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One
thing is now, and always has been, certain in education and that is
change. Those of us who have been in the field for a quarter century
or more have seen many changes, some good and some not so good. When
new changes come our way, we always wonder where they will lead us
and how they will impact the students.
We are undergoing major changes now with standards and accountability
and No Child Left Behind. Standardized testing has been part of the
educational process for many, many years but not to the extent that
it is now. Our students spend several days each year taking tests
to measure how well the school is doing in its efforts to educate
the students.
The state standards leave little room for teachers to include extra
material in their classes. There is too little time for guest speakers,
too little time for enrichment material or discussing the day’s events,
no matter how important those may be. Teachers feel extremely pushed
for time just to cover the standards.
While the students are under more pressure to perform on these standardized
tests, teachers and some instructional aides are coming under new
pressures too to meet the “highly educated” standards set down by
No Child Left Behind. Administrators are under constant pressure to
be sure their schools are meeting their achievement levels.
Schools that do not meet their growth targets set down by the state
become “program improvement” schools and that carries an entirely
new set of requirements. Estimates are that all schools in the country
will be program improvement within less than five years.
This makes me wonder if the rules and regulations set down by No Child
Left Behind are well thought out and if they are truly going to benefit
students. When the legislation was being written to establish NCLB,
educators who work daily in schools were not included in the discussion.
Politicians who may be decades removed from the classroom as students
and who, most likely, never worked in a school, established these
rules.
With the tremendous pressure to have 100 percent of students reach
a proficient level or higher there is little time to spend with those
students who will not be going onto higher education after high school.
I was asked recently why there was not more vocational training in
high school and why we didn’t spend time preparing our students for
the world of work. That is an excellent question and one that requires
thought from all of us.
Even with the emphasis we have placed on going to college, the vast
majority of people do not earn a four-year college degree. That has
to make us all wonder if we are serving our students in the best way
possible by spending so much time on college preparatory classes.
Would many of our students be better served by taking career preparation
classes so they could graduate from high school and be qualified for
a good job? A recent newspaper article noted that the California State
University system would reduce enrollment by 20,000 students next
year. That, combined with the high fee increases, will make it impossible
for many students to enroll in a four-year college. How well are we
preparing these students for their future?
I’m not opposed to change; we would never advance without it, but
I do believe we need to think long and hard about some of the changes
that are being thrust on education today. We need to be sure we are
benefitting students with this change and if not, we need to rethink
it.
Schools are in business for one thing - to give our students the most
meaningful education possible and that meaningful education is not
the same for every student. We need to be sure that we are meeting
the needs of each and every student and I’m not sure politicians are
the best people to be making those decisions.
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