Teacher Leaders Network - NCLB - (Page 6)

Performance assessments in which students apply knowledge and skills deftly and flexibly are more time consuming and more difficult to maintain assessor consistency when assessing, and they are more expensive to score. States with already limited funds, NCLB demands, and expanding and diversifying student populations don’t have the resources to conduct that level of assessment. Some teachers, like Sarah Zablotny, who teaches at the Dodge Academy in Chicago, and Mary Anne Rafferty-Kosmoski, who serves as a district curriculum reading specialist in Tampa, recognize the merits of some of their state tests, especially when they emphasize problem solving. Mary Anne commented that “70% of the questions my students will be asked will be at the highest level of cognitive complexity.” Sarah, while acknowledging that questions on her state’s criterion referenced math test were challenging, expressed concern that “the breadth of topics tested in the 7th and 8th grades is huge, which means that I struggle to go deep with key topics.” In this regard, Rick Wormeli reminded the Merrow team that “the math books we use here in the United States attempt to cover 175% as many topics as German textbooks and 350% as many topics as do Japanese textbooks — two countries with whom we are constantly being compared.” Podcast: More than Techology Anthony Cody and Nancy Flanagan spell out the stakes for incorporating 21st Century skills into today’s classrooms. These teacher leaders did not call for the blanket elimination of all current standardized tests. However, they did argue on behalf of systems that measure student learning through continuous classroom assessments developed and implemented by teachers themselves. They called for assessments that make students’ thinking visible, produce ongoing data on student progress, and provide opportunities for teachers to offer feedback to both students and their parents. To ensure consistency and reliability in these measurements, they said, every teacher could receive in-depth training in a process that is validated and statistically sound — with costs borne in part by the enormous amount of money now spent annually on standardized testing in America. According to the Government Accountability Office, between 2002 and 2008, states will spend between $1.9 and $5.3 billion dollars on NCLB-required tests, depending on their characteristics, and that does not take into account what districts and schools will spend on test preparation materials and practice tests.v These resources could be put to better use. As Testing Expands, the Curriculum Shrinks A recent study by the Center for Education Policy, a nonpartisan, DC-based think tank, surfaced clear evidence of how NCLB has narrowed the curriculum. The researchers found that the vast majority of districts are spending more time on math and reading, at the expense of music, art, and social studies.vi The Teacher Leaders Network members echoed these findings in their comments. Many described themselves, in the words of one, as “totally disheartened” by how many of their schools have eliminated recess, art, and music — all for the sake of raising test scores. Page 6

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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