Students couldn?t wait to bring in their baby pictures and swap stories about their childhood.
The kids loved it, and so did their fourth-grade reading teacher, who had her charges look back so they could learn about change in their lives and the world around them.
Two years later, after the federal No Child Left Behind Act transformed the nation?s educational landscape, the same teacher hadto skip the memorable lesson to make time to prepare her students for standardized tests using short-answer booklets.
“So this teacher had to abandon this wonderful change process in place of test-preparation materials,” said Linda Valli, an education professor at the University of Maryland.
“In one school, principals suspended regular instruction for two months of ?boot camp? test preparation. Some teachers, who were under a lot of pressure, would have students believe they would fail fourth grade if they didn?t do well.”
Such a focus on boosting test scores, according to Valli?s research, which included repeated fourth- and fifth-grade classroom observations and teacher interviews from 2002 to 2005 in an undisclosed school district, actually changed the relationships between teachers and their students from personal to more punitive.
Some teachers even conceded they knew students more by their test scores than their names.
“We see lot less meaningful instruction,” she said.
“One of the real ironies is that the whole purpose of NCLB was to provide a rigorous education for students. The test scores are going up, but they don?t look inside classrooms to see what?s going on to make those test scores go up.”
Gov. Martin O?Malley, who wants to replace state Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, recently criticized her for her devotion to NCLB.
But on the six-year anniversary of NCLB?s passage this month, Grasmick pointed to Maryland?s ranking as third-best educational system by Education Week as proof that using exams to boost student achievement works.
“This ranking is not just a result of efforts under No Child Left Behind since 2002,” she said.
“We have had standards, accountability and assessments all the way back to 1991.”
