I find myself (once again) in the uncomfortable position of seeing ideas that I have supported as part of a broader set of reforms turn into unhealthy obsessions. I feel like someone who said that people should wear hats and then turned around to discover that people were talking about nothing else but their hats and walking around naked.
Deb, I think that one of the things that has occasionally drawn us together is that we both have a vision about education, what it might be, even when we disagree about this or that detail. Now I find that no one seems to talk about education anymore, just testing and accountability.
More on NCLB in a bit.
"I find myself (once again) in the uncomfortable position of seeing ideas that I have supported as part of a broader set of reforms turn into unhealthy obsessions."
It's called "consequences." Unintended effects are not an excuse for bad policy. There were opponents of the standards & accountability movement tied to big business way back when pointing to these outcomes. NCLB in a form stripped of real support for true ed reform was inevitable.
I agree wholeheartedly. We used to teach now we assess and maintain accountability. We spend so much time covering so many developmentally inappropriate skills our students master little. Primary schools have stopped giving homework because kids won't do it and parents don't want to take what little time they have with their kids doing school work. Florida is makings positive changes in the number of skills required and the level of mastery at each grade level, however, I've seen many changes over the years and most were just lip service. I am hopeful that the new Florida standards will actually allow us to teach our students again.