“Teachers are now forced to “teach to the test” as their primary directive.”
This practice of teaching the test has been going on since the early 90s. At least here in Texas.
I started school in 1948. It was teach to the test back then.
I’ve always taught to the test. Of course, the test has to adequately cover the material. People who complain about teaching to the test are people who want to spend the class day teaching “the world according to me.” I had plenty of teachers in college that didn’t give a d*mn about the curriculum, only their agenda. I’ll take teach to the test every time.
“This practice of teaching the test has been going on since the early 90s. At least here in Texas.”
It is now much worse. I know several teachers — all conservatives, one of which is in my immediate family. They are from several states, California, Colorado, Missouri, and all say the same thing: No Child Left Behind has changed curriculum so dramatically that it isn’t even funny. The primary goal is to score high on the federal and state-mandated tests, and THAT’S IT. The result is a lot of schools that only look good on paper, and a lot of students who do well on tests that they’ve been thoroughly, relentlessly prepped for, but not so well in anything else.
It’s a joke.
I’m no Bush basher, not by far, but if you want negative reactions from me when talking about the Pres, then just bring up these issues:
1. No Child Left Behind
2. Illegal Immigration policy
3. Government spending
That said, the rest of Bush’s speech tonight has been pretty good so far. I’ll give it an early 7 on a scale of 10.