Study: Most teachers pan No Child Left Behind
By second grade, much of the school year is devoted to readying students for a whole week of testing in English-language arts and math, and the momentum only builds through 11th grade.
The focus on reaching the high standards of the No Child Left Behind Act means educators spend hours every day sharing test-taking skills with students and teaching math and English, with only minutes left in the day to teach other subjects.
"When you look at the philosophy of teaching the whole child, you have to expose the children to all possibilities," said Gerald Kasinski, the former principal at San Bernardino's Davidson Elementary School. "Focusing on No Child Left Behind means a teacher's time is used to help students who struggle the most at detriment to others."
President Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law in January of 2002.
The legislation fundamentally changed teaching and education in U.S. schools by requiring annual testing of school children and adequate yearly progress for every subgroup of students.
The results of the tests, known as the Standardized Testing and Reporting program, or STAR, in California, and the Academic Performance Index are components the state uses for measuring adequate yearly progress.
In a recently released
study that looked at the law by UC Riverside sociology professor Steven Brint and Patrick Guggino, an English teacher at Charter Oak High School in Covina, the researchers surveyed more than 740 of California's most