We now have 11 pages of comments from individuals who identify themselves as teachers, educators, or students. There are undoubtedly more comments left by teachers, but I could not be sure. If you want to know more about how I selected these, please email me. 11. Kenneth J. Bernstein As a classroom teacher, I see the devastation the NCLB is causing. We must find a better way. 22205 13. Kamala Platt, Ph.D. leave the act behind...put the youth in front... 78207 42. David Hungerford I am a retired public school teacher. This petition is more than timely - it is long overdue. 48. Barbara Deardorff Teacher, LaCrosse High School 46392 132. Elizabeth Majerus As a teacher and a parent, I urge you to end No Child Left Behind and work for better laws that actually support children and their teachers 61801 164. Suzanne Miller NCLB isn't hurting my upper middle class kid so much - it is devastating the kids at risk in our district though. 30030 186. Kenneth Williams As a retired educator, I am amazed by the state of education in our country. Education is not a business and cannot be run like a company. Children are not products to be tested into oblivion and then expected to be creative, thinking citizens. NCLB has ruined the soul of education. Teachers are not merely script readers who must follow the current business model. Bring back sensible change by knowledgeable educators whose lives are devoted to improving the lives of our children. 95357 221. Anthony Cody As a National Board certified teacher, I believe deeply in accountability. However genuine accountability is being destroyed by the impossible mandates and punitive consequences of NCLB. No more! 94619 313. Donna Bozin I'm a teacher, and I'm telling you that NCLB is bad policy that no amount of money will make into good policy. 346. Katherine M. Day I agree with this petition wholeheartedly! I teach in a low socioeconomic community which has been severely harmed by the current NCLB policies. We need to let educators make policy decisions about education, not corporations and politicians. 94705 335. Sally Thomas As a strong, committed, effective educator for the last 45 years, I agree wholeheartedly with this petition. Listen to the people closest to children and schools please. NCLB, although seemingly created with good intentions, I emphasize seemingly since I do have doubts, it has terrible consequences that are diametrically opposed to its goals. Please listen! 91759 464. Jana Edwards As an educator, I see every day the damage that this ridiculous political maneuver has caused and continues to propagate. It is time for it to GO. 541. Peggie Feddersen As a teacher, I have seen the damage this misguided piece of legislation has inflicted on students, teachers and families. 547. Karen Kolar This act killed thinking in the classroom - it is why I left the classroom after 23 years of teaching elementary school. 572. Patricia Green As a Professor of Child Development and Educational Studies I work with a number of early educators who care and educate preschool through school age students. I am hearing nightmare stories of Kindergarten classes with no art, no music..only Kindergarten with no time for social, emotional, creative or physical development which supports cognitive learning. The young child, birth to eight years of age learns differently, their learning is integrated and there is a need to learn curriculum in an integrated fashion. Worksheets and drill type directive learning does not support foundational life long learning processes. We are going to be viewing some serious issues with our children in the near future. Please repeal the act and let teachers teach and the children learn appropriately. There are going to be ramifications to our communities because of the inappropriate focus on spending most of the child’s school day on preparing for tests. Please help. 613. Ignacio Magaloni Expand Head Start, and let expert educators that are independent of testing corporations design the legislative support needed for underperforming and disadvantaged school districts. 78201 853. Carmen Meléndez I am another effective teacher driven out of the classroom thanks to NCLB. This misguided legislation is destroying a whole generation of children! 896. Kat Carpen I was a highly skilled, motivated and effective educator, MS degree for my assignment. NCLB accelerated my retirement from teaching. 1575. Susan Gold As a teacher, I see the current high stakes testing environment established by NCLB detrimental to students' learning what they need to be functional citizens in an increasingly complex, global society. If the U.S. is to maintain any semblance of democracy and/or clout in the world we must find a better way to address the educational needs of our future voters. NCLB with its punitive measures is not doing the job. 94117 1602. Carol Showalter As a life-long educator, I find the NCLB initiative misconceived, shortsighted, counterproductive, deceptive, and doomed to self-destruct. Sadly, many of its purported beneficiaries are becoming casualties themselves. 47542 2010. Claudia B. Heilman I am a teacher of 25 years and our system gets worse each year. We must change or face American illiteracy without a doubt. Students see no value in education or respect for those who teach. 