Political Awareness

I want first to mention a few concerns that teachers in our group, (Mid-Missouri TAWL), have expressed concerning the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) legislation. Then, I’ll propose an alternative to the reauthorization of the act, and finally close with a statement from a teacher affected by the legislation.

Here are just 7 of our many concerns.

1. First and foremost, teachers have found that the one-size-fits-none, federal mandates for teaching reading, are harming our children in terms of their motivation to learn, to question, to explore their world and those in it, to grasp scientific principles, to dig for answers to their important questions and to make informed decisions.
2. NCLB is laced with political motives that leave all children behind. Public tax money is spent on labeling schools as failures, and, when the schools are negatively identified, the law purports to provide alternative schools and tutoring. Such legislation may be in violation of states’ rights and local control that results in violation of teachers’ rights, reflecting a lack of respect for teachers’ knowledge and wisdom.
3. The legislation claims to champion disadvantaged children. Rather, it condemns students to days without libraries and books, real reading, real writing and thinking. A recent Harvard study indicates that NCLB benefits white middle-class children over blacks and other minorities. This law is damaging the very children it claims to protect.
4. Time-consuming testing and test preparation are driving the curriculum. (The fear of falling test scores is ever-present for educators.) A survey by Boston College's National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy found that teachers were much more likely to change their instruction, and to focus on test-taking strategies when high stakes are involved.
5. Corporations such as McGraw Hill Publishers are reaping huge profits from selling so-called “standards aligned" textbooks, workbooks, tests, test-prep materials, and teacher training. There are allegations that federal officials have steered contracts to favored publishers and consultants who enforce adherence to selected programs. Many feel that Reading First has shuttled money to a few private firms, especially Voyager, a program that was forced on New York City schools. New York City public advocate, Betsy Gottbaum, called Voyager "the best example of the worst kind of reading program for young people.” Four companies, Pearson, McGraw Hill, Harcourt, and Houghton Mifflin along with the Educational Testing Service, dominate the nation's $2.3 billion testing industry. Our schools have become fair game for corporations and businesses.
6. NCLB is a house of straw built by The National Reading Panel. The studies used by the NRP were based on one type of very narrowly designed research. Elaine Garan’s, Resisting Reading Mandates exposes the erroneous information in the NRP Summary used to formulate NCLB.

And last:

7. There is too little thought of the economic and social influences on academic achievement. The new federal budget asks for reduction in Head Start, no new funding for Title I resulting in services cut for disadvantaged students in more than half of all states, and the elimination of child-care for over 400,000 children whose parents are among the working poor. What happens outside the classroom powerfully influences achievement inside the classroom.

So what is to be done? 4 proposals:

1. NCLB is not going to get better with time or money, and in the long run, no amount of tinkering can improve it. We are not asking for more money for the existing NCLB legislation; we want different legislation.
2. We believe that new legislation can improve our schools. We believe this because we understand the power of partnership with others who are deeply concerned about children. We believe that creative and constructive curriculum with learners, inquiry, and content as its base can be developed; therefore, we propose a working team of informed and committed educators, researchers, and parents who will critically and unhurriedly explore every feature of the NCTE agenda.
3. To build a foundation on which the very best literacy instruction is crafted, this working team must leave no research behind. A broad and deep research base must be objectively considered.

Last,

4. This working team must avoid rushing to judgment, and it must not be intimidated by powerful, political and moneyed corporations, businesses and legislators. The team’s work is to find the very best for learners, and to do so openly, with integrity, and without self-promotion.

______

And, from a 5th grade teacher who is a member of our teacher group:

… our only talk is about "The Assessment," how to score it, and how to enter the scores on the computer. We don’t have collaborative conversations in which we share stories about our kiddos, talk about our teaching, and share good books.

Because of the slow and gradual take over we didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. There was no time to think and talk with others after we took care of all the mandates. We are emotionally and physically exhausted.

Literacy expertise is untapped or wasted because teachers in the literacy positions are collecting data, giving in-services on test prep to the MAP, etc. etc., etc. We feel that financial and human resources are diverted from desperately needed programs.

Students in my classroom include several with severe emotional disturbances, two with fathers in jail, three whose fathers have died within the past few years . . . a mom who was 15 when her child was born. I have a student who was not at school for over six weeks . . . it’s possible that the child is prostituting herself at this time. -- Now, let's give them a high-stakes test!

______

In closing, teachers have devoted their lives to leaving no child behind. They search inside and outside classrooms for ways to keep their students safe, healthy, happy and always inquiring and learning.

We must support these teachers by making our voices heard – heard by parents, legislators, school boards, all our citizens. Let’s return our children and their classrooms to those who are dedicated to helping them build a democratic and compassionate world. Let’s return our children to prepared and knowledgeable decision makers, their teachers.

The Education Wars

From a classroom teacher...

Last week I was in an inservice where a graphic was displayed that showed the national average test scores in reading over a several year period among several age groups. The lines across the page ran almost perfectly straight - hardly a ripple up or down the line. Of course the presenter was making the point that we were not doing our jobs, we were not making enough progress. Hmmm, I guess I was looking at the “data” in a different way. It seems to me that it didn’t matter whether we were using whole language, half language or the Johnny Neutron, molecular theory of phonemic awareness, children were scoring about the same. It didn’t seem to matter whether we were into skill and drill or fluff and stuff, they scored just about the same. Didn’t seem to matter whether the coffers were full or empty, the raises were large or small, they scored just about the same. Even back when we used to leave children behind and now that we don’t - they scored just about the same. We’ve Iowa Basic Skills Tested ‘em, M.M.A.T.ed ‘em, M.A.P.ed ‘em, and Dibel-ed ‘em - we’ve read the numbers till we’re blue in the face and guess what - they’re still testing just about the same.

I wonder what that might tell us - could it be that the hidden message in all those numbers is that 6-year-olds are 6-year-olds and 8-year-olds are 8-year olds and 14-year-olds are 14-year-olds? Could it mean that expectations should be appropriate and developmental and trying to make first graders into third graders isn’t working all that well? Setting the bar high is admirable - but when that bar trips some kids, that is unacceptable - and when that bar is set so high that it chokes other kids, that is unforgivable. We in the classroom know that we work with each child to work to his/her potential - not just to some artificial benchmark or number of points. I am not interested in closing a gap between or among any group or groups of students. I am only interested in closing the gap between the achievement and potential of each and every one of the students entrusted to my tutelage. And I believe the day every student in America has the vision, the confidence, the tools and the responsibility to strive for that personal goal, there will be no achievement gap in this country.

I am so proud to be a teacher. I am so proud to be a part of a group who goes out every day and despite “4 p’s” of education (the paperwork, the politics, the negative press, and the powers that be) we still give it all we’ve got and we still manage to channel enough energy to focus on the forgotten “c” of education - the Children. It’s time we downplayed the quantification of education and got back to the qualification of education. We need to quit playing the numbers game and play some children’s games again.

Does that mean we stop, give up, accept status quo? Absolutely not? Anything we can learn through classes, action research, collaboration, professional reading, etc. that can help support any single child to have a more literate life is a worthwhile endeavor and we will not accept less than the best we can offer our children. (And please note I said more literate life, not raise a test score.)

Next year is my 34th and last year of teaching - but I will not go gently into the good night. I will fight for the rights of my kids to be kids and to be learners - not just numbers lost in a multi-million dollar techno-frenzied databank. We will read and write and we will solve math problems, but we will also read aloud and we will finger paint and we will bake bread and we will sing at the top of our out of tune voices and we will dance the good dance-

and I have a feeling they will test just about the same.

--Linda Wycoff