My experiences w/NCLB as requested by mili

[peglem]

I decided to start a new thread for this since it is essentially a separate topic from Mili's IEP meeting and because this will be long.

No Child Left Behind is federally mandated standards of educational competencies. Each state Dept. of Ed has to create a program to comply w/ NCLB. Failure to fully comply can result in withdrawal of federal funding, even though no additional funding was provided to implement programs.

In practical terms-It "scientififies" (I love inventing terms) the educational process. EVERYTHING must be measured and documented. While I think applying scientific principles certainly has its place in education- this has gone way overboard and seriously hampered my ability to teach- I became so frustrated and miserable w/ it that I just left the profession.

I was a great teacher! I met the "highly qual;ified" teacher standard- but that's not based on how well you teach. Nope- measurable objectives: degrees of education, coursework completed- stuff like that. B4 NCLB, I was very creative in addressing the educational objectives for my grade level- textbooks were supplementy materials, as I found that creating experiences and oportunities for students to "play" with the concepts in an integrated way was more effective than direct instruction because it gives kids a context for the concept and helps build neural connections- My kids always did well on end of year testing. I seldom did ********, paper/pencil evaluations with my students because I could tell from my interactions with them whether they needed more practice or had a good grasp of the concept and were ready to move on. It was so great to guide my students through this process of learning and they were excited to be there and there were very few behavior problems because they were so engaged and busy. I LOVED TEACHING !!!!

Then came NCLB- high stakes test taking w "data driven" instruction. Now- iits not enough for me to know my students are achieving- I've got to constantly generate pre/post instructional reports to demonstrate how much learning has occurred, study the data and generate a report of what I will do based on the data, document the pre/post data to gage the success-repeat the cycle forever. This has to be done for every area of instruction, which in elementary grades is reading, writing, math, science, social studies. I still just have the 45 minutes/day of "prep time" (time w/o students to do paperwork) to do these blasted reports, coreect/score papers, design lessons and gather materials to teach them etc. IT CAN'T BE DONE!!!- Oh, I also have to plan for and document parent involvment, plan and document how I meet the needs of IEP kids who are included in my classroom, and in my school (I think my district was under a separate federal mandate for this) we also had to create and follow (of course highly documented) IEP's for all our ESL (English as a second language) learners. So, because of time constraints, and because textbooks provided the pre/post lessons evals that I needed to document that students are learning- I switched to text book program "teaching" and my classroom became monotonous for both teacher and students. "Scientifically proven" programs are implemented, that the instructor can not deviate from, because you are collecting data specific to that program. It doesn't matter that your years of teaching experience have provided you with the skills and insight to know a better way to teach- your way has not been scientifically studied and proven. (We'll have none of that anecdotal evidence!) Gone was the exhilaration of exploring the universe together and figuring out how it all worked...Now parent contact participation becomes mandated and feels more like an intusion on my precious time, instead of the previous celebration of student achievement. I'm living and working in an environment of constant stress and I HATE TEACHING!!! Because of the teacher accountability portion, I'm constantly being judged on all these reports that I now have to do...and my main focus is no longer teaching and learning, but test scores and documentation. I personally believe that the major thing that separates humans from animals is our capacity for creativity (and is the major way we are created in God's image). When you remove the creative element from education you dehumanize it. I just couldn't go on doing what I not only did not believe in, but what I believed to be wrong.

So, that's my personal experience w/ NCLB. On a less personal basis- In order to make AYP (adequate yearly progress) schools must meet standards of student achievement in many different categories. The data is broken down into gender groups, racial groups (which I see as separate from ethnicity), socio-econ groups, sped, etc. A deficit in any single category renders the school deficient in AYP and subject to remedial consequences. My daughters' charter highschool did not make AYP last year because, although 100% of the students took the test- one student had "nonstandard accomodations", in compliance with the students IEP. This school only has 60 students. Students who have non standards accomodations are counted by fed. gov. as not having taken the test. You need 95% of your students tested, and in their case that student represented more than 5%- so even though the school scored adequate in every other category- following that 1 IEP rendered them a "failing" school. I'll let you figure out how that may affect student's IEP's in the future. Furthermore, it has been mandated what % of sped students are allowed nonstandard accomodations and sped students are required to meet the same standards of achievement as reflected by standardized testing as non sped students.

I could go on more- but, this is probably more than enough.

[milivica]

bump....please go on!

[peglem]

Okay.....
What begins to happen is that teachers stop doing activities and stop teaching anything that isn't on the test- Well, Probably not all. I was teaching in a school that was @ 75% ESL. 30 kids in the 4th grade classroom. only @ 5 of those met or exceeded the standards from their 3rd grade test. Only @ another 5 had come close to meeting the standard. So, I've got 2/3 of my class coming to me that not only need to be caught up to a 3rd grade level, but have also to master 4th grade content as well. So, in that situation- enrichment is not on the test, and the almighty test is the only important thing because the school will be taken over by the state if we don't make AYP....and I've got to document, document, document.

