NCLB Chatboard – Teachers.Net

Jo On 4/10/11, ja wrote: > I have been looking at what the best countries do in the > world in the areas of math, reading and science literacy. > Finland is at the top of any list when it comes to literacy > in all areas. The one thing that struck me more than > anything else was the lack of annual testing and measures > that is so c...See MoreOn 4/10/11, ja wrote: > I have been looking at what the best countries do in the > world in the areas of math, reading and science literacy. > Finland is at the top of any list when it comes to literacy > in all areas. The one thing that struck me more than > anything else was the lack of annual testing and measures > that is so characteristic of our country. Years ago United > States was at the top of the heap when literacy rates were > spoken of. Then with the introduction of annual testing > and other measures of success we started to drop. Now > depending on what list you look at we are either 11th or > 15th depending on the day of the week. NCLB practices are > in direct opposition to the practices of the best school > systems in the world. I spend two weeks at the beginning > of the year with benchmark tests and two weeks at the end > of the year with benchmark tests again. We can't teach > because we are constantly measuring progress. We teach to > a narrowly defined measure of what intelligence is. We > don't realize that not everyone learns at the same rate nor > that is everyone really destined to go to college. We try > to send unsuitable candidates to colleges. These students > take out huge student loans and then are unable to pay the > loans back when they drop out after not being able to keep > up with the demands of a college education. NCLB is a > horrible failure and the legacy will be a horribe mess.

I watched what our local schools did with the introduction of state test which were prior to NCLB. At first the schools did nothing. The test was blamed for poor results. The test was tweaked and the results were still poor. Then came NCLB. The school still did exactly the same thing for a few years and blamed the test. THEN when it looked like accountablity was coming down the pipeline, instead of improving instruction and how the students were taught information they worked on ways to game the tests, not teach the material for better understanding.

Part of the failure for NCLB is that the student's instruction didn't become better, but worse because instead of coming up with ways to teach better, they gamed the tests.

Apr 10, 2011

I find it ironic that people who founded NCLB probably didn't even attend kinderagarten, didn't have all the standardized tests, limited accountability yet are making a huge salary, got educated, learned to read and write just fine and there was wonderful amount of funding for schools. HMMMMM funny isn't how now we think we have to have all these r...See More

ironic

by tp

Apr 14, 2011

Kinder Gal Amen!

On 4/14/11, tp wrote: > I find it ironic that people who founded NCLB probably > didn't even attend kinderagarten, didn't have all the > standardized tests, limited accountability yet are making a > huge salary, got educated, learned to read and write just > fine and there was wonderful amount of funding for > schoo...See More

Jun 9, 2011

Cheating on tests to gain

by sped teacher

Apr 15, 2011

I now believe that all this testing leads to only one things. High stakes cheating. My state had their annual tests today. I have two students who have extended time for testing. They had their writing test today but have to have the test complete by the end of the day. The students cannot leave the campus for the duration of the testing. One stude...See More

jw On 4/15/11, sped teacher wrote: > I now believe that all this testing leads to only one > things. High stakes cheating. My state had their annual > tests today. I have two students who have extended time > for testing. They had their writing test today but have to > have the test complete by the end of the day. The students > cann...See More

Jun 7, 2011

MAP Testing

by Jo

May 11, 2011

Our students take the MAP test 3 times/year. We just finished #3 this week and some teachers are having kids take it over because they don't feel their kids "put forth their best effort." Is anyone else seeing this? Should the ethics of it be questioned?

(2)

Julie On 5/11/11, Jo wrote: > Our students take the MAP test 3 times/year. We just > finished #3 this week and some teachers are having kids > take it over because they don't feel their kids "put forth > their best effort." Is anyone else seeing this? Should the > ethics of it be questioned?

This alarms me! Yes, the ethics of it s...See More

May 30, 2011

connieg Here's my take: MAP testing allows only one score to go through. It is usually the first one taken. The computer does the analysis if it is taken another time and the more reliable score is given. Susie may score higher but that is usually not used in the data. It is seen in light gray text. I think that the school should allows for retakes only if...See More

Jun 4, 2011

Elimination of C, D, and F grades. Possibility or fantasy?

by b. r.

Jun 11, 2011

Elimination of C, D, and F grades. Possibility or fantasy? Old 06-11-2011, 10:01 AM

Clip to ScrapBook #1 I am in a group taking a college course entitled Making Learning Meaningful, Every Student Can Succeed. It is based on the beliefs and books of Dr. William Glasser. He believes in Choice Theory and the concept of the only person you can...See More

(9)

view previous comments

Important to consider the responsible, on-task students too On 3/12/13, teach4 wrote: > I agree with all above!!

