Halloween Comes Early to LAUSD Teachers, Part III

This is the the third part of a series of articles I have written as to why Halloween came early to
LAUSD teachers this year, especially by reviewing educational historian Dr. Diane Ravitch's
newly published book, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

*Shrinkage of Curriculum Time

In her book, Diane Ravitch points out that an unintentional consequence of NCLB (No Child
Left Behind) was that there wasn't much time to teach anything except reading and math,
along with test preparation.

*Curriculum Narrowing

The teaching of other subjects were curtailed in many schools. Often test taking skills and
strategies were taught rather than subjects like history, music, art, science, geography and
even recess.

Testing in Grades 1 and 2

Though it isn't required by law, schools often test grades 1 and 2 in
order to prepare them for the upcoming tests they would encounter in the third grade.

Before I retired, I taught grades 1 and/or 2 and was required to test them and to prepare them
for tests. They needed to learn to bubble in correctly, for example. I usually had a teaching
assistant to help the students follow along so that they were where they should be. It was
important that they learned to bubble in the right way, because machines corrected the tests;
also, they needed to bubble the circle in fully and stay inside the bubble or their scores might
not be accurate. That's a big job for a first grader.

They had to learn to use the pencil I gave them and not any other, or, again, the machine might
not be able to "read" their answer. Often they wanted to color illustrations in the test
and had to be taught that was a no-no.

They had to be taught to erase only when they needed to change their answer and not
to erase because they thought erasing was fun. Too much erasing and, again, the
machine may score the test inaccurately.

Most importantly, they had to learn to listen to directions.

I don't know the first time I had to bubble in at school. I can remember tests that involved
working math problems and math word problems, spelling tests, grammar and reading tests,
writing out answers to questions and later essay tests; but I can't recall any sort of bubble
in test until I was in high school or perhaps college. There was no state standardized test
we prepared for. We were tested on what we were taught at the time. I didn't know how lucky
I was.

Standards

"...the law required the states to set their own standards and grade their own progress,"
(Diane Ravitch, Ibid., page 101.) This allowed states to "define proficiency as they saw fit,"
which led in turn at times to "vastly inflated claims of progress..."

NCLB Was a Law Built on Mistakes

Dr. Ravitch describes NCLB as a punitive law that mistakingly thought low scores are caused
by lazy teachers and lazy principals. Also, it erroneously assumed high scores on standardized
tests were synonymous with good education. (Diane Ravitch, Ibid, page 111)

The Missing Curriculum

NCLB's strategy of measure, then punish or reward, often did produce higher scores according
to Dr. Ravitch, but the scores had nothing to do with a quality education for the students. (Diane
Ravitch, Ibid, Chapter 2, page 16.) NCLB bypassed curriculum and standards. There was
no reference as to what students should learn. "...efforts to establish voluntary national standards
fell apart in the fall of 1994." (Dr. Ravitch, Ibid., Chapter 2, page 17)

As Mirrors and Windows in Part II of my article, made me think of the Lady of Shalot, so NCLB's
missing curriculum made me think of The Emperor's New Clothes. Although it wasn't
intentional, except for some reading and math, the loom of NCLB's curriculum
was as empty as the loom which should have woven the emperor's new clothes.

The Curriculum's New Clothes
Raggle, Taggle Lesson Plans O
by Mary Naylor

WARNING! NOT MEANT FOR CHILDREN. NUDITY.

Hear the trumpets flair, hear the bugels blair,
*NCLB on parade! Education has been saved!
Hear the crowd cheer and chant, in the bright sun's glare,
No Child Left Behind, history is made!

Pah-pum, pah-pum, pah-pum, pum, pum,
Feel the thrill, feel the beat, of the drums, drums, drums...
"Mama...MAMA!" "Shush, dear." But, Mama, I see his bum.!
Curriculum is naked, he has no clothes, not even over his tum!"

Adults stared and gasped in dismay,
While children giggled and wriggled, jumped and jiggled, to see him come, only to find,
Resplendent curriculum, what can I say, stepping and strutting, he was naked as a jay!
Except for math and reading, NCLB had kept the child, but left the curriculum behind!
"Don't worry," Someone said, They can blame the teachers. That's the usual way."

No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, pah-pum, pum, pum,
The President leading, the legislature following, splended in the sun,
"But look, bare bones curriculum has no clothes on!" Leave that for the states, son,
Jump on the bandwagon, here comes the drums! Pah-pum, pum, pum!

*THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM How Testing and
Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch

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Note: LAUSD refers to Los Angeles Unified School System