Christy+for+Dec+4

Christy O’Meara Critical Commentary #9 Due: December 4, 2008

§  From Shannon, page 200: “In their appeal, the Pennsylvania superintendents implied that the NCLB law forces school failure by design. By requiring all students to reach a score that some students by definition cannot be reasonably expected to reach, the law causes school failure in the way it defines success….The Pennsylvania superintendents believe they are being set up for failure.”

§  From Lankshear & Knobel, page 254: “Despite widespread claims of falling standards over the past two decades, we do not think this is a recent phenomenon. School-based curriculum has over-emphasized content and under-emphasized tools of thinking and analysis for generations.”

§  From Larson & Marsh, page 146: “Even white middle-class children understand that school is irrelevant and teaches anachronistic skills and knowledge, it is just that they follow the ‘rules’ because the rules are made for them.”

__Discussion:__ It seems that schooling has been a controversy for a while. While legislation has attempted to make laws to support success in schools, these laws do not seem to be working. For instance, No Child Left Behind will ultimately cause schools to lower standards in order to be incompliance with the law. How is this helping children to be successful in today’s world? The Pennsylvania superintendents have made a valid argument against NCLB, but will this argument be enough to convince legislation? It seems that there should be a better way to help children succeed in school without enforcing such ridiculous laws. Students today learn in such diverse ways that it is near impossible to ensure that all students will pass the same tests in the same amount of time. Furthermore, NCLB links student failure with teacher in competency and will close schools that cannot comply with NCLB. Since NCLB is in effect, teachers should be looking at ways to help students succeed. Knowing that schools base their curricula on content instead of critical thinking, perhaps one way to go about raising the test scores would be to focus on these skills since that is what the “tests” are testing. As Lankshear & Knobel stated, this is not a new notion. Educators need to not only be aware of this, but also act on it. With the recent push to have all students pass, educators should be focusing on this now more than ever. A major problem with education is that students obviously feel a major disconnect with the material taught. They do, however, listen and take the tests because that is what they are told to do. This seems to tell the students that what they want does not matter. If learning is supposed to be meaningful, the students should learn something more relevant to their lives. The same material and concepts are taught that were taught many years ago. Of course the students feel a disconnect with the material – so much more has happened since it was first instituted into the educational world. __Questions:__ 1.   With the upcoming induction of Barack Obama, will NCLB be changed at all, or possibly overturned? 2.  How can teachers effectively teach to the test and incorporate critical thinking/analysis skills in order to help students succeed on the test and in life? 3.  Is there a good way to make anachronistic material seem new and relevant to today’s student?