I Agree With the Laura Bush View on NCLB Testing Component

A recent USA Today article on First Lady Laura Bush focusing on her conversation with a group of teachers from around the nation captured my attention. She had some very interesting comments to make on the beleaguered No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002. I like the way Mrs. Bush shrugs aside the naïve and simplistic arguments of those who attack the act’s standardized testing component with the teacher union mantra “You’re teaching to the test”. Here’s how Laura Bush responds:

From Laura Bush in USA Today:

"We would never go to a doctor and say, 'I'm sick, you can't try to diagnose me … you can't use any kind of test," she says….She calls the annual testing — and its consequences — "the most important piece" of the law. "That's what lets us know that we're not just shuffling kids through school, and that poor kids aren't being the ones who make it to the fifth grade and can't read, or make it to the ninth grade and drop out." It would be "embarrassing and a tragedy if we don't address those problems."


Exactly, what an excellent response she gives. The entire article can be found at this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-22-laura-bush-education_N.htm


I would like it if, for once, I could get one of these militant, liberal, NCLB test hater types to simply answer one question. I’d like an intelligent, coherent, rational explanation and response to this below question.

“What is your definition of teaching to the test, and precisely how is teaching standardized curriculum then testing for its retention a bad thing?”

I don’t expect to get a logical answer to that question that makes any sense, but rather just the usual--- glassy eyed, (RCA Victor Dog) head tilting, finger pointing response that, “you’re dumbing them down, just making them better test takers”

Wrong answer.