COONRIDGE DIGEST: Try 'No American Left Behind'
by Freida Marie Crump
Greetings from the Ridge.
Any teacher will tell you the same thing: No Child Left Behind is simply a code word for "The Teacher is to Blame."
In a nutshell, by 2014 every student in the United States must be testing on a high level. They don't have to be any smarter, just test like they are. And no matter how the sweet frosting has been lathered on, the final verdict reads, "If you don't do it, we'll get you-your job, your funding or your school."
This has brought a whole passel of new byproducts. The arts are being squeezed out (sorry, not tested), states are lowering their standards, innumerable hours are taken away from instruction by teachers' meetings on how to achieve these goals, and of course the biggie: teaching to the