During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama spoke out against the kind of high-stakes, standardized testing now required by the No Child Left Behind Act. "We should not," he proclaimed, "be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests." As President, Obama has repeated this call for "a whole range of assessments" that would test a broader range of students' knowledge including critical thinking.
We can only hope that Obama's educational policies will begin to match his rhetoric. So far this is not the case. Nearly a year into his first term, the President has yet to take any definitive steps away from the kind of standardized testing imposed by No Child Left Behind.
In fact, the administration's "Race to the Top" initiative seems to do exactly the opposite by rewarding states that devise new and innovative ways to raise student scores on high-stakes, end-of-year exams mandated by NCLB.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!
Obama's Race to the Top approach to education means that students and teachers will continue to be subjected to the same old "drill and kill" routine that stifles creativity, discourages real academic inquiry, and marginalizes critical thinking skills that our students must learn if they are to succeed in the 21st century.
The long-term consequences of such a policy could be disastrous for our students and our nation's ability to compete in an increasingly complex and multi-faceted global economy. Our students must develop higher order thinking skills and the ability to analyze and solve the difficult problems that cannot always be measured on a multiple-choice exam.
Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch recognized this when she recently wrote a now famous essay called "Time to Kill No Child Left Behind." Her argument is persuasive:
"Congress should get rid of No Child Left Behind because it is a failed law. It is dumbing down our children by focusing solely on reading and mathematics. By ignoring everything but basic skills, it is not preparing students to compete with their peers in the high-performing nations of Asia and Europe, nor is it preparing them for citizenship in our complex society. It has usurped state and local control of education. Washington has neither the knowledge nor the capacity to micromanage the nation’s schools. "
Let's face facts. America cannot outsource critical thinking. And we must not downsize education by relying merely on multiple-choice exams that measure what students do not know instead of what they do know.
In other words, life is not a multiple-choice test, and the answers to life's most important questions are not A, B, C, or D.
H.G. Wells once wrote: "History becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." As long as No Child Left Behind remains the law of the land, the smart money will not be on education.
We can only hope that Obama's educational policies will begin to match his rhetoric. So far this is not the case. Nearly a year into his first term, the President has yet to take any definitive steps away from the kind of standardized testing imposed by No Child Left Behind.
In fact, the administration's "Race to the Top" initiative seems to do exactly the opposite by rewarding states that devise new and innovative ways to raise student scores on high-stakes, end-of-year exams mandated by NCLB.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!
Obama's Race to the Top approach to education means that students and teachers will continue to be subjected to the same old "drill and kill" routine that stifles creativity, discourages real academic inquiry, and marginalizes critical thinking skills that our students must learn if they are to succeed in the 21st century.
The long-term consequences of such a policy could be disastrous for our students and our nation's ability to compete in an increasingly complex and multi-faceted global economy. Our students must develop higher order thinking skills and the ability to analyze and solve the difficult problems that cannot always be measured on a multiple-choice exam.
Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch recognized this when she recently wrote a now famous essay called "Time to Kill No Child Left Behind." Her argument is persuasive:
"Congress should get rid of No Child Left Behind because it is a failed law. It is dumbing down our children by focusing solely on reading and mathematics. By ignoring everything but basic skills, it is not preparing students to compete with their peers in the high-performing nations of Asia and Europe, nor is it preparing them for citizenship in our complex society. It has usurped state and local control of education. Washington has neither the knowledge nor the capacity to micromanage the nation’s schools. "
Let's face facts. America cannot outsource critical thinking. And we must not downsize education by relying merely on multiple-choice exams that measure what students do not know instead of what they do know.
In other words, life is not a multiple-choice test, and the answers to life's most important questions are not A, B, C, or D.
H.G. Wells once wrote: "History becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." As long as No Child Left Behind remains the law of the land, the smart money will not be on education.
1 comments:
I completely agree with you Mr. Mag. The No Child Left Behind policy was disasterous, and simply put: Just Failed. The Obama administration really does need to address this issue of education and the future of American students. The policies he put out during his campaign seemed very interesting and I hope he comes to fulfill his promises. I also heard that he would provide more opportunities to high school students to gain financial aid for college and other educational programs. This was something I really looked forward to after he became president, and I hope Obama comes through.
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