How We Are Teaching Children to Think Inside the Box Essay Example for Free

How We Are Teaching barbarianren to Think Inside the Box EssayWhen children come home from rail, p bents unremarkably sit down with them, go through and through their homework folders and ask their child, so, what did you learn at school at once? Twenty forms ago, the child may open commented on what they learned in art, music, social studies or geography. Now, a child will comment only on what they learned in their reading pass around or in their math book. The fault for this lies within the No Child left hand bathroom (NCLB) Act. standardize shielding has turned teachers into test proctors and schools into testing facilities. Students be no longer receiving a broad preparation that covers many subjects instead, their learning is streamlined to fit the content that is on the interchangeable tests.The NCLB Act is non running(a) as it was intended, and as a result the Ameri rouse children ar f completelying even further after part other developed nations. In fac t, American pupils atomic number 18 ranked 19th out of 21 countries in math, 16th in science and last in physics (DeWeese 2). The No Child Left rotter Act needs to be tossed out before we do irreversible damage to the culture system. It is not too late we can turn everything around by getting rid of costly govern tests, ensure students receive a broad education that includes classes in arts and music, which will better grow them for amplyer education, and give control back to the individual states.In 2002, the No Child Left hind end Act was enacted by Congress, which was intended to close the learning gap betwixt Caucasian students and minority students. The NCLB promised to tug accountability amongst teachers and school administrators, as well as assuring that solely children would be skilful fit to standards band by the individual states in reading and math by the end of the 2013-2014 school stratum (Ravitch 2). In addition, NCLB stated that by the end of the 200 5-2006 school-year every classroom in America would have a gamyly qualified teacher (Paige 2). The most reliable expressive style that the drafters of No Child Left bottom of the inning proposed collecting the data that they needed in nightspot to keep track of accountability and proficiency was by mandating that each state issue theirstudents in grades 3 through 12 a standardise test annually that covers the subjects of reading, writing and math (Beveridge 1).The test that is issued is given to all students, whether they ar Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, disabled, etc. and schools are graded based on the proficiency of their students. Each state sets a yearly goal that increases each year based on the mandates of the NCLB Act, in which all students will be one C part proficient in those three subjects by the year 2014 (Ravitch 2). On paper, the NCLB Act looked like a blessing to schools that are located in areas of low-income, minority areas and advocates for childr en with learning disabilities because these tests were meant to highlight the schools that are doing poorly and ensure they receive musical accompaniment and training in order to turn the scores around (Darling-Hammond 1).In a garner that is intercommunicate to parents on their website, the U.S. Department of pedagogy explains that the NCLB Act put ups more than resources to schools through accompaniment and allows more flexibility when allocating the pecuniary resource (3). According to Linda Darling-Hammond, a Professor of Education at Stanford University, the funding allocated by NCLB less than 10 percent of most schools cyphers does not meet the needs of the under-resourced schools, where many students currently struggle to learn (2). Another way schools get their funding is through the taxes that we pay. It makes sense that schools located in an area that has higher income would receive more funds than schools located in a low-income area. What reachs is that with t he limited funding, schools in low-income areas need to prioritize funding to cost increase the standardized test scores of their students because once a school breaks to show improvement in their standardized test scores, they are place on probation the second year and parents are given a alternative to leave the failing school, taking their child and the funding attached to that child to a school that is browsed better.In the third year of a schools failure, students are entitled to free tutoring after school according to Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University (2). The funding stick outd by NCLB is sibyllic to help pay for the free tutoring, notwithstanding, like was stated before, the funding provided is not enough. What happens when a school is mandated by law to provide resources, nevertheless it cannot find room in their budget? Thatsright, they cut funding elsewhere. In an article written by Angela Pascopella, the Austin Independent give instruction District superintendent daddy D. Forgione explains that NCLB also requires that schools in need of improvement set aside 10 percent of their local ennoble 1 funds for professional development this creates no flexibility in budgeting (1).When schools need to restructure 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 a good deal emphasis on the outcome of the standardized tests. Can you really blame the school regularizes for re-emphasizing the importance of standardized tests when their funding relies on it? States were put in charge of providing their own assessment 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 uppercase Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) cost the state $113 million and many districts eliminated teaching positions as a result, despite the use of stimulus money. As budgets are cut nationwide, the funding for nontested subjects are affected first off (1). The fact that the distribution of funds is based on the outcome of the standardized test scores heart that we are blatantly failing the inner-city schools. A school will be placed on probation if they fail just one category ranging from proficiency of Caucasian students all the way down to the proficiency of the students who are just learning the English language. aims located in higher income areas dont really have to worry as much about budget cuts because those schools are located in areas that are predominately sportsmanlike 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 while their students are learning in crumbling facilities, overcrowded classrooms, out-of-date school texts, no science labs, no art or music courses and a revolving door of violent teachers (Darling-Hammond 2). After a few years of a school not showing improvement through their test scores, their entire teaching 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 teaching 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 prank security, it makes one wonder how any highly qualified teachers are in the classroom. On top of that, the platform for students has gotten so narrow that it has taken a lot of the c reativity and individualization that once attracted the vanquish 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 received 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 experienced the topics by jumping into the textbook. They got to construct a rainforest in their classroom, have a go for lunch on the Queen Elizabeth II, and go on a safari 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 test-taking strategies similar to those taught in Stanley Kaplan prep courses and spend an extravagant amount of time showing students how to bubble up (1). With all the time and energy being placed on teaching children to read and write, you would guess that they would be proficient by the time they enroll in college, right? Wrong. 42 percent of community college freshmen and 20 percent of freshmen in four-year institutions enroll in at least one remedial course 35 percent were enrolled in math, 23 percent in writing, and 20 percent in reading, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education (1). Schools are so dependent 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 be 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 percentage point (Alliance for Excellent Education 1). High school is meant to go under students for higher education or to enter the workforce, but the government is spending 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 acknowledge that in that location are some faults to the Act, but those like Kati Haycock believes that although NCLB isnt perfect, the Bush administration and Congress did something important by passing it.They called on educators to continue a new challenge not just access for all, but achievement for all there are no more invisible kids (1). Supporters feel as though benefits such as memory teachers acco untable 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 electrical condenser to micromanage the nations schools (3). We have to agree with her as concerned citizens and parents. season 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, all the same 10 years later American students are stable falling behind the mark set by other industrialized nations and the 2013-2014 school year is quickly coming upon us.Not only are we falling behind globally, but minorities are still struggling behind Caucasian students. The gap between Caucasian students and minority students, that was intended to close thr ough the NCLB Act, has remained just as far apart. E.E. Miller round-eyed 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 expects this school, along with every other school in the Nation, to be at 100 percent proficiency by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.SourceEducation prototypal NC School narrative Cards, E. E. Miller Elementary 2010-11 School Year, Public 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-ye ar trend for E.E. Miller. picSource 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.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 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 impregnable 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 lift 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 molding 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 outside the box.Works CitedAlliance for Excellence in Education. nonrecreational Double Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation. Issue Brief August (2006). All4Ed. Org. Web. 30 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 Off 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 wherefore 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 Oct. 2011.Pascopella, Angela. Talking Details 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 bear out 75.1 (2009) 4. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2011.