National Standards, Curriculum, Assessment, Funding

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NCLB Chatboard

National Standards, Curriculum, Assessment, Funding

by Teacher

Apr 11, 2010

I would like to see schools funded federally, rather than state by state, district by district. We need national learning standards, funding, salaries (with COLAs), nationally normed and standarized testing, teacher education standards, national curriculum options, even standard building plans for new schools. Within the curriculum, building plans etc - there should be a range of choices. Bringing in the best we have as a nation for ALL schools in all areas of the nation would be a much better option than what we now have.

Wouldn't it be helpful to have a national media resource center where teachers and students could access video clips, interactive internet programs, activboard flipcharts etc to support curricular needs. Wouldn't it be a better use of money to have one set of standards for the nation and put the publishers into a frenzy to meet those standards with the best quality materials?

It seems like such a huge waste of time and money for each state and distr...See MoreI would like to see schools funded federally, rather than state by state, district by district. We need national learning standards, funding, salaries (with COLAs), nationally normed and standarized testing, teacher education standards, national curriculum options, even standard building plans for new schools. Within the curriculum, building plans etc - there should be a range of choices. Bringing in the best we have as a nation for ALL schools in all areas of the nation would be a much better option than what we now have.

Wouldn't it be helpful to have a national media resource center where teachers and students could access video clips, interactive internet programs, activboard flipcharts etc to support curricular needs. Wouldn't it be a better use of money to have one set of standards for the nation and put the publishers into a frenzy to meet those standards with the best quality materials?

It seems like such a huge waste of time and money for each state and district to reinvent the wheel, year after year, when it would be so much more efficient to have a central think-tank. So much of my time as a teacher is now spent inventing curriculum, assessments, revising materials/curriculum to align with our standards etc.

I would like to see teachers having a huge impact on the national education decisions that are made. Perhaps "merit pay" could be related to training or achieving National Board Certification. Basing merit pay on student achievement is not logical. There are too many variables. Teachers do need to be held accountable, but they also need this to be a fair system with equal opportunity for all.

High need schools should have lower class size and highly effective teachers. All schools should have a reasonable class size.

There should be clear boundaries as far as what public schools will provide and what the responsibility of parents and community will be in supporting those schools through volunteering, attending training/workshops, and student behavior expectations.

There needs to be a consistent way to address behavior issues - that hold children, families and schools accountable as well as provide support for changing that behavior. When those efforts are tried, those students need to receive education in a different environment than the regular public school. It is not cost effective or energy effective to let severe behavior issues drain the regular classroom.

Imagine having teaching conventions across the nation where we come together to improve our schools as a nation - learn from what is working well and from our failures to bring about change. There is a lot of diversity in our country, geographic, cultural, economic, etc - but that doesn't mean that we can't have common learning, professional, building, curricular, etc standards in education. We would need a range of choices that meet those standards, but that is possible.

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