Spring Break
CEA joins No Child Left Behind opposition
Regina Forker
Issue date: 4/26/05 Section: News
"We should spend money getting new teachers in the classrooms and not on litigation," he said.
"There's a lot of concern expressed by teachers about the act," Schwab said. "They're worried that because there's so much emphasis on standardized testing that there isn't the opportunity to do enrichment opportunities. They also worry that there's so little time to be creative in the classroom that it hurts their teaching."
Schwab said one of the law's weakest points is the fact it treats all students the same, regardless of special needs individual students may have.
"We know you can't apply one set of standards to a whole group," he said.
Arthur Dimock is an adjunct chemistry professor at UConn. Through outreach programs around the state, he is