In essence we’re telling children that their only option to learn is to conform to a revised mass-produced curriculum based on standardized testing that emphasizes competition amongst students, schools, and districts. This approach has not worked over the last 10 years, how is a revision of this idea going to all of a sudden become effective?

On Saturday, the Obama Administration released its plan for revising NCLB. The new plan…

· Shifts the focus from underperforming schools to cultivating a "race to the top" to reward successful improvements.

· Places more importance on academic growth than the current pass-fail approach to judging schools

· Refocuses the main goal from having reading and mathematics only to incorporate history, geography, etc…

· Does nothing to reduce an unhealthy obsession with standardized testing that treats our kids more like cars than human beings.

· Makes teacher compensation based on their performance and classes progress.

It seems to me like this is doing the same old thing in a different way. Plus I find it hard to believe that the Teachers Unions will agree to allow teacher compensation to be based on performance. However, what troubles me the most, is that the plan is still centered on antiquated thinking and standardized tests which has proven to repress both the students and the teachers’ motivation and natural creativity to learn and grow in a functional way that works for each student.

The industrial assembly line system of standardized tests and mass-produced curriculum has to be overhauled and brought into the 21^st century. Look at some of largest companies in the global economy (i.e. car makers) they’ve had to dramatically change how they view, approach, and organize their operations to remain successful. And they did it because it was demanded by the marketplace and the bottom line. Our children are demanding a reform to the System via the simple fact that they don’t respond to our political solutions. Are we listening?

Doing the same thing in different ways and expecting improved results is foolhardy at best. The writing is on the wall, and the solutions to our educational problems already exist. The first step to reforming our Education System might be to focus on students and teachers as people, not mass produced machines. From that perspective the problem will look different and so will our solutions.

To Read more about the revisions to NCLB in “Get The Facts”

Sir Ken Robinson speaks about how to improve Education System:

SOURCES:

Obama Calls for Major Change in Education Law:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?pagewanted=all

Education Chief Pitches No Child Rewrite Plan:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/17/duncan.no.child/index.html