Reading and math squeezing out other topics, study finds
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- February
- 25
Another survey found that the No Child Left Behind law has led many elementary schools to spend more time on reading and math at the expense of social studies, science, art and recess.
The Center on Education Policy’s survey of 349 school systems across the country found that about 62 percent of school systems have added time for math or English instruction in elementary grades since 2002. On average, about three hours of math or reading were added each week.
Of the schools that added time for math and reading and trimmed other areas, more than half cut at least one hour and 15 minutes a week from science instruction.
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on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 2:27 pm by Diana Costello.
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It’s a sad reality in New York as well. In many places, we’re not educating the whole child, but rather are creating a “fill in the bubble” child. New York State United Teachers, the union which represents professional educators here in New York, looked last spring at NCLB’s impact on New York’s classrooms. A survey of more than 660 teachers showed:
95 percent said NCLB encourages them to “teach to the test.”
79 percent of teachers said NCLB’s emphasis on teaching encourages them to elminate curricult material that’s not tested.
80 percent said they spend a lot of time teaching test-taking skills.
NYSUT supports the ideas of accountability and high standards contained in NCLB, but we think the model should reward progress and credit gains (instead of punishment); that tests should be fairer for ELL and special needs students; that AYP needs to be totally re-worked so schools are punished based on the performance of a handful of students; and that the federal government keeps its funding promise for NCLB.
It may be a little off subject, but one of the reasons property tax bills are high is that NCLB is a giant unfunded mandate from the federal government. In fact, New York received $911 million LESS than what was promised under NCLB in 2005-06. Still, we have to give the tests!
Whoops. Typo. That third paragraph should read that schools should NOT be punished based on the performance of a handful of students….
Have you seen what the tests cover? If so, you may agree with many who believe that the math and English standards are not overly rigorous. My question to those who complain about having to “teach to the test” is what part of the standardized test knowledge is so unimportant that it should NOT be taught and tested?
My opinion is that there is a lot of wasted classroom time. I’m not necessarily blaming teachers, but the pedagogical practices in place leave plenty to be desired. Add to that character education and other activities that schools take on, and it’s easy to see how social studies and science instructional time is being squeezed down.