Yeah, ok, so I give the kid a second, third, or thirteenth chance to redo the work he or she should have buckled down, paid attention, and done his best on the FIRST time.

Meanwhile, all the students who did what they were supposed to do, and got good grades the FIRST time, h...See More

Mar 12, 2013

I would like to say.. You can give students bad grades and not be hated. I taught English in Ecuador and they grade with numbers from 0-20. My average (other than my pre-school students) was about 14/20--or 70%. (I called exactly 50/100 "10" but 50.5/100 "over ten..so 11", so my real average was lower than that.) In my senior class I had an average of less than 12/20-- ...See MoreYou can give students bad grades and not be hated. I taught English in Ecuador and they grade with numbers from 0-20. My average (other than my pre-school students) was about 14/20--or 70%. (I called exactly 50/100 "10" but 50.5/100 "over ten..so 11", so my real average was lower than that.) In my senior class I had an average of less than 12/20-- using US grading terms I had 1 high C, one mid/low C, and more Fs than Ds. But guess what? They were a very bad class--in both grades and behavior--and in fact we had monthly student/teacher/parent meetings because they were so bad.

One student wrote a negative comment about the class on an exam and a class clown wrote "I don't like the class. I don't understand anything. I just want a 20." on my end of the year evaluations. Beyond that, I was a rock star and literally nicknamed "rock star". Was I perfect? NO! NO! NO! My title did in fact come about because I was too nice and my classroom management skills were/still are not 100% there.

But I gave bad grades and I was still well loved.

Bonus: One good student said my class was the English class she'd understood the best and so she'd been able to make her first 20/20 ever in English.

Even kids with 15/16 grades knew they'd worked to get the grade and my 18-20 kids were really really excited to get a good grade in a hard class.

Kids that failed my class learned something. I had one who just didn't do anything at all and got 8/20, but others left my class having learned something.

Requiring teachers to push all students to a B is insane.

One of my worst college memories is a class where I spent half of fall break doing the presentation that was the bulk of the grade and then yes getting 100 BUT seeing students who admitted they threw their presentation together in the car on the way to class--while driving :)-- get 100, too. Most education teachers slap 100% on all work so I stopped giving a sh*t about the assignments and just did them as fast as possible.

On 7/27/11, VetTeach wrote: > This might work if you have one key element- TIME. You have to > permit the student time to re-do until it is at the level you > seek. No one has that time - we are under the gun of a calendar > and a course of study. So, the theory is good but it will not > work until educrats want it to happen.

Oct 3, 2013

Survey

by Chelsea Wilson

Jun 15, 2011

Hello, If anyone has the time to take a survey for my graduate project, I would greatly appreciate it! Part 1 survey -

[link removed]

Part 2 survey - [link removed]

VetTeach Maybe since we don't know you - you could take a little time and introduce yourself and tell us a little about the survey before we just go take it. A little professional courtesy will go a long way. I wish you well.

On 6/15/11, Chelsea Wilson wrote: > Hello, > If anyone has the time to take a survey for my graduate > project, I ...See More

Jul 27, 2011

Testing

by nothing to see

Feb 26, 2012

Testing photo upload.

Thoughts on alternative licences

by Chris

Jul 15, 2012

Recently I have noticed an upswing of alternative licensed teachers in classrooms. To me this goes against the times as instead of a teacher shortage we are experiencing a teaching job shortage for those that decided on the traditional route.. What are your thoughts and opinions of alternative routes?

(5)

view previous comments

John Today’s work force changes career paths more than ever. A teacher has every right to switch careers to become a nurse, so a business person has every right to become a teacher. I think alternative certification is great, as long as the hiring is ethical and a good teacher isn’t passed up for a football coach who needs a teaching job.

O...See More

May 13, 2013

I'm sorry, but.. The naive 21 year old who chants YOU CAN DO IT constantly, tries "teach kids to negotiate the rules", etc. might in fact be a typical TFA teacher, but it is definitely a typical education graduate..that is the bullcrap we learn in ALL education classes! On 5/13/13, John wrote: > Today’s work force changes career paths more than ever. A > te...See More

Oct 3, 2013

NCLB

by Brian

Oct 4, 2012

good riddance!

7 Ways to Encourage Reluctant Readers

by Teachers.Net Gazette

Feb 7, 2013

By employing the strategies described below, reading will become something that students do willingly, even eagerly, and the adults in their lives will not have to resort to trickery, bribery, manipulation, or any other tactic that will, at best, lead to temporary compliance. After all, we’re striving to make reading a joyous lifelong habit.