Testify!

            If you want to affect change, you should write a letter to your congressman. Most kids have had to do this at some point in their lives, whether it be a school project or something they choose to do in their spare time. A community service project can usually get the attention of local politicians but how much does it really change? A teacher’s association in California hopes that if change a lot. They’re trying to start a letter-writing campaign in hopes that congressmen will take their experience with NCLB into account when fixing the law.

 Jan Grist, president of the Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association, is asking teachers, administrators and board members in the Hollister School District to write testimonials showing how the law has negatively affected  San Benito  County’s schools.

“The last thing we want to do is see NCLB go away,” Grist said. “But what we do want to see is some changes in the way NCLB is handled.”

Grist and others say the education reform law is flawed by its focus on standardized testing and unrealistic test goals, its strict sanctions, and its lack of financial support.            

These are the people who truly see what NCLB does to schools and students. The teachers are the ones who implement it and can see first hand where things need to be fixed. Accountability for one’s own actions is something that kids usually learn at a very young age.  However, to apply this principle on a national scale, shouldn’t lawmakers first comprehend how the law effects the system its trying to help? Grist says yes and I do too. 

“I asked that we all put down written testimonials so that the legislature really understands what we’re going through. We were told that they really don’t get it yet, and we did this so they can get a better picture of (No Child Left Behind),” Grist said.

Michal Query, who is in her 10th year teaching kindergarten at Ladd Lane Elementary, said she feels pressure because of the testing requirements. No Child Left Behind has mandated that all students should be testing at grade level in both mathematics and English by 2014.“I’m constantly thinking about my kindergartners as second-graders. What are they going to be able to do? What are they not going to be able to do? Our kindergartners are doing what an end-of-the-year first-grader used to be responsible for,” Query said.

            What Query is experiencing seems utterly wrong to me. The focus should be on teaching, learning, and interacting with the students. NOT testing. I understand testing is necessary and I believe that it is an essential part of the education system. But it cannot  be everything. Unfortunately that’s what NCLB is based on. Some do believe that NCLB is overall a good law with a few imperfections.  

Alice Flores, the president of the district’s school board, said she does not think the law is perfect, but hopes people will write to the federal representatives talking about the positive as well as the negative aspects of No Child Left Behind.

Yet others still see major flaws that must be addressed before any progress can be made. 

Accelerating student achievement is a goal that is echoed by the district’s superintendent as well. But Superintendent Ron Crates tempered this by saying that he does not like that the education reform act only focuses on achieving an end goal, not on improvement.

While the ideas of what strengths and weaknesses NCLB has are debated, one seemingly universal outcry is that the law is underfunded. Without more money how are the “overhauls” suppose to take place? How do schools extend programs if they can’t survive in their current situation? 

“My feeling on No Child Left Behind is that it’s underfunded. They have given us a lot of mandated things we need to do at the school district without the money to back it up,” Barrios said. “Our teachers have been overburdened with things they need to do to meet the criteria.”

This is where the federal government is accountable and even it falls short. I hope that is a central message which gets conveyed in the letters and comprehended by congressmen.

Full Article 

“Teachers Write No Child Left Behind Testimonials”

Alice Joy

Hollister Free Lance

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