Dreading the Black Pi Spot

You've heard of it before... No Child left behind (NCLB). Just in its name you think that maybe there was a time when a child *was* left behind. I, myself, wonder if I was left behind during my k-12. Clearly NCLB should spark alarm across the board.

In conjunction to NCLB is what to do to make sure no child gets left behind. The solution thus far is to test, test, test. Somehow... through the work of psychiatrists, early development specialists, and expert education specialists we can create a test that would test every boy and girl... universally and fairly... and then based on that information we could literally grade schools. A passing school is rewarded with more education opportunities... a failing school is punished with the black "Program Improvement" or "PI" mark. A PI mark is not with a ton of benchmarks and guidelines that a failing school needs to do pronto or else.

You see if a school fails for too long then it's the X for that school. Now... for me failing is somewhat subjective. I would venture to say that kids are different. A child in New Mexico is going to face challenges that a child in Maine or Up-state New York is going to face.. Yet.. We grade them all the same using a universal standard.

Teachers (according to a NPR interview with teachers this morning) call this charade a game which (no doubt) is taking away from real education. Tests do show results.. that much is certain, but they are not the end-all/tell-all that solves everything. Kids are as unique as the teachers who teach them and no where in a test is that going to be revealed. Tests also change the dynamic of an education. I lived in a country where tests were the end-all/tell all and what I saw wasn't my host brother learning English as much as he was learning the right answers to a test.

What does this all really mean? Tests are a tool, but lack the ability to teach. Like everything else in this country (immigration) there is no silver bullet that the federal government can implement... So stop trying to use fear tactics and benchmark programs when the real solution would be leaving it up to the states! Hmmm?

~J out