Senator John Warner loves the failed No Child Left Behind Act
In a letter to be published in the Wednesday, November 22, 2006 edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch, Senator John Warner writes Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings or, as he calls her, "The Honorable Margaret Spellings" to address the No Child Left Behind Act in Virginia:
"I firmly believe that the goals of NCLB are solid. However, we all recognize that there have been challenges in implementing the law."
NO KIDDING!? He also urges her to continue to work with Virginia officials to address issues raised by the Dept. of Education's rejection of the required test by NCLB to gauge the progress of students learning English as a secondary language. He also goes on to tout Virginia's "Standards of Learning" test:
"Virginia is now nearing the completion of its 9th school year of SOL testing. Not only have SOL scores for all students in all ethnic groups risen dramatically since the launch of SOL testing in 1997, but so have the scores of Virginia students on national tests such as the SAT, Stanford 9 and NAEP."
Why? Because the "Standards" of Learning test are nothing more than a complete JOKE, and should be done away with?
I was in Henrico County Public Schools through four years of high school (1999-2003) and took the SOL tests all four years. My experience with them was that they were exceptionally EASY, and really didn't challenge me (or anyone else for that matter). In fact, I believe the test are counter-productive! Think about it... Teachers in Virginia's public school system are judged based on the performance of their students on the SOL tests. The SOL tests cover an exceptionally LARGE amount of material. Therefore, teachers are RUSHED throughout the year to cover ALL the material as quickly as possible, and they cannot stop to take the necessary time it takes to work with students to make sure they fully grasp all the concepts being taught. Furthermore, students who have difficulty understanding a particular subject, or topic, are at a big disadvantage when material is rushed through, and a teacher cannot stop to fully explain to students, and work with different learning styles that people invariably have.
I am not saying I don't think we should have some way to gauge our students, and our teachers' success, but, (and I can say this from personal experience) the SOL's seem to be doing more harm than good.
2 comments:
You seem to want it both ways. How is it that the SOLs are a joke and way too easy, but they also are too much of a burden for teachers to be able to prepare their students? Is it possible that the SOLs, as easy as they are, have finally set a minimum standard that public school teachers are finally rising to meet? Could that be why Senator Warner is able to tout rising SOL and SAT scores amongst Virginia students since the implementation of the Standards of Learning?
Hi Lumen, thanks for reading. I knew I would probably get a response saying I appeared to want it both ways...
Perhaps I could have better clarified by explaining it like this: Yes, the SOLs are easy. BUT! Teachers are forced to cover SO much material, in such a relatively small amount of time (given the amount of material to cover), that some children DO IN FACT, end up getting "left behind." Teachers are not taking time to implement teaching strategies that work well with more learning styles because they simply don't have the time. Furthermore, the SOLs are not a good assesment because they are not challenging enough.
This is NOT meant to be a knock on teachers, or Virginia schools, because clearly we must be doing something right given the SAT scores, yes? I just think we need to take a closer look at the amount of material teachers are being required to cover.
Post a Comment