Newsday’s Opinion Staff writes:
Though public school systems are taking a hit as states confront fiscal crisis, education as a policy issue may well be pushed aside as the Obama administration prioritizes the ailing economy.
But teachers’ advocates may be pleased that Linda Darling-Hammond was just tapped for Obama’s education policy working group. (No word yet on Education Secretary.)
The Stanford professor and former public school teacher has been a sharp critic of No Child Left Behind, arguing that it “wastes scarce resources on a complicated test score game that appears to be narrowing the curriculum, uprooting successful programs and pushing low-achieving students out of many schools.”
Darling-Hammond has also aligned with the National Education Association in questioning the long-term benefits of Teach for America, a prestigious (some say overhyped) alternative teacher-certification program that fast-tracks young college grads into stints at struggling schools.
1 response so far ↓
Erin B. // December 1, 2008 at 7:53 pm |
I agree with the views of Darling-Hammond. Too much rests on the scores of one test, and that alone cannot determine a school’s or a teacher’s ability. It is frustrating for teachers to “teach to the test” and leave out other important information that is enriching and engaging for students, but not relevant to standardized testing.
It also leaves out the arts, which are as important to schools as any other subject. Outstanding school art programs too often go unnoticed, and do not get any special funding for being extraordinary. In fact, those programs are the first to be cut to give funding to “core subjects;” the subjects that appear on standardized tests. Is it fair to trivialize all the hard work teachers do, and all of the amazing products created by students of art classrooms, into one standardized test? I don’t think so.