No Child Left Behind...

[Friday]

...the national program that is supposed to test children to hold teachers accountable?

Well, read this:

At age 9, Patti High has been profoundly affected by cerebral palsy since birth. But make no mistake:

She is still subject to the state's End-of-Grade Tests.

Bound to a wheelchair, Patti cannot really sit up unassisted. She cannot hold a fork and feed herself. She cannot converse in an easily understandable fashion. She cannot read. She cannot write ... .

Let's put it this way: The list of "cannot's" is extensive.

But because she is, by some definition, a third-grader, she is compelled to take the EOGs.

Don't blame the state, though. This particular bit of idiocy is courtesy of the federal government and the No Child Left Behind law.

No Child makes sure every student is terrorized, er, included, when standardized tests are given. It is well-intentioned, making sure schools don't skirt testing requirements by exempting kids who struggle in school.

But it's one thing to struggle. It's another to be profoundly disabled from birth. Hence the grievous glitches.

Case in point:

One of the questions asked of Patti was: What is the area of a rectangle?

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1082662.html

I personally had to administer an end of grade test to a profoundly disabled child that asked him to *read* a sentence, then answer a question about it. This poor child was also asked to reduce fractions, and name the stages of the water cycle.

Of course, he failed the test. His scores will be counted in with the rest of the school's, however, which will bring down the overall score. That skews the results, making it appear the school has not achieved adequate yearly progress.

Accountability is a good thing, but hold special needs teachers accountable for goals the child has worked on all year. When he first started, one of my students could not hold still enough to sit at a desk. Not only is he sitting or longer periods of time now, but he's also beginning to focus on what's going on around him. THAT is what his end of the year assessment should be. Not whether or not he knows what photosynthesis is.

NCLB need a major overhaul if it is ever to be effective.

 

[The Amazing Messenger]

^#_(!^*HWE{INLKD. NCLB is a god-awful idea and a way for the government to exert more control over what should be a state issue. It should never have been implemented and should be flushed down the toilet. Or maybe the government is just embarrassed by the abysmally low ranking US students hold and thinks some good old top-down arm-twisting will work wonders.

Asking every teacher to be that guy from Stand and Deliver is silly. A teacher could have the charisma of Ben Stein and his only obligation would still be to read/write from the textbook and assign homework. He should be able to toss a textbook in a student's face at day one, tell him to study it, then administer a test months later and the student should pass it.

If they fail, it's their fault. Plain and simple! Most kids are too stupid to be convinced of the importance of learning and thus it must be forced for the first few years. Being made to sit in a classroom at your most energetic phase in life is not natural, and expecting youngsters to react to anything other than punishment or immediate reward is silly.

I say blame the children and put a stop to this 'assertive yet gentle' approach. Give teachers back their 6-foot rulers and perhaps some mace for the inner city areas, and make it legal to use them. Randomly spraying a kid in the face who looks a little too'relaxed or is talking out of turn will ensure they make an effort to pass.


As for your disabled kids, they shouldn't be counted. The government made a mistake. It also invaded a few countries and is torturing people. Meh.