..that it is true. Students in our state are stunningly ignorant, and in middle school as well. It's creeping down the chain to elementary too. Is it the result of NCLB? Well, Yes.

That and several other causes to be totally fair, but NCLB was the catalyst for the educational deficit of our nation's youth. Man, I'll be glad when someone tosses that plan out. It sounds good on paper, but it requires things of schools that most folks aren't aware of----not good things either. I wish students were getting the education I did in the 70's and 80's. By golly, we learned!

NCLB require passing tests and looking good on paper. Unfortunately, the spark that makes kids buy into learning is lost while we race to "teach the test".

Don't worry about teaching history--colorful, engaging, alive. You don't have time for a short video about the real Columbus. Make a replica map of the New World? You are crazy--that won't be on The Test. Hurry, hurry, hurry to the next section that you are sure will be on The Test. No time for anything but...the....Test.

This year, the best reading teacher in our building was told not to worry about getting the kids up to speed in reading, just "teach them to pass The Test". How utterly disgusting. When you consider she works with 8th graders who cannot read above a 2nd/3rd grade level, that is downright scary.

I suspect that this will be the reason I find myself becoming a statistic this summer---another teacher who left the field after only five years. I'm going to look for work where I can instruct folks who want to learn, in the skills they need to succeed. I guess it just won't happen in Georgia schools.

Since you are a teacher and claim kids cant read past 2nd and 3rd grade level I have to say that the district must not be utilizing the NCLB law in regard to structured reading programs that are researched based. This is common in many districts. These tests so dread so much do not even begin until third grade. If the kids are not reading by then you can hardly blame tests for taking up all the reading instruction time. Reading programs that are research based have proven to be successful with the most difficult to teach, that would be dyslexics and children with disabilities. They thrive with structured reading programs. However if the kids are not reading by 3rd grade in the general population I must ask what kind of school program is this? What are you doing if your kids cannot read by then? I think the law is fine for those that follow it. All should and read it before buying into articles that are printed based on rumor and mutterings of those who do not want to be held accountable. Read the law first. debjjdh

I am not wringing my hands at your departure from the teaching profession. I appreciate your good will, but the solution to the decline in education will not come from short videos or map-making assignments. Patronizingly "engaging" assignments are anathema to the high standards that propel student achievement. Even if your curriculum weren't weak, your attitude surely is: might you consider that the people who don't want to learn are PRECISELY those you should focus your fullest powers on?

I have six reasons why students in the United States are being graduated without educations worth the name, and NCLB is the least of these:

1. Bureaucratization -- officials devise meaningless assessments, underfund education, and by centralizing administration tend to hobble those strong and devoted personalities whose work at the local level is demonstrably the only effective means of implementing a sound curriculum.

2. The self-service of unions -- administrators are unable to oust shoddy teachers or reward effective ones.

3. Shoddy teachers -- the curricula at teachers' colleges are, plainly put, rubbish.

4. Cultural noise -- through media technology, students are able to engage socially outside of school more so than they ever did, meaning their primary incentive for participating in school culture has been obliterated.

5. Infantilization -- media pap conditions students to passively receive and actively parrot all the inanities that marketers can muster in their campaign to sell product.

6. The debasement of education -- the message that all students deserve a college education denies the truism that most people don't need a college education; that the humanistic enrichment of the liberal arts is properly offered in high school, and that while higher studies should be made available to all comers regardless of race, creed, or economic status, a higher education is only worthwhile for the people who will draw upon such skills later in life. Vo-tech schools train students in vocational arts; colleges trains students in the arts of intellectual professions. A mechanic doesn't need to know who Titian was, in the same way a lawyer isn't helped by knowing how to swap out a wrenched crankshaft. Of course, either of them may pick up the knowledge of the other VOCATIONALLY, as Victorian coal miners who organized lending libraries and string quartets, but the skills of the other are not a necessary part of professional preparation and therefore shouldn't be held up as an entitlement.

I've got recommendations, not just diagnoses. Fewer people need to go to college; high school, middle school, grade school, need to be harder and more effective; teachers need to worry less about craft paper; teachers need to realize their profession needn't be a fun one in order to be a vital one -- both soldiers and nurses perform a public service, and their jobs aren't fun at all. Standardized tests should be made harder, more pertinent, more uniform, and be preserved from political interference. The standards for hiring teachers and educational administrators should be dramatically raised, and stringently enforced -- each lapse comes at the expense of a child's education. Finally, our public leaders need to loudly declaim the saturation of our public space with corporate messages, the zombification of children-cum-consumers, and the degradation of our public language.

The game's not over yet, by golly; it's just going to be a lot of work.

There are a lot of students who come to us in middle school with terrible deficits in reading--those are the ones I mentioned. You misunderstood me if you thought I said that all kids cannot read past that level. In many states, the tests occur even in first grade, however third is the first gateway year in which the test can cause a child to be held back or required to attend summer school.

I do not teach elementary, so I cannot speak as to why many kids don't read well. I do know that assessment is taking up more and more time each year, and allowing for less and less quality eduational class time. The elementary teachers tell me this, and I don't think they are lying. Not to mention, the increased testing I see my own elementary age daughter undertaking.

I think you missed what I was saying: that the state is taking up too much time with testing, and not focusing on true education, higher order thinking skills, and life skills. The Test does not encourage teaching skills that stick with people over a lifetime.

We do follow research-based programs, but unfortunately, those get short-changed too---to teach kids to pass tests.

Are you an educator, out of curiosity?

Did you think that I meant that my idea of a good lesson was a video and poster? Why would you think that? That was simply an off the cuff comment on the lack of time that we are allowed for exploring living history or science or English, etc.

I agree with the meaningless assessments---that's NCLB for you in a nutshell.

We do not have a teacher's union. Our state is at-will, and contracts do not have to be re-issued.

I am an alternatively certified teacher. I went to college for business, and entered teaching after taking rigorous tests, and undergoing tons of training. I didn't get ruined by the trashy curriculae you mention. I had a great education.

I agree that college isn't for everyone, but NCLB believes it is. Because of the tenets of NCLB, everyone has to get the same thing, even if it doesn't work for every child. I think the USA might want to explore some educational models of other countries which direct children along paths more tailored to individual interests and abilities.

I'm not sure what you mean about teachers and craft paper...I can only assume you must not have ever been an educator, because many of your musings sound good, but are off base. Why not try becoming an educator, and see if your views change a bit?

I take all your comments in good faith, and apologize if I seemed unduly hostile toward you personally, your qualifications or pedagogical attitude. I am not an educator, but expect to be in the near future; but I don't agree that I need to be one in order to recognize that students are being graduated with fewer skills and less knowledge than we should be tolerant of.

Your suggestion of considering the education models of other nations, I think, addresses many of the shortcomings in the current system. Germany, for example, or Holland.