syllabus. My problems with NCLB exams are wide and varied but the actual test (1-2 days) is the least of it. It's the results that administrators use to pass judgement that I have the most concern.
- dfxm12 13y agoNCLB only affects public schools. I'll grant that figures in the article are largely from public schools, but you can be a teacher and passionate about education and teach somewhere else. It's kind of disingenuous to focus on NCLB/public schools here like it is the only choice in education.
- groovy2shoes 13y agoFor low-income families, it is usually the only choice.