In 2002, former President George W. Bush implemented the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires the testing of fourth and eighth graders each year in math and English to see if they are fulfilling expectations.
The goal is to get all students reading, writing, and doing math at their grade level. If schools miss this goal, their funding is cut and they are labeled as failing.
In some cases, the schools are even closed.
President Obama finds many problems with this education law and so do I. Actually, I find problems with testing in general.
Several states have had to rework their curricula around a single series of exams, instead of spending time constructing lesson plans that they feel will truly benefit their students in the long run. Instead of remaining in the present, they are teaching to reach a deadline in the future.
Since when did progress have a deadline?
Obama wants to judge schools and student development based on yearly growth and would reward schools whose students improve from one year to the next, regardless of whether they are performing at grade level or not. Schools that do not make any gains would face intervention.
I say any progress is good progress.
If academic advancement is to be given any deadline, it should be a flexible one, for there is always room for improvement.
This will alleviate some of the pressure put on teachers and students who are in constant fear of being deemed as failing. Now teachers can have more time to dedicate toward making creative lesson plans.
Let's face it: memorizing math problems and reciting a limited list of vocabulary simply because it appeared on last year's assessment stifles one's creativity, and it does not allow for personal cultivation – especially in other areas, like art and music.
Reading and math levels will plummet with a deadline because children will be unable to remember and interpret what they have read. They will be only memorizing.
A factual overload will harm students because they will not be able to apply what they have learned in daily life. Students will not retain the information.
The old act not only puts pressure on teachers, but also on the students who feel they need to be living up to expectations that have been set for them.
All children learn at different levels – they shouldn't be clumped into one group.
Exams like those administered in elementary and middle schools have made our culture number crazy. And the testing never stops.
Teenagers in high school dread going to their mailboxes to receive their SAT results because the number on that piece of paper decides whether they are good enough.
Supposedly.
I remember as I sat down with hands nervously clenching my number two pencils at the SAT, I thought I was going to hurl. I wasn't sure if I prepared as much as I could have.
Then, as the instructor handed out the test, I had an epiphany. I reminded myself that it was just a test.
A student's potential and capability shouldn't be determined by a number, and many college admissions officers are starting to think the same.
In fact, determining an applicant's fate is often as simple as whether the admissions personnel ate a good lunch that day or if the NFL team in the applicant's city played an impressive season.
And, no, I'm not kidding.
One Ivy League official confesses on dailybeast.com, 'One night, I got food poisoning at a restaurant in Buffalo. The next day, I rejected all the Buffalo applications. I couldn't stomach reading them."
Another from an elite, small northeast college divulges, 'One year I had a student with a near-perfect SAT score and straight A's. I'd originally put him in the submitted pile, but … I reread his essays and frankly, they were just a little more boring than the other kids. So I cut him. Boring was the only justification that I needed and he was out."
Effects, emotions, and experiences all play a part in whether an applicant is accepted or rejected.
Is this fair? No.
But I think a commitment to the ideals of a university plays an even larger role.
Numbers are going to matter. They are always going to matter. The higher the numbers, the better the reputation of the schools and institutions. But there are some things that need to be taken into heavier consideration, like a student's character, aspirations, talents and life story. Those are things that define them, and no test can measure that.
E-mail: jessica.brant@ubspectrum.com
