A large percent of Iowa's public schools fail to progress in the No Child Left Behind law
Saturday, September 5, 2009
By Michelle Zimmerman
Iowa is commonly considered a state whose education is top-notch, but reviewing the number of Iowa schools that failed to meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind law in 2008-2009, might make one think differently.
With testing scores at an all time low, more schools than ever have landed themselves on a list of improvement. Iowa's goal was to develop a system that would track the skills of students as well as the work of faculty. Although it was expected that if teachers focused more on students struggling in math or reading the rate of absences and drop outs would decrease. But instead numbers have significantly fallen once again.
According to Staci Hupp of The Des Moines Register, if the number of schools on the list continues to increase the next course of action is to lay off current teachers and allow a new batch of teachers to try the system. Although this would be a last resort it seemingly is becoming something of reality for the schools.
While there is a large seriousness on how well students perform on a reading and math evaluation it is important to consider that students' improvements are not considered from year to year and the speculations are based solely on one test created by the state given once a year. So it is understandable that there would be slight frustration from both the state and the teachers of Iowa.
3 comments:
This is a frustrating topic. I remember taking the No Child Left Behind test when I was in high school. I am not sure that anyone took it seriously. It didn't really matter how we did on them individually. It was more for the school. So, none of us really cared. It wasn't like the ITBS test where it would seperate everything out for you.(unless it has changed) I think that the way schools are going shouldn't be based on what a test score says. How many people can honestly say they are good test takers anyway? Especially when their score doesn't affect them personally.
Keri Waterhouse
My mother is a teacher with DMPS and suffers constantly with the "No Child Left Behind Act". Once upon a time Obama promised to obliterate the act. This is yet to be seen. Officials should look less at the competency of their teachers and more at the value they place on the schools themselves. The funds they provide them with are minimal when compared to other government projects. Maybe if we spent less money on our military we could actually educate our nation to the point where its smart enough to avoid war all together.
I took so many tests in High School trying to see how "smart" I was that I don't even remember taking a test. I agree that test takers vary and that some people do well just learning but panic during test time. Or some do well on regular class tests but bigger tests, like the ACT for instance, they panic and may even have to take the test twice. Judging a student by their test, however convenient it may be for the officials, does not accurately measure the knowledge of many students. If they don't reconsider the amount of tests students take, they may as well call the law "Every Child Left Behind."
Laura Reid
Post a Comment