Legislation

I had a conversation with a few of my students about Legislation and then right afterwards had a meeting on NCLB. It was quite interesting. I went from hearing them (their part below) talk about how testing is not that great to hearing about ways to get them ready for the test. It is amazing how truely test focused we are. We had a teacher professional development day on HSPA testing last week and so I feel like all we have been talking about recently is testing. We even took practice HSPA's to understand what ur students were going through. I understand where they are comming from feeling the way they do.

Katie Henkel a junior here at West Milford High School is both a band and choir student who is incredibly musical and talented. When asked about legislation in schools, she instantly said, "Like the no child left behind act, curriculum, and special educational systems that are in place?" My response was yes, and she instantly went onto talk about NCLB. "NCLB is really messing up our school systems. They take the emphasis away from creativity and musicality. In a way this is also related to the curriculum, because it is as if NCLB really pushes forward the core curriculum. Often this can cause schools to lose music, which really does not benefit the schools in anyway."

Amanda Daley (a senior who has been in choir forever) then chimed in, "and testing is not always the way to go. Not everyone is good at tests. Sometimes people choke on tests; I know that I always do. And how can that determine everything, can they not just come and talk to us to see how intelligent that we are. Testing should not and is not everything, nor is it a really great way to see if people understand what they are learning. It works for some people but not for every person."