A teacher friend of mine started work in a new district recently, working with kids who don’t read well, often because English is their second language. This person is a terrific teacher. I have witnessed firsthand her magic touch with children, and she’s a wonder to behold. She loves the kids; the kids love her. She gets results.
But the No Child Left Behind testing insanity is putting pressure on her not to do what’s right for her students. Let’s go to her classroom and look at what happened last week:
She manages to get a group of upper elementary students excited about a book. They are reading it together every day. She stops now and then and asks questions, making sure they are understanding what they read. The kids are involved and love the book. Finally, they are enjoying reading.
In walks the principal. “What are you DOING?” he asks, as he hears her ask a question of the kids. “They are supposed to be working on SPEED.” He interrupts and has some students read to him, timing them. “You are reading only 126 words per minute. That’s only four words per minute faster than last time. You have to read FASTER!”
He tells my friend that she should be working on speed, not comprehension. “We don’t care about comprehension!” he said. “We’ve got to get their fluency scores up. Otherwise people will lose their jobs!”
Unbelievable. Just one of the many evils NCLB has brought into our educational system is this kind of myopic view, a view that makes test scores, rather than learning, the ultimate goal of education. It is a view that allows those in charge to hold views that are, quite simply, ridiculous. Speed with no regard for comprehension? Is this crazy, or what?
Yup, it's crazy--with a capital C.
Posted by: Victoria Hanley | October 19, 2011 at 05:30 PM