Yesterday I was surprised to see this piece in our Seattle Times . I was surprised mostly because I don’t see this issue being discussed in forums like this one.
Currently, I am a graduate student in Seattle University’s College of Education, and I have just started my second year of a three year program. In my first four quarters I have come into contact with a large number of very bright, motivated, and opinionated educators who have had nothing but bad things to say about the NCLB .
Lectures on the history of education reform or public education policy have the tendency to diverge into Bush slamming – not only for the NCLB itself (with which many take philosophical issue), but especially for W’s chronic financial neglect of the legislation that has left many school districts just as bad off as before.
An in-class discussion will typically break down like this: Professor: “and most recently, the No Child Left Behind Act was put into effect…” Class: “**Groan**”
At this point the professor can kiss her lecture plan good-bye. What follows are 12 to 20 mature, well-educated, responsible adults engaging in a spirited dialogue on their loathing for everything Bush.
Still others I’ve spoken with in the classroom have said that sweeping public education reform was unnecessary to begin with, and that the NCLB is a continuation of the Regan administration’s “A Nation at Risk” education fear-mongering. Both the NCLB and “A Nation at Risk” seem to be preoccupied with raising test scores versus educating the student, and in doing so make the fundamental error of confusing causes with symptoms. To bureaucrats and politicians, test scores are the only way to measure success rates. To teachers, “teaching to the test” is often restrictive and counterproductive.
So where does education stand on the candidates’ priorities? Not very highly, if media coverage is any indication of an issue’s importance. I’d like to think that it’s a priority for voters – there isn’t a single person in the US who isn’t in some way impacted by the condition of public education. All the same, I’m doubtful we’ll be seeing this topic come up in the debates of the next few weeks.
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