So, when a school does not meet NCLB requirements they are sanctioned. There is a choice of sanctions in some cases, and in many, if not most cases, the choice of sanction is to adopt new curricular materials, and provide staff development for the new adoptions. Oh, and the choices of curricular materials are supposed to be research based (they are not!)
When superintends and principals foist new materials on, and make ridiculous claims to teachers, we teachers need to push back. The new adoptions, like old adoptions before them, WILL NOT WORK! Families need to do more to prepare their children for school. When we in the profession claim to be able to make headway WITHOUT parental-prerequisite-education-of-their-children, we do the nation a disservice; we cannot fix education with materials and money, we need better students, and that requires better parenting and early education.
Teachers work in different ways. Some stick to the curricular materials, and offer little of their own creativity (out of fear, lack of knowledge, etc;), and still others offer unique and wonderful ways to make education fun and interesting. The problem with requiring we use a new set of materials is that the materials (almost all of them written by former teachers who learned very well how to make a buck) are usually no better than the previous stuff, and more to the point, most of the stuff could be written by anyone who has been in a classroom.
Children need excitement and background knowledge to be successful in the NCLB era (well, always really). When we focus on "narrative text" and call it "small moments" we are just screwing with language, making common nomenclature moot, causing confusion. I can't stand using new terms, babied down as I call them, when we have perfectly good, understandable, common academic terms for these things. Kids can handle the truth, and deserve to know the real terms, and have them explained.
We are required to waste money on materials due to sanctions for not meeting NCLB requirements. It is time to repeal NCLB, allow teachers to take back the schools (because we actually DO know what's best), and keep expanding the horizons of the children we teach and nurture.
Oh, teachers, don't be afraid to hold parents responsible for their irresponsibility and crappy child rearing. Maybe there ought to be consequences for being a lame parent?
Oh yeah, every teacher I know voted for Obama! Hillary was touted by the union, but the members want Obama. Go take a look at his website and see what he has to say about parental responsibility and education. Every teacher ought to be for him!
1 comment:
Ahhh... the curriculum materials... How I agree! Even beyond sanctions due to NCLB "non-compliance," the fact that we adopt a new materials every year is quite absurd if you ask me. You're right, the new stuff is rarely better. On top of that, rarely does it adequately address state standards.
This year, our district is adopting new science materials for example. A friend of mine teaches at another school and told me that when they got the new materials for review, one of the publishers had accidently slipped in a copy of the South Carolina version as well as the California version... according to her, both were identical... even though the state standards for the two states were different. These publishers are publishing materials that address all of the standards for various states, which means the materials cover a lot of things not in California standards that end up being a waste of time.
Why don't we as a state create our own curriculum? Like you said, most teachers could do it... we know what works. What we teach in English for example, doesn't change, so if we were to develop a curriculum that was adequate, we wouldn't need constant re-adoption and waste all this time, effort and money!
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