If you live in the same town as I do (and I doubt anyone reading this does) you know that I like to write letters to the local paper when I read something that gets to me. Well, this week there was an article about our schools that “..failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the standard set by the No Child Left Behind federal law.” You should also know that I am very critical of the Republican agenda so of course I feel theis law is ridiculous. I wanted you guys to read what I wrote to the paper and hopefully it’ll get printed.
Dear Editor,
I read in Thursday’s paper the article entitled “Schools miss the mark” about how some of the schools in the area didn’t fare so well on the end-of-grade tests. I find this to be insane. Not the fact that they didn’t do so well, but the idea of using one test every year to gauge how our kids are doing in school. Ever since President Bush pushed his “No Child Left Behind” Act everything has gone wrong. School systems are forcing our teachers to structure their curriculums around what is going to be on the test at the end of the year and not what the kids need to know. Does anyone else not believe this is a tragedy and our kids are the victims? I think we need to give them responsibility back to our teachers as to what to teach the kids and to judge their progress. Isn’t that what they were taught by the Universities they went to? I’m sure the president thinks the No Child Left Behind and End of Grade tests are a good idea but what about the kids who are smart or average students who do not test well? What happens to those kids? Last Tuesday America decided it was ready for a change; maybe we will get a change to this archaic, insane law.
Marcus Williford
I posted my email too so I will let you know if i get any nasty or encouraging emails.
