In 2001, an education reform was passed in the United States, called “No Child Left Behind.” In a time where levels in math and science reached staggering lows, the government decided to make a change to improve these circumstances. The purpose of the No Child Left Behind initiative is to increase the accountability for student performance, focus on what works based on scientific research, empower parents and expand parental involvement, and increase local control and flexibility.
What seemed like a good idea has proven to be detrimental to the success of students. We’re simply just not learning what we need to in our core classes (math, science, language arts, and history) and are instead memorizing information for standardized tests. And it’s important to remember that teachers and principals are being blamed for something they have no control over. They are just doing what the government is requiring them to do. No Child Left Behind was a good idea, but it has done more harm than good, and it’s time for a change.
In elementary school, I remember that the teachers had a specific lesson plan that we’d go over for a week until we mastered it and moved on to the next thing. When it would hit February/March, at least once the teachers would say, “Well, I wanted to do this, but you don’t need it for the test.” The teachers were being confined to teaching aspects that students in prior years were unsuccessful in, and didn’t get the opportunity to teach what they thought should be taught. They are teaching us what the government thinks we're failing at, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing when we get prevented from knowing more just because "it's not on the test." Especially with the new Race to the Top initiative, which is using the standardized test results to evaluate the teachers and hold them accountable for the students' success or failures.
But race and class also have a big factor in the education of our children. Some kids get to go home and just read a book or prepare for class; others aren’t as lucky and have other situations they need to handle when they get home. Teachers are losing morale by focusing only on preparing students for the tests, while students are being discouraged from participating in a cookie-cutter classroom that expects that all of the students are the same.
Every student thinks differently, learns differently, has the capacity to grasp concepts at different speeds. Some will succeed and some just won’t. And it doesn’t mean that they’re stupid. But because the focus of the school is these tests, if you fail the test, you won’t move on to the next school year. Students feel like they’re stupid even though that’s not the objective of taking the standardized test in the first place. It’s simply not right for a whole school year to revolve around preparing students for a test over the stuff you need to learn for that test.
The standardized test was meant for to improve students' learning and increase their knowledge. Instead, it's become a game of memorization, and nothing has changed at all. Students going to middle school aren’t ready, middle schoolers going to high school aren’t ready, and high-school graduates going to college aren’t ready. Our math skills are not up to par: 19 percent of high school graduates don’t read at the level they’re supposed to, and a third of students entering college have to take remedial classes because what they were taught in high school just isn’t up to par.
Another aspect that isn’t helping us improve our intelligence and is making us lazier is technology. Why work out a math problem when you can just type it in on Mathway and it’ll give you answer in seconds? Why read "The Glass Menagerie" or "The Jungle" when you can Sparknotes it? Honestly, how many can say they read any of those books or even remember the main character's name after Sparknotes-ing it? Technology is making it so much easier for us to get information, memorize it, use it the next day for the test, and never acknowledge it ever again. Whatever the teachers teach us at school we can learn online, and they both offer the same outcome: None of this information is going to stick. Sure, they’re good sites for a refresher or a guide to show us what we need to do, but they’re not meant to be our main source of information. We need to read the book or attempt the problem, or just simply think.
Another big influence in education is the budget. The states are in charge of the funding for education and can get government money if they need it, but that’s a whole other process. Funding levels in the states are anything but equal. In 2013, New York on average spent $19,706 on public education per student, and Idaho spent $6,984. Idaho spends a third of the amount New York did, which confirms that students across the nation are not getting the same level of education they need to be able to succeed in life and careers.
The priorities of some states are sadly not the education of today’s children or the children of tomorrow, and that is truly mortifying. Some private schools aren’t required to take standardized tests since they aren’t funded by local, state, or national government, and they’re way better off than public schools are, which is why they act smug all the time. But with reason. The solution isn’t to have schools cut their funding from their local government just so their students have a better change of getting a good education. What public-school students need is equal opportunity to get as good an education as rich kids or as kids in other states.
What needs to be done now is to get rid of standardized testing and get back to basics. Hire passionate teachers who can teach what we need to know and appeal to all students by allowing them to have creativity and think critically. Show them that reading can be life-changing and that doing logarithms is beneficial without breathing down their necks that if they don’t learn they won’t succeed. These tests are unreliable. They don’t show merit or the life of a student or the teacher’s capability to teach.
Passing doesn’t mean they learned, and failing doesn’t mean that they’re stupid. We need to go back to when we didn’t fear teachers or tests or going to school, and when we weren't cramming a semester’s full of notes the night before a test and forgetting everything we memorized the day after. We need teachers who can accomplish the thing the United States has not succeeded to do in years -- learn.
