The following letter was distributed to all teachers by the Executive
Board of the Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association in
January.
Time to Repeal the No Child Left Behind Act!
It is time to repeal President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB), an over-simplistic and politically motivated set of laws to
supposedly address the inequalities in education. As a result of NCLB
schools are driven by unrealistic standards, endless tests and
selective data to direct our teaching, while proven practices and
sound education theory and data are ignored. Higher order thinking
skills are neglected.
All students suffer in one way or another from NCLB, but people of
color are routinely subjected to inferior education, phonics-limited
instruction, rote memorization, drill-and-skill instruction and denied
access to broader skills, such as art, music, science and social
studies. Non-English speakers are forced to perform at the same
levels as native-English speakers without the academic language skills
needed to be successful.
NCLB forces many schools, including Hollister, to choose between
teaching to the tests or teaching mastery of skills and a wide-range
of subjects. High-stakes assessments are used as a criteria for a
system of punishments of schools and children, while the rest of the
school year is spent preparing for tests, including wasting money on
expensive consultants and test preparation materials. Assessments
should be important tools to give teachers information throughout the
year to help them meet the children’s academic needs.
Renowned education scholar, author and activist, Susan Ohanian, is
co-spearheading an effort to petition Congress to dismantle the NCLB,
and is asking parents and teachers to join her effort and sign the
petition on www.educatorroundtable.org.
Sincerely,
Joe Navarro
________________________________________________
Visit my website. Updated regularly.
http://www.geocities.com/poetajoe/Joe_Navarro.html
---------------------------------
Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.