Teacher Leaders Network - NCLB - (Page 3)

The Teacher Leaders Network Encounters NCLB from the Classroom In late May 2007, PBS education correspondent John Merrow and several of his colleagues from Learning Matters, Inc. “sat down” with 23 members of Teacher Leaders Network, a virtual community of some of the nation’s best educators, including many National Board Certified Teachers. The virtual conversation, which took place during the height of the high-stakes NCLB testing season, was intended not only to surface how the law has impacted these teachers but also to gather their expert opinions on the wider impact of NCLB on their students and schools. Merrow and his colleagues posed a half-dozen targeted questions aimed at informing a televised multi-part series for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Those questions sparked a wideranging 3-day dialogue that yielded 150 single-spaced pages of insightful, first-hand testimony about both the positives and negatives of the ground-breaking federal legislation. What follows are highlights from their conversation, which produced a variety of points of view. NCLB Demands Results and So Do We First, the Teacher Leaders Network members made it clear that accomplished professionals do not shun accountability — in fact they embrace it. They can describe how their teaching improves student learning, both on standardized tests and on other more authentic measures (such as regular formative assessments) that they consistently use in their classrooms. When their students do not achieve expected academic gains they can explain how they analyze these results and the next steps they take to move students forward. They expect much of their students and their colleagues, and even more of themselves. Most of these expert teachers believe that NCLB and its accountability measures have set clearer expectations for what students need to learn and what teachers need to teach. As Michelle Capen, a National Board Certified Teacher from North Carolina, wrote, “Our EOGs (end of grade tests) have aligned our instruction statewide — and students can transfer from school to school or county to county with much less instructional discrepancy.” Dr. Betsy Rogers, also an NBCT and the 2003 National Teacher of the Year (TOY), is now teacher-coach at one of Alabama’s highest needs schools. She noted: Whether we want to admit it or not we have left children behind — and it was not accidental. An administrator in my district once described my school as our district’s ‘wash.’ He told me that ‘we did not think those kids could do much and so we put the teachers there who struggled.’ I have finally realized, much to my own distress, that bigotry is alive and well, and in some instances, populations of children have been intentionally underserved. This has as much to do with class as it does ethnicity. (Fortunately), my system can no longer dismiss the needs of my school. I hate it took NCLB sanctions to get their attention. Podcast: True Accountability Kathie Marshall and Carolann Wade offer models of accountability that foster teacher professionalism and student learning. On the other hand, Rick Wormeli, a teacher-author and former Disney Teacher of the Year from Virginia, disagrees that NCLB was a major force in focusing more attention on underserved students. Wormeli instead argues: Page 3

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Teacher Leaders Network - NCLB

Executive Summary The Future of American Education in the Making It is Time to Align NCLB Intentions and Consequences The Teacher Leaders Network Encounters NCLB from the Classroom NCLB Demands Results and So Do We Attention Alone Does Not Equal Effective Accountability Standardized Tests Fall Short of 21st Century Demands For What Future Is NCLB Preparing Students? As Testing Expands, the Curriculum Shrinks The Drive for Data Presents Potential for Significant Change Data Systems Don’t Keep Pace with Real-Time Instructional Needs AYP Highlights the Good, Bad, and Ugly of NCLB Does “Highly Qualified” Set the Teaching Bar Too Low? Teaching Quality Must Be More Than a Number Every Student Deserves a Highly Effective, Well-Trained Teacher Conclusions References

Teacher Leaders Network - NCLB

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