Another thing is that they are adding (not sure if this is just my state or nationwide) days to each school year, w/o increasing teacher salary to compensate for it. So, not only are you hating your job now, you feel like you're getting screwed over too.

Every year the % of students who must meet or exceed the standard increases, so that you never feel like you can reach the goal. Incidently- even under NCLB my kids still did well on testing- just none of us was happy getting there.

We were required to attend endless meetings and workshops, parent events, etc. outside of contract times. How many teachers do you think, under these conditions, took the time to go to the extra meetings and time it takes to refer kids with spec. needs for help? That is a lot of extra work (and documentation). I did, because I knew how bad they needed the help, but it was so hard to do!

Every teacher I knew who was close to retirement was just biding their time to get out of there. Newer teachers were not staying very long- and me, I couldn't take another 11 years to earn my retirement. It is such a relief to be out of it. I'm still friends with teachers from that school (of course, I was there for 14 years) and everytime I talk to them, I'm so happy to not have to deal with it anymore. (except as a parent).

The sped issues are just nonsensical to me- under IDEA schools are supposed to comply with an IEP that addresses the needs of the student. How can they then mandate how many students can recieve non standard accomodations? This makes no sense- their needs are what they are. Most likely schools will begin to limit accommodations, not based on need, but # of students they are allowed to service that way. In our state, kids who don't pass the highschool standards test do not graduate, period- no diploma. This seems so wrong for kids who have mastered the standards, but need special help to take the test. For, instance- Steven Hawkings would definitely need non standard accomodations to pass this test- if he were forced to take it w/o the accomodations, he would fail- no diploma.

I really am going to stop now. I'll answer questions if I can- but no more pages of ranting.

[Isabelle]

Wow! Peglem! Tell me did they change or implemented that new order in 2001????? That was the time that in the group home when good caregivers were slowly let go and activities were reduced to zero.
Sorry to poke in. In my very old good times I was too a renegade teacher and I was expelled a school from my points of view. I guess I was pro student or underdog and against institutionalized thinking.

[milivica]

Peglem I'm so sorry I didn't read this yet...I absolutely will. That was really good of you to write all that, I'm VERY interested, I'm better any parent with a child in school sure would be! I have to crash, I was up almost all last night or I'd read it now...tomorrow finally ought to be the day.

Just to let ya know!
Mili

[peglem]

Lips pursed, arms folded across chest and foot tap....tap...tap...tapping

[mryan]

Peglem - I too am a Public school teacher and all that you say is true!!!!! This sucks! My school actually dumped about 30 students from special ed in order to keep their number of IEP students down. We are punished by the state for having any subgroups whether it is a minority, economical, or IEP subgroup. All teachers do anymore is CYA (cover your ***). I think is puts undue pressure on my own kid who is one of those special needs kids and lets face it, she is not only left behind but left in the dust and it is not the fault of her teachers. So now her teachers are pressured and stressed to get her to perform and she just can't. All students are expected to reach proficiency by 2014, at what cost to the self esteem! - Martha

[peglem]

Yeah, I was becoming so ashamed of all the CMA (cover my a$$) that I was doing. No choice really. I think the whole of NCLB was for political purposes and, in the case of sped kids, stop spending so much money for kids who produce less. Its like they applied business efficiency principles to education- where the product is test scores and every "unit" produced by the educational factory will be assembled precisely and with no deviation. Inhuman!

[AKF]

In LA we now have a "comprehensive curriculum" designed to "Teach The Test". It tells us what to teach, what activities to use, and how long we are to spend in each unit. But, at the same time, no child is to be left behind? All children will learn the same skills on the same timetable??

Also, many of the ones being overlooked are the gifted students. We know they will pass the test, so we don't worry about them. We have to focus on the ones at risk for failure. We worry so much about them, that we can't challenge the higher performing students.

And the idea that all students will be passing the tests by 2014!! How's that for ridiculous?? The other thing is that if our special ed kids could all pass the same standards as everybody else, why would they be in special ed??

It's so frustrating from a teacher standpoint, and from a parent standpoint. They've managed to take all the fun out of teaching.

I went to a workshop this week that spent the whole time saying, build a relationship with your students, get to know them, so you can make a difference. When in the **** do I have time to build a relationship when every moment is spent on the almighty TEST?

OK, I'm finished ranting now. I'm just sleep deprive from being at that retreat with a hard as a brick mattress!! Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow!

[peglem]

Thanks, Martha and AKF! Last Christmas break- the thought of returning to my job in January filled me with such dread and unhappiness. That's when I decided that I would finish my contract year and get out...it only promised to get worse. My husband (who was understandably worried about the impact of my lost wages on the household) suggested I try another district. I tried to tell him that it was the same all over the country. Well, you two have validated my feelings. We are poorer, but making do. The majority of my life has been spent in poverty and its something Ive become rather good at! I say better happy and poor than employed and miserable. Before too long, they'll be screaming about a teacher shortage!