When I was student teaching last year, I was placed in a school in Pennsylvania. Earlier that year, a new student came to the class I was in (I'll call him K). K had just moved to America from India with his family. K spoke very limited English and after a few months of ESL, he learned to decode English words, but did not comprehend much of what he read. When it came time for state testing, we were told that K did not have to take the Language Arts exam, because he was taking ESL, but he had to still take the math class, because "Math is the same in any language". I was shocked that his math scores would count, because the exam wasn't just simple arithmetic facts. Many of the questions were word problems, and required extended written responses. K struggled with the math exam and ended up crying at this desk from frustration.
NCLB is supposedly research based, but I think that it ignores all of the research that stresses how all students learn in different ways, at different rates, and that standardized exams are not the only way to assess students. I do believe that the government needs to step in and help improve the education system, but NCLB was not effective.
That bit about how "Math is the same in any language" is just awful; how can that make sense to ANYONE who knows anything about learning? This is just another example of the stupidity and ignorance that seems to come hand in hand with NCLB. I feel so sorry for "K"; that situation sounds like a nightmare, and will probably cause test anxiety for years to come. In any case, good post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kari, and that there is so much pressure to succeed on the test, that we are missing what we are doing to the students. I do believe in accountability, I just wish that there could be a way to do this without the stress and burden we place on our students to perform.
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