Teachers Address Education Law

I am not sure I believe that there is a student who refuses to learn. Rather, instruction, environments, and material work for some, but not others. With regard to the law, schools - i.e. Students - lose funding and access to necessary instruction when standardized test goals are not met. Ideally, schools that are not meeting AYP (adequate yearly progress) would get funds for remediation/tutoring programs and greater support. The reality is that they lose it. NCLB is a standard "prescription" for all student within US schools that assumes all students are the same - that they have the same level/access to qualified teachers, live in the same types of environments, come from the same communities, and share the same vision of education that the architects of the legislation have. This is simply not true and the law seems to do very little to account for these differences.

What a great question, Paul! While I know of no teacher or no school that would ever punish a child for a low test score, it stands to reason that children who do not demonstrate proficiency may not be prepared to advance to the next level. This may mean providing additional opportunities to learn in the upcoming school year. I teach American Literature to high school juniors, for example, and all of my students are aware that the courses and opportunities available to them their senior year will depend, in part, on their performance on state assessments and other measurements. This is not, of course, a radical departure from what we've always done - education has always redirected low performing students, but these high stakes tests often make the consequences seem equally intense.

If a child simply refuses to make an effort to learn, I'm sure that he or she will be (or should be) swarmed by an army of caring adults who are fully prepared to nurture and nag until the effort it takes to fail far outweighs the effort it takes to learn.

This is a brilliant question because there are virtually no consequences for the child who refuses to participate in their own education. I mean, sure, there are referrals and disciplinary procedures and things like that, but the real consequence for the kid who does not make an effort to learn will be the attendant negative results that run commensurate with being a person who lacks education in the United States. By that I mean a predisposition towards living in poverty, being a victim of violent crime, being incarcerated, earning low wages, having no health insurance, etc. Study after study supports this.

And conversely, the rewards for the students that do take ownership over their own education are immense. They can expect things like college degrees, solid careers, 401K plans, home ownership, and vacations. Study after study supports this as well. In the battle between the HAVES and HAVE NOTS, education almost always resides on the side of the HAVES. And they know this which is why, once parents, the HAVES are so insistent on education for their children. Education is the best artillery in preparation for the battles of life.

The difficult part for us in the classroom is getting students to buy into this reality. Though so much data shows that the essence of what I just explained is quite verifiable - and probable - many students refuse to take responsibility for their own education. Is there a stick we can use to get a kid to try as hard as they possibly can on the NCLB standardized tests? No. Literally, there are thousands and thousands of students who will have 90 minutes to complete one section of a state test and then choose answer C for 50 questions in a row in all of three minute's time and then put their heads down and take a nap for the remainder of the test's hour and a half administration. These kids can be threatened, they can be yelled at, they can be ostracized or they can be pleaded with, but they can't be made to try.

No one can.

And since the state tests have no direct impact on the individual student and their academic future (which is another reason why they are, in my opinion, so faulty), the people who most suffer are the professionals who work diligently at the schools busting their butts trying to get kids to take ownership. This is why when you use the word "seems" in your question I am quick to point out that all that "seems" is not necessarily true. Teacher and schools may "seem" as if they are responsible but really, the culture, the environment, the home life, the parents, the community, all these factors are equally, if not more critical, to student success.

How can I be made accountable for the student who will not try? Being an educator in this environment is like being Sisyphus, pushing knowledge up a hill I know is going to roll right back down. But since educators are optimists at heart, we try anyway because we know we just might get through. And if we do all the pushing was worth all the slings and arrows. That's just who teachers are.

A more intelligent NCLB would not be so occupied with Draconian punishments for the teachers and schools but more pre-occupied with doing intelligent things to really raise student achievement. Precisely because there is no consequence for the individual student is precisely the reason why so many kids have no problem just giving up. Their test performance does not matter to their GPA's, their ability to earn a degree, their SAT scores or anything that can be tied to them. The state tests are given to students to measure teachers, administrators and schools and kids can passive-aggressively undermine the entire education system by simply not trying. Really, it won't matter to their own immediate academic fortunes one way or another. The only reason more students don't "give up" is because they are good kids and they do what they are told. Adults say "take this test and try hard" and most of them do. But the ones who do not, well, therein lies a great dilemma.

Actually, ultimately it does matter to the kids but students usually don't discover just how much until they are about 25 years old and a few years out of school. That's when they all start to see how much it really did matter.

And that's when they regret not listening to the teachers when they had the chance.