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frustrating for
school teachers
School officials and teachers expressed extreme frustration last week when the N.C. Department of Public Instruction changed how it calculates math scores, resulting in nearly three-fifths of the state’s schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
The Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind program has set a 100 percent proficiency goal for all students by 2014, a goal that few think is attainable.
As a result, teacher morale is sinking and many teachers are retiring or leaving the profession as soon as they can.
Anyone who spends any amount of time in the schools knows that teachers and officials are heavily influenced and focused on “teaching the test.” Here, the effort couldn’t be any greater. Teachers aren’t miracle workers, however.
Many states are considering telling the federal government to stick No Child Left Behind in their ear.
In fact, many believe that the money states receive from the federal government for education is offset by administration costs for NCLB, and for the high cost of either replacing or retaining teachers.
It’s just a matter of time before NCLB causes a revolt in the education community. The adjustment of math scores puts the revolt one step closer, and in the long run, that may not be such a bad thing.