Great News Release from Penn. Teacher's Association

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Other teacher union affiliates (both NEA and AFT) should be encouraged 
to speak out with similar strength and clarity.


PSEA President Testifies Before Senate Subcommittee on No Child Left Behind
Thursday March 4, 12:22 pm ET

Weaver Calls Federal Law `Fundamentally Flawed and Fundamentally Wrong'

WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- James R. Weaver, President of the 
Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), testifying today before 
a Senate subcommittee, described the so-called No Child Left Behind 
education law as "fundamentally flawed and fundamentally wrong" for 
America's public schools

In testimony today before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee 
for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, Weaver said, "There 
are many things wrong with this law -- some of which can be corrected -- 
but because it is focused on a one-size-fits-all approach for learning 
and for demonstrating proficiency, it is fundamentally flawed and it is 
fundamentally wrong in what it is doing to the programs in our schools.

"Our members believe they are being set up for failure by NCLB," Weaver 
said. "We don't object to or fear accountability, but basing success on 
the result of a single test is problematic if not downright impossible."

Weaver testified that Pennsylvania teachers describe the state System of 
School Assessment (PSSA) test as "dominating" classrooms. "Each year as 
the stakes get higher, [teachers] spend more time teaching how to take 
tests than teaching [the] curriculum," Weaver said. The PSSA is the 
state-prescribed test in Pennsylvania for demonstrating Adequate Yearly 
Progress under the federal law.

"We must meet the requirements, but we don't have the tools or the 
funding to offer the interventions that are proven to help children 
succeed," Weaver said.

"I have had teachers tell me the pressure on schools to meet Adequate 
Yearly Progress in math and reading is so strong that they are forced to 
abandon teaching anything other than what is to be tested," Weaver said.

Weaver and several Pennsylvania school superintendents were invited by 
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the subcommittee, to testify 
following action this week in Norristown. Weaver joined 138 
superintendents from eastern and central Pennsylvania in Norristown on 
March 1 to sign a petition calling for changes to the federal law, which 
demands 100 percent of students achieve proficiency standards in math 
and reading by 2014, and expects all students to demonstrate progress 
toward that goal each year.

Weaver told the subcommittee that vocational-technical school educators 
are now not able to teach all the important skills in many of their 
programs because they are required to spend more class time ensuring 
that their students pass the math and reading tests. "They believe this 
law is causing them to send their graduates into the work force with 
fewer skills now than before this law was enacted," Weaver said.

Special education teachers also say the federal NCLB law is causing 
teachers to sacrifice important life skills curricula in teaching 
special-needs students "to teach to a test that does not measure the 
identified goals" on the students' Individualized Education Plans, 
Weaver said.

Weaver is a social studies teacher on leave from the State College Area 
School District. PSEA represents 170,000 future, active and retired 
teachers and school employees, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.


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Source: Pennsylvania State Education Association