44022 2295. Michael Baker As a 26 year veteran teacher, I find NCLB to have the intellectual depth as that of a petri dish. 68516 2335. Ann Baker As a teacher, I've seen how NCLB demoralizes teachers and stresses children. This (NCLB) had potential to be a good idea but was implemented in such a way as to hamstring teachers, administrators, and most of all, students. It didn't work in Texas because teachers began "teaching to the test" and it has failed even more miserably on a national scale. George, you just don't know anything about education. Put this on another list of "failed projects," along with invading Iraq and helping Katrina victims. 81101 2327. Patricia A. Kennedy This law is a full frontal attack on public education. It is designed to destroy public education by setting unrealistic goals that could not be reached even if every mandate was fully funded. It is a disaster. Return the schools to local control. As a public school teacher of 32 years, this is the most dangerous piece of legislation for public schools I have ever seen. In my school district standards based education has been turned into a standardized education nightmare where all children are treated exactly the same with curriculum that teaches to a test and eliminates any pretense of teaching kids to think. The price we will pay for this kind of education is a generation of people who will know how to pass a test but have no idea how to solve the problems of our world. Please scrap this legislation now before it is too late. 80634 2453. Tina Wyatt I am a teacher in Texas. No Child Left Behind is compromising the average and above average student by focusing on minimum standards for all. Standardized testing carries too much weight. We must remember that in the US we educate everybody - whether they want and value an education or not, but in Europe and Asia, students must have proven themselves intellectually if they are to go on to higher studies. Everybody else learns a trade and goes to work. Let's give students choice and prepare them for a future that is of their choosing. Otherwise, we have students who don't care and who don't want to learn. These students compromise the educational opportunities for far too many students, both behaviorally and academically. We've actually lowered the academic bar with NCLB. NCLB should be called, "Drag Them Kicking and Screaming and Take Down the Entire Educational System in the Process." 2568. Anne Francis As a public school teacher, I have seen how testing has become the most important thing, rather than teaching children to think. The NCLB act under Johnson was intended to help improve education for children. The NCLB act has changed significantly from its original act. 23608 2644. Elizabeth Huibregtse AND Ken Huibregtse As well as teaching in Colorado, we've both taught in two overseas countries, and after observing - and talking with U.S. teachers - we feel increasingly concerned about the disadvantages and unfortunate influence of "No Child Left Behind". We're greatly impressed with the positive suggestions of this Petition. 80540-8159 2836. Mary M. Lobdell, PhD I fully support this petition and couldn't have said it better! The current educational system does, indeed, threaten our democracy. I worked in public schools for 23 years (until 2000) and my husband teaches at a public high school. With our own children, we have sacrificed my gainful employment and opted for homeschooling - not for religious reasons - but to avoid the unbearable direction schools have taken since NCLB. We had no choice, and we have NEVER regretted the decision we made six years ago. 70503 2839. Sidney Smith As a teacher of 24 years, I feel that we are indeed leaving children behind every day. We are unable to teach our children at a level and rate they are ready for. A level that takes into consideration prior knowledge, age appropriateness for both mental and physical development, creativity, a love for learning because we are able to give them that opportunity, instead of pushing them through because of a schedule that must be met. It feels like an assembly line. With NCLB, it doesn't matter what your background is, we treat all as if all are equal in all ways. I'd like to know one thing, how long has it been, if at all, have those making the requirement been in the classroom as a teacher? Have they themselves followed these same requirements? What type of school have them been in? Beverly Hills? Watt? 93551 3182. Kathleen P. Willis I have always been passionate about my job, and never felt I needed to be paid for what I do. I no longer find any joy in teaching and feel that I am harming children far more than I am helping them. I have chosen to take a leave of absence for a year to try to heal the wounds I feel from this heinous law. OF COURSE no child should be left behind, but this law is so terribly flawed in its implementation! The government would act just as foolishly if it legislated that no lawyer would ever lose another case, no doctor would ever lose another patient. People are not widgets, or pieces of metal, to be shaped and molded in cookie cutters. There is SO MUCH MORE to education than the passing of random tests. We are dealing with human beings, many of them very flawed and damaged. Educational decisions should, no MUST, be made by educators, not by legislators who have absolutely NO IDEA what the art of teaching, and nurturing responsible human beings, is about!! 05742-9668 3232. Sandra C. Goggin I am tired of teachers being blamed for failures in programs that are instituted by boards of educations, corporations, politicians, etc. who know nothing about how children learn, are not educators, and think that anyone can come into a classroom with a 5th grade education and teach. Teacher manuals are set up for anyone off the street to come in and read to children but have no idea what to look for in problems children have, nor how to deal with all the issues that teachers have gone to college to learn to do. It's amazing to me that doctors, lawyers, politicians, corporations, etc. do not allow anyone off the street to come in and tell them how to do their jobs, but they feel that anyone can teach. NO THEY CAN'T!!!! No one even asks teachers what do they need to do the job, or what do they feel needs to be changed to do their job. Charter schools, vouchers, and religious schools paid for with tax payers money are illegal rapes of the public school system. 3453. Denise Shealey As a teacher of gifted students, I see the damage being done to my students by this act. It calls for every student performing at the same level at the same point in time. This implies that all children are identical. They are not! The lower students are being pushed to frustration in order to make AYP and the high IQ students are bored out of their gourds. The effect is that kids and teachers alike are developing a dislike for school. There is one huge factor left out of the act and this petition. They both leave out parents. There is accountability aplenty for schools, but none for those who give children their values, help with homework, get the kids up on time, or provide a stable home. PARENTS ARE THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN A CHILD'S LIFE. The anti-drug campaign touts this fact, so why is there no accountability for them? 36852 3464. Mary Abella As a former high school teacher (one of the reasons I left teaching h.s. was all of the hoops we now have to jump through), I was very frustrated that I had no time to teach the way that worked with students because I had to follow the NCLBA curriculum, which leaves no time for the lessons that enrich and also work well to get them thinking creatively, make connections between learning and the real world, and even just understand a lesson better, especially for alternative learners. 46237 3616. Sara Chaddock NCLB has done nothing but force teachers to teach down to the child rather than raise the bar for children. Government funding for public schools should have nothing to do with standardized testing. One of the first things taught to new teachers is that all children express their knowledge differently and you should not use only one type of test to score their ability. The testing that is now enforced by NCLB is pointless because it only begins in fourth grade - what happens when a child receives a poor education in first, second and third? They are unable to catch up in fourth. NCLB has failed the children of this country and most importantly it has only led to the continued downfall of education in the U.S. Please do not renew NCLB - it is a joke! 70065 3656. Deborah Carter "NCLB" is an insult to the educational community and to teachers everywhere. "Teaching to the FCAT" is rampant in FL and our children are not getting the chance to explore incidental learning which sparks further study in a particular area. There is "no time" for such things, as it is of the highest importance that the school "score well". It is well known that different children learn in different ways. What works for one may not necessarily work for another. The NCLB ignores this completely & imposes a cookie cutter mold on all students, completely ignoring those "square pegs", who will fall behind because teachers are prohibited from taking the time to teach in an understandable way to them. As far as filtering money to homeschoolers and away from schools, the majority of homeschoolers DO NOT WANT the government to interfere with their children's education. Please keep your money; it is not wanted. I've been on both sides of the fence. My child has been homeschooled & public educated. The NCLB has to go! 33710 3665. Judith Depew As a past teacher of the year I am greatly distressed over NCLB. The program was rigid and removed the teacher from the equation. I resigned after 40 years of teaching. I had several more good years of teaching left in me BUT I quit due to the very narrow scope of NCLB. There is way too much testing on beginning learners! 94510 3700. Brenda Overturf As educators, we welcome accountability. However, this law and its simplistic "solutions" undermines successful state reform efforts, encourages excellent teachers and potential teachers to leave the field, renders the arts and social sciences unimportant, and makes children unhappy to go to school due to a narrow curricular focus, emphasis on testing, and stress felt by adults. 40291 3830. Valerie Symmonds I teach high school ESL. My students arrive with vastly varied educational backgrounds over which I have no control. Despite that, I am expected to have them proficient in English at grade level within one or two years. Research shows that it takes 5-7 years to become proficient in a second language. The expectations on my students are unrealistic and will eventually penalize every student in my school when a few students do not make AYP. Statistically, it is impossible for us to make proficiency. We do not test the same students, they are not given enough time to succeed, and we have a huge migrant population. NCLB needs to be severely altered and preferably rescinded. 66801 3885. Sherry Dostal One reason I would want the dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act, we are unable in the urban area of Omaha Neb, to hire paraprofessionals with the NCLB restriction that these para-professionals are required to have a 2 year degree in Early Childhood. The positions we have open at our school have been posted since May of 06 and here it is Nov of 06 and these positions are still not filled. I have 8 special needs 3 year olds the Title 1 classroom has 15 students and no para. This law has created more difficulties than it has created opportunities for students and teachers Please dismantle NCLB. 68104 4327. Kristen Griswold As a teacher of foreign language, I have found this stupid law to only reduce the amount of time I see my students due to ridiculous and ineffective testing requirements. Also, requiring ALL students to reach proficiency by any year is ignoring the fact that we are all human beings and human beings, especially children, are not capable of being perfect! 1230 4419. Kimberly Cotter-Lemus I am a teacher in an urban district; a district in dire need of federal funding, yet penalized on more measures than suburban or rural districts. I see and feel the effects NCLB has had and continues to have on my students and the entire educational environment. There is no joy in education and our children are suffering immeasurably. 02886 4570. Regina Sackman I have been an educator for thirteen years and with NCLB I have seen schools advocate for teaching to the test instead of teaching students skills to be successful. Students are now looked at as data, resulting in the loss of humanity and inquiry in the educational process. 44906 4663. Valerie N. Williams There has been a mass exodus of great teachers as a direct result of NCLB. NCLB has created a hostile environment where teachers are treated as second-class citizens because, according to the government, we are not doing the job of the PARENTS!! Personally, I don't get paid enough to have to put up with the kind of bureaucracy NCLB has created and the resultant backlash of disrespect from students and parents. If this doesn't stop, we will continue to lose the best teachers, because we know that we are better than this and our idealism will only last so long before it becomes JADE! Our new congress and senate. . .get going. We elected you, now GO!!! 46544 4823. Joan Smith I am a special ed resource teacher with 20 years experience in an elementary school. NCLB is fantasy, not reality. All children are capable of learning but not at the same proficiency. I am dedicated to teaching every child but I am saddened by the levels of testing and frustrations heaped on my students. 79601 5007. Maria DeFelice As a teacher, I daily see the stultifying results of NCLB on both students and staff. Time which could be spent on reading, creative writing, critical thinking is squandered as we teach to the test. 5241. Nevin Jenkins I have been a teacher for 11 years. My kids have test anxiety because of these mandates and my district cannot move forward. Creativity is lost in the classroom. This needs to be fixed now. 44120 5469. Margaret Cargo I am receiving the required "training" necessary to obtain a credential to work with English Language Learners. In order to pass three "CTEL" exams, which test lower-level thinking skills, we teachers are encouraged to take three courses which appear to have been hastily put together. The manuals for these courses present hypotheses of language acquisition without really explaining what is being hypothesized or giving information on testing of the hypothesis. The tests evidently test vocabulary knowledge but the manuals have no glossaries. Several terms are used but never adequately defined. The training purports to be rigorous but seems more like pseudoscience. And yet we educators are supposed to consider this training as a model for how to work with English Language Learners. 5737. Nancy E. Jackson I have been an educator for 20 years with poor, minority students who are learning English as their second language. NCLB is biased, poorly envisioned, and does not seek to truely educate all students equally. The primary objective of NCLB is to dismantle public education and it's potential for access and opportunity. 95060 5712. Midori Wagner I am a teacher. NCLB is creating an environment that is leaving our most needy learners far far behind. It handicaps teachers' ability to use classroom time to truly educate all students well. Teachers are not doing a bad job. Students are not doing a bad job. The passage of NCLB has created an environment where it is nearly impossible for teachers to create an environment where students are invited to engage their own learning. It is destroying public education in America. 5822. Cynthia A. Hasz As an elementary teacher of 34 years I have been saddened and angered at the damage that NCLB has done to higher level thinking and to creativity both from teachers and students. We are in danger of raising children who will be unable to think for themselves and instead will wait to be told what a correct response is. We cannot afford such an approach to education in a democracy. NCLB needs to be repealed and then the policy makers need to listen to real teachers in real classrooms for real solutions. We also need to realize that the problems in our educational system DO NOT happen in a vacuum. If lower income and minority children are doing poorly in school it is because of a pervasive attitude of marginalizing these populations. For a starter ask Marian Wright Edelman what to do…since NCLB hoped to ride to success on the coat tails of HER slogan "Leave no child behind." The administration pulled a bait and switch. Edelman's concerns have always been for the whole child; not so this administration. 5887. Cynthia L. Bomeli I have been a teacher for over 27 years, a parent for over 28, and a grandmother of two for only a few months. For the sake of my grandchildren, my students, and all the children in the United States, PLEASE REPEAL THIS ATROCITY IMMEDIATELY!!! Our sons attended public schools, and I had hoped my grandchildren would do the same. Unless something changes, I am sad to say my grandchildren will almost certainly attend private schools. You have the power to do the right thing, and I expect you to do it NOW. 44139 6191. Nanci Kelley All children can learn SOMETHING, but it may not be on a specific grade level. Get real! I teach 28 kids all day long and I cannot get all of them on the same grade level. Some of my children are above grade level, some are close to grade level, and some due to learning disabilities and environment issues WILL NOT, NEVER, BE ON GRADE LEVEL no matter what I do or don't do in the classroom. 72022 6367. Brenda Pippin I have administered the CSAP test on too many occasions where students simply do not take it seriously. Can we not be trusted as educators to assess the learning that takes place or does not take place in our classrooms? It would be wonderful if we could track the individual successes of every teacher in every classroom, but we do not live in a perfect world. Kids simply do not take these tests seriously. I have had kids literally write the "F" bomb all over it. Should the entire school be penalized for the actions and attitudes of a select group? Teachers are observed by their school districts and licensed through their state, is that not to be trusted? We are educated. Does that not deserve some credibility? 80643 6743. Abra Quinn I'm a teacher who has taught for nine years in "underperforming" schools, and seen our electives programs slashed in favor of remedial classes in reading and math -- students need art, drama, music, cooking, foreign language, and other electives. They are not optional extras. "Underperforming" almost always seems also to mean "under-resourced". NCLB penalizes students and focuses on unrealistically raising test scores rather than educating the whole child. 94611 7004. Bette Jean White I am a National Board Certified Teacher, a 36 year teacher veteran. NCLB has dismantled our grade level teams and moved teachers into areas they have not taught for many years, disregarding their experience. It has shown to be counter-productive. It requires too much class time used for testing, not teaching. 87059 7209. Ruth van Veenendaal In 42 years of teaching in public schools I have never seen such a backward move. To meet the test scores, schools are reverting to the Ford assembly line procedure. Page 16 on Friday whether or not you are ready and you better learn it by golly. It does not individualize to help each child attain their optimum. 08071 7268. Wendy Lego I am retiring early primarily due to the manner in which I am forced to teach and assess, I don't teach much reading any more, I am too busy testing children. I have read the comments of others who have signed and agree fully. There must be a better way than NCLB. Fund education the way it should be, so that there are less than 20 students in each class, with enough updated computers to meet the needs of today's children. Give teachers some control over what goes on in our classes. We feel we are fleeing a sinking ship, after giving our entire lives to our students and our profession. It is a sad way to end a career. Want to prevent more teachers and students from suffering? 7353 Glynda Cobb I am an educator and I see first hand the negative impact this document is having on our school system. 90201 7357 Jeanne M. Davis The poor quality of education resulting from this bill has contributed to my leaving my post teaching public school to work in the private sector. My kindergarten students were inappropriately made to take many tests that did not value their own progress but how they could compare to others who also were being taught with the tests as the goal of their education. 7447 Peter L. Klitzke As a 1st grade teacher, NCLB harms the at-risk students it purports to help. The testing schedule at my school is 3 weeks where all the support teachers (reading specialist, E.L.L., special ed) are administering tests and are not available to the students in my class who need them. The result is a "catch 22" where at risk students receive a lower quality education due to testing, but the school is potentially penalized for poor performance. 86001 7491 Joyce Brott This is the most ridiculous program I've ever worked with. It really means All Children Left Behind. 60615 7496 Morgan J Condo My sister is also a teacher (and has been for 35 years) and has a doctorate degree. She is totally discouraged by programs such as the no child left behind. 7499 Nancy Suzanne Standerford In my 35 years as an educator from PK through graduate teacher education, I have never seen a policy that so poorly defined and addressed issues in educating our children. We must reconsider our approaches to supporting high quality education and what that means for our children and teachers. I urge you to vote against reauthorizing NCLB. 92869 7514 Dani Monteverde I have been teaching under this act for the last four years and find that it does children a great disservice! 93065 7561 William B. Baker If you think NCLB is such a good idea, you come with me and administer standardized test to students with disabilities, working class students, students who didn't grow up with English as their first language, and kids who are just plain alienated, and explain to them why they should even try to do a good job. You think "evidence" from these tests is reliable? You're "not proficient" in critical thinking. 7584 AJ Horkey NCLB has been a thorn in educators’ sides because it was not created by educators, but politicians who know very little, if anything about teaching children. The expectations are too high for children who have low abilities, learning disabled, etc.. I took an early retirement from education because of the stressors of NCLB. I could no longer be creative, innovative and motivate my students because of the confinements of government mandates that government had no knowledge of constraints put on educators. Such constraints of lack of parent and administrative support, lack of understanding of the educational process of the community and the lack of the ability to redirect behavior problems with children. 1027 7590 Victoria J Reno I'm a 30 yr. vet teacher and could not agree more w/ Mr. Lane. 43214 7600 Malia Menendez I'm a middle school math teacher who is seriously thinking about changing careers because of NCLB. I work at a school that makes AYP. 17268 7613 Stephanie Young I am a teacher in a public school currently and I am seeing first hand how NCLB is "killing" the love of learning in these children and "killing" the love of teaching in teachers. 7647 Lorretta Chavez I am not teaching students to love to read or love to learn. I am "phontasizing" them (shoving more and more phonics down their throat) which is in no way instilling a desire to pick up a book and read! I numb myself everyday to get through my teaching day. More and more curriculum to cover, more and more paperwork that goes along with the "data-driven dialog" that we endlessly babble about. It's sad, we are cultivating a generation of students who hate to read and who are not intrinsically motivated to learn. But heck, they can sure fill in bubbles. 92649 7783 Dr. Rory Donnelly As a teacher educator for ESL, I've seen firsthand the havoc this bill has wreaked in our schools. 97392 7792 Amy Rhodes I am a 4th grade teacher and I agree with the notion to dismantle the NCLB Act. 92119 7809 Ben Chun I am a public high school teacher, and I support this petition. 94602 7811 Laurie Walters I strongly agree with the contents of this petition. I have been an educator for 27 years and have never seen anything so ridiculous. 99006 7817 Dave Zeller As a retired teacher I see this act as bad for the education of under-privileged children. 85296 7864 Honey L. Barber After teaching Special Education for over 30 years, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain a positive outlook for my moderately handicapped students. The NCLB law created such emotional havoc with the children because of "teaching to the tests" that they would often become physically ill in addition to emotionally devastated. Prior to NCLB I was always able to challenge my students to achieve at their highest capabilities by concentrating on THEIR strengths and interests. That's what education is about - The CHILDREN, not politicians who jump on and off bandwagons when it "looks good" for them. 94602 7897 Mitchell Russell Since NCLB, I have seen a decline in my students' knowledge and performance in school. 60645 7898 David Conneely I agree with the contents of this petition. NCLB does not improve education. NCLB hurts education. I am a public high school teacher. 45420 |