Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math

By SAM DILLON - NYT
Published: March 26, 2006

"SACRAMENTO — Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it.

Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Devars Dean, left, and Inerik Salas, seventh graders at Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High in Sacramento, Calif., where intensive reading and math classes have raised test scores.

Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Martín Lara, a math teacher at King Junior High, said the intense focus was paying off for one of his students, whose skills were solidifying.

Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks.

The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who test below grade level.

The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art. A nationwide survey by a nonpartisan group that is to be made public on March 28 indicates that the practice, known as narrowing the curriculum, has become standard procedure in many communities.

The survey, by the Center on Education Policy, found that since the passage of the federal law, 71 percent of the nation's 15,000 school districts had reduced the hours of instructional time spent on history, music and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. The center is an independent group that has made a thorough study of the new act and has published a detailed yearly report on the implementation of the law in dozens of districts."

How incredibly, desperately sad.

R

But didn't you know Rob? All the history students ever need to learn they can learn in church.

Another fine mess the Bush administration has gotten us into...make a mandate, then refuse to properly fund it. I have a couple of cousins that are teachers. They tell me that ever since this mandate came along, all they do is prepare for the next test. In essence, they are no longer teachers, they simply prep the students for the next round of tests. Great, now we have an underfunded mandate, and the learning process has come to a halt. Must we wonder why so many other nations in the world are doing a better job at educating their children? Another glaring yet ignored aspect of this program...all schools are being held accountable at the same level. This is plain wrong. The dynamics and problems faced by one school district can be completely different than those faced in another. Take for instance the school city of Gary, Indiana. A quarter of the population lives below the federal guidelines of poverty. Three-quarters of the children come from single parent households. Compare that to the school city of Munster, Indiana, which is an upper-middle class bedroom community. These two communities are only miles apart, but it may as well be different worlds. Guess which town has more children left behind! Is there anything in this mandate that addresses these very real issues? No. Like I said, another failed mandate from an administration that is more likely to fail than succeed. This mandate should not see the light of day until these and many other problems are solved.

It's more like "no child's behind left!!"

:mad:

This is what happens when you have an Administration who believe in smaller Federal government, who believes local communities should be more involved and regulate, and who admire the Reagan administration and their iniatives, like wanting to do away with the Department of Education.

So of course the only thing to do would be to increase the role of Department of Eduction, provide more rules and regulation and not let local communites have more of a say.

It all makes perfect senese! :confused:

[ March 27, 2006, 09:10 AM: Message edited by: kujhawker ]

Uh, Congress is the one who made the mandate. They're always making unfunded mandates.

Bush deserves blame for the NCLB, but blame Kennedy as well, even more so. Senator Womanslaughter wrote most of the NCLB. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know a bill created by Teddy with Bush's cooperation and blessing is a bad bill and a bad law.

The centerpiece of the Bush Administration's education policy was written by Ted Kennedy????
Riiiiiiight.

MIB, you continue to amaze me with your "facts". Whatever it is that you are smoking, can you pass some my way?