NCLB and Its Reauthorization: Listen to Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody, Teacher Leaders Network member and science teacher extraordinaire who now serves as a science content coach in Oakland, has just published terrific op-ed pieces on No Child Left Behind in two prominent California newspapers. In the San Jose Mercury News, Anthony describes how “rigid school [NCLB] standards ignore reality of inner-city atmosphere.” Anthony, an award-winning National Board Certified science teacher uses a poignant metaphor of growing apples in different types of soil as a means to better describe to California citizens the kinds of conditions in which teachers are teaching and children are learning. The lockstep, rigid formula of NCLB does not come close to matching the reality of what outstanding teachers like Anthony face.

In the Sacramento Bee, Anthony describes how punitive labels work against teachers. He also has solutions (e.g.,  new assessments ­developed by outstanding teachers who can provide both educators and the public better information about which students and schools are doing better or not, why they are doing so, and what can done about it.) The current NCLB accountability system does little of the above. He asks why American policymakers cannot trust teachers to measure student learning: “This is a complex skill, but when teachers are given that challenge, we can do it. What is more, the assessments can be directly tied to classroom instruction and used to improve learning, not just measure it.”

His wisdom far outstrips those of who dominate the educational policy “airwaves.” To hear more from Anthony on NCLB listen to his conversation with John Merrow that was part of the "Teachers Take on NCLB" broadcast aired on The NewsHour. To read more about the good, the bad, and ugly of NCLB take a look at 'The Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind: Views from the Nation’s Best Teachers' - a piece written with the voices of Anthony and 22 other members of our virtual Teacher Leaders Network. The collective wisdom of these contributions demonstrates exactly why it is time for America to listen to its best teachers.

Comments

[Mathew]

How do you reconcile high standards in urban schools with watered down standards, if that's what's being advocated?

I agree that a one-size fits all approach to assessment doesn't work but I would expect that low-income students can succeed as much as their higher income peers if given a chance to demonstrate their competency in real world application.

[Bob]

Kudos, Anthony and Mathew! I'd like to think that you both see the learning glass half full, growing and not as a plastic tumbler.

It's a puzzle why more teachers don't use existing older manual and newer electronic technologies to exceed NCLB minimum expectations for spending Federal funds in schools. It seems logical that teachers would at least want to demonstrate a generalizable competence that each holds as an instructor.

Thanks, Barnett, for highlighting, again, openings teachers have for increasing student learning.

[Barnett Berry]

If we PREPARED and SUPPORTED teachers over time and we had more folks like Anthony in our classrooms then we could "reconcile" the high standards versus multiple measures issue raised by Mathew. No doubt. But if we continue to fill classrooms with itinerant teachers who do not have real pedagogical and assessments skills – then we will not be able to do so.

[Bob]

Probably most people agree with your assertion of "If ...then", Barnett. Other "if ... then's" also seem plausable. But it's what teachers (whoever we are) do with what we have (whatever we see that is) that pays off today for students. I hope teachers affiliated with teacher quality programs will offer more suggestions what we may do today in classrooms to increase learning to meet existing standards with existing resources. They're minimum standards, not high standards.

[Barnett Berry]

Bob, I don’t think a single teacher, Anthony Cody included, doesn’t spend the vast majority of their professional energy trying to maximize their students’ learning – not only to meet standards, but exceed them – with the resources they’re given. Conversations among members of the Teacher Leaders Network reveal highly accomplished educators who are still seeking ways to consistently improve their classroom practice, and a long over-due body of teacher-developed best practices is growing, but still needs work on being widely disseminated, as you suggest.

However, the fact that this work needs (and is) being done at the classroom level to improve student output doesn’t negate the need to recognize the “input” that teachers encounter daily. (See for instance the new ETS report "The Family: America's Smallest School at http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/5678_PERCReport_School.pdf which suggests that '...a lot of the failure [associated with No Child Left Behind] has to do with what takes place in the home, the level of poverty and government's inadequate support for programs that could make a difference, like high-quality day care and paid maternity leave.')
You suggest NCLB establishes minimum standards, but minimum standards for whom? A student who has received every advantage from preschool through testing day or an English Language Learner who has been in this country for less than a year?

[Bob]

Thanks, Barnett. I agree with you about teacher efforts. As we all know, NCLB allows states/schools to accept Federal funding in exchange for all of their students to meet minimum standards set by each state. Some instructional procedures appear to support virtually all of their students to meet or exceed these standards. The explanation you describe for non-compliance has existed in many forums for decades. As we both know, they do not necessarily mean these conditions must cause lower tested student academic performance. I wonder if it would be helpful to more teachers associated with your network to describe how they and other teachers do meet and exceed standards with whatever they have at the moment.

[Veronica Dawson]

I agree with you Matthew. We have to take our curriculum standards and coincide them with real-world applications so that the students are able to relate. Then may we see some improvement in test scores.