Dear Mr. Pascrell Jr.
I am writing you in regards to the current debate over the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. There have been some positives that have come from NCLB,such as better teachers and more readily accessable information for parents, but I would like to address an issue that needs changed.
I am a health and physical education teacher, so I am not directly affected by NCLB. I have noticed over the past couple of years that my students perform as robots. They are no longer able to have creativity in the classroom due to the gruelling pace of preparations for testing. These tests do not accurately show what the students are learning. Instead, they breed anxiety and frustration. The teachers feel pressure to educate the students directly on what is tested which causes the kids to loose out on many of the exciting field trips, and projects that were done in the past. Standardized testing is only one tool to measure what a child knows, and in many cases not a good one. There needs to be many more accurate ways to assess them, such as rubrics, and projects. Students feel less pressure, and a more diverse group of students will respond to this type of testing.
I urge you to take this issue into consideration and thank you for your time listening to my concerns as an educator in the New Jersey schools.
Sincerely,
Kara Tate
