“After spending a year as a student teacher in a New York City elementary school, documentary filmmaker Lerone Wilson explores the effects of President Bush's momentous No Child Left Behind Act on schools across the country.”
Boondoggle Films
Lerone Wilson, a Detroit native, includes Michigan schools in this documentary
Friday, February 8th * Room 252 * 10:30am to 12pm
2 comments:
I believe the concept of NCLB is good- all children are supposed to get equivalent schooling...for example all children by 3rd grade are supposed to be at a 3rd grade reading level. This is a great idea...however, I think there is too much emphasis on standardized testing to assess where students are. MEAP for example. I think the requirements they place on teachers (teaching in your major) does not necessarily improve the teaching. I don't think this is the way to improve education- I think finding teachers that are truly dedicated will. There was a women in Ionia who taught Social Studies for years and won the State Social Studies Teacher of the year award, and was no longer able to teach it because it wasn't her major. You can learn subject matter...but if you can't teach it, it's not going to matter. School districts become so obsessed by standards set by the government, it has become irrelevant whether or not the students are interested or even understand it. They just have to teach it and move on because they have so much to cover.
Did you go see the video? (It's fine if you are just responding to the general topic. I'm just curious.)
I agree that NCLB and testing have come out of a desire, in part, to make sure that schools are held accountable for educating all children.
At the same time, I struggle with ideas like "3rd grade reading level". Do all children learn in the same ways and at the same rate? Can standardized tests measure all learning? How does unequal funding, teacher preparation, etc. play into which schools "succeed" and "fail"?
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