caching to the test, law leaves students behind
By Pamela Stringer
New'S Editor
PDSrf?iNG@UNCA.EDU
1 he No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
tered students’ testing procedures, teach-
s hiring qualifications and college stu-
-nts’ preparation for teaching.
hlo Child Left Behind i.s a really good
St attempt,” said Emily Gustafson, ju-
or psychology student at UNC Asheville
ith an elementary school licensure. “But
e need to revamp it. We need to get some
ucators, some retired teachers, some
-w teachers and college students, and in
>me Way, shape or form try to get them
volved, because they’re the ones out
'te trying to do it. The idea was good;
®.iust not realistic.”
NCLB requires a certain number of
'■‘derits in each grouping to pass an
i -of-grade test and end-of-course test,
ich was implemented in. the 2005-06
. year, according to Maggie Hailing,
NL Ajunior histoiy student with a mid-
e school licensure.
If the school doesn’t reach that goal,
eit they’re put on probation where they
’"^sources and money,” Hatling said,
don’t pass again the next year, the
mooi i5 completely taken apart, and the
jids have to go to a new place to go, over-
owding other schools.”
to the probation system, schools
^1 'teed money don’t receive it because
Emily Gustafson
the school doesn’t make
their annual progress re
ports. Meanwhile, the
schools that do well get
the money and continue
to meet standards, often
surpassing them easily,
Gustafson said.
“Students should be
able -to choose what school they want to
go to,” she said. “All of the gifted stu
dents go to good schools, so schools just
continually die.”
States make their own testing limits, al
lowing them to lower the bar so everyone
passes and receives the money, Hatling
.said.
“You have to make the decision be
tween letting all of your creativeness fall
to the side, and you’re going to get all your
students to pass, and you’re, just going to
teach the test,” Gustafson said. “Or you’re
going to spend a lot of time tiying to inte
grate math into science and social studies
to get it all taught.”
According to Gustafson, NCLB im
plemented new standards for teachers..
Teaching requires a subject major and
grade specific licensure, whereas before, a
degree in education would suffice, which
puts parents at ease. But the requirement
doesn’t come wdthout its drawbacks.
“Unfortunately w'e just don’t have
enough teachers,” Gustafson said.
“Schools are having 28 kids in a classroom.
Some of those teachers that aren’t highly
qualified are good teacliers. They’ve been
teaching 10 or 15 years, and they just don’t
fit standards.”
Frustrations ofNCLB run to afterschool
tutoring programs, according to Christina
Stringer, a tutor for a company geared to
ward the Florida Comprehensive Assess
ment Te.st, which is funded by NCLB.
“This is definitely an imperfect system
in all aspects,” she .said. “The kids really
need tutoring, but only some of the kids
whose names are submitted to the county
for tutoring receive it. They only allow- so
many kids to gel it, and there doesn’t seem
to be all that much reasoning behind who
gets it and who doesn’t.”
According to Gustafson, administrative
pressure forces teachers to teach only for
the test and to leave out important aspects
of education because of a lack of time.
“They’re leaving out the fun,” Hatling
said. “Students aren’t learning how to
learn, they’re learning how to memorize.
They’re learning how to fill in circles.
They aren’t writing well. If you teach it
right, you can teach kids how to read be
tween the lines and infer things. If you’re
teaching for the test, they’re learning dates,
which won’t help them. A teacher has to
work extra hard to get that all in.”
The focus on annual progress wears
down on teacher’s morals, Hatling said.
“You get broken. Especially first-year
teachers. For most first-year teachers,
there’s hope,” she said. “You’re going
to want to use all of the .stuff you learned
in college and implement all these cool
ideas. But when it comes down to it, you
just have to get the material taught.”
The teachers’ relationship with the tu
tors isn’t respectful, according to Stringer.
“While the teachers acknowledge that
the students need help, they often aren’t
that supportive in helping the tutoring go
ing as w'ell as possible,’’ she said. “Some
of the teachers seem to resent the need
for outside tutoring and not really respect
w'hat I do.”
The end-of-course tests require teach
ers to fit a large amount of material into an
inadequate time period. Hailing said.
“You don’t have time to get into depth
into the details,” Hatling said. “You have
to teach world histoiy in a year - 180 days
to learn every single country, everything
that happened. But you can’t, so you have
to pick and choose.”
Hatling and Gustafson agree the new
standards aren’t deterring students’ desires
to become educators. The hesitation to be
come a teacher isn’t new.
“A lot of people get into it and are like,
T cannot do this,’” Gustafson said. “And
a lot of people are like, T want to teach. I
want be different. I want to find a way to
teach the test and have fun.’”
f^ayor who? Students’ knowledge of local politics insufficient
By Aaron Dahlstrom
EO!TOR-!N--ChiEF
ARDAHLSr-S'UNCA.EDiJ
l^epubiicans, Democrats and indepen-
’ils stress the importance of local poH-
the day-to-day lives of citizens. This
^ '■esonates wdth older members of the
•funity, but falls short with younger
^1^0 tend to get mesmerized by the
and glamour of national politics.
, problem that we have in our coun-
^ B that most young people can tell you
Was running for president but can’t
^>ou running for U.S. Senate,
tell you who was running for Con-
and definitely can’t tell you who wa.s
„ '^8 for House or county commi-ssion-
said 'fimothy .lohnson, chairman of
h County Republican Party.
, s sad, because at the end of the day
^Ings that affect you and 1 the most
are the decisions
that are made at the
county level.”
Johnson, 44,
stressed the im
portance. of local
issues to voters.
While striving to
keep party mem
bers connected
with national poll-
tics, real change happens at the local level,
he said.
“My first and foremost responsibility is
to galvanize our base, to communicate our
principles to the general population and to
get our candidates elected or advocate for
their election,” he said.
Kyle Cogbum, community liaison for
the Buncombe County Young Democrats,
said when it comes to quality of life, lo-
"‘At the end of the day the things
that affect yon and I the most
are the decisions that are made^
at the county level. ”
- Timothy Johnson, chairman of the
Buncombe County Republican Party
cal issues trump na
tional.
“It is the Bun
combe County
commissioners that
regulate what taxes
you pay, w’hat type
of development you
can have inthecom-
munity and how
clean our drinking
water is going to be. All those issues come
down to local politics,” Cogbum said.
Both Republican and Democratic par
ties want to energize young voters into
making a difference. Despite ideology,
both parties see local politics as the ideal
place to start.
The BCYD consists of about 15 core
members ages 18 to 35, and honoraiy' and
affiliate members, which brings the total
closer to 50. The organization promotes
local Democrats during election cycles in
efforts to elect them to local offices.
While local politics are the focus, na
tional issues matter, too. In 2007, the
BCYD airanged a visit from presidential
candidate Dennis Kiicinich and helped
staff the regional Barack Obama offices.
For their part, Johnson and fellow Re
publicans employ many of the same tools
- such as social networking and online
donations - that helped fuel Obama’s suc
cessful presidential bid. These innovations
make communication quicker, easier and
timelier than in the past.
“No longer do you have to w-ait for the
newspaper or the 6 o’clock or 11 o’clock
news to find out what is going on in your
community. It has become closer,” John
son said. “When used effectively, (the In-
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