Is there anyone in America who does not agree that we have a serious problem educating our children? Then why are the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act so widely vilified throughout the education community?
It seems as if educators, and their supporters, have united in opposition to this law. Some criticize the law for being just another unfunded federal mandate. Others say that the requirements will result in teachers “teaching the test,” rather than providing our children with the type of education that will enable them to prosper in the modern world.
Teachers feel they are under assault from all sides. They feel they are already overburdened by the current system, and that adding more requirements to their stack of “to-do” things will only make education worse. They say requiring year-to-year improvement is unrealistic.
When business leaders complain that young adults entering the work force today are woefully unprepared and undereducated, many educators respond that, with the fast-moving pace of technological advances, it’s impossible for schools to keep up with the necessary curriculum relevant to tomorrow’s workplace.
Critics argue that testing doesn’t solve the problem. Of course it doesn’t solve the problem! But it does identify and highlight the problem. Not testing simply makes it easier to ignore the problem — you know, out of sight, out of mind.
Listen, I love my kids’ teachers, and I sincerely believe that each of them is doing a fabulous job, but sometimes I just want to scream in frustration.
Please, can we shift the discussion away from the adults for just a moment? And can we not agree about a couple of things?
Can we not agree that it’s a serious national problem when 28 percent of eighth-grade students nationwide can’t even read at the “basic” level, according to the recently released National Assessment of Educational Progress report? In the District of Columbia, that figure is 53 percent; in California, it’s 39 percent.
In math, it’s just as bad. Nationwide, 33 percent of all eighth-graders scored at the “below basic” level. In the District of Columbia, that figure is 71 percent; in Mississippi, it’s 53 percent.
That’s a lot of kids — soon to be adults — who can’t read and who possess virtually no math skills. Clearly, we are doing something seriously wrong to come up with results like that. Yet, our educators seem to be telling us that we can’t improve on those results. Are they serious?
No Child Left Behind is about stemming the decline in the educational system and then, on a year-to-year basis, showing steady improvement. It’s not about trying to fix a problem overnight, but rather over a 12-year period.
Kids are only young once and, for the most part, we as a society only get one shot at educating them to become productive citizens in our society. Once they reach adulthood, they’re on their own.
Unless we want to see Mexico and China exporting their low-skilled jobs to the United States a generation from now, this isn’t a situation we can afford to ignore. We can — and must — improve the quality of our children’s education. Our standard of living, our very way of life and the very future of our nation all depend on an educated population taking advantage of the economic and political freedom our system affords them.
But if we can’t even agree that we can improve on an education system where 28 percent of our 13-year-olds can’t even read, then we’d better get used to living in a Third World country, because that’s our future.
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