National Standards: Should We Take a Seat at the Table? � InterACT

National Standards: Should We Take a Seat at the Table? � InterACT

National Standards: Should We Take a Seat at the Table?

by Martha Infante

image from engagingexecutives.com

In the last decade, the talk in the education community has been focused around the buzz words of accountability and reform. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 encouraged schools to aim for high test scores for all of their students, and thus a disproportionate focus was placed on English-Language Arts and Mathematics, the two disciplines most widely tested and measured by NCLB. At that time, the middle school in which I worked quickly jumped on to the test score bandwagon and reduced the number of elective classes for students, in order to increase the amount of instruction in English and Math. “Hey, if the kids can’t read, why should they be fooling around making wooden ducks in shop class!” Gone were the ceramics, drama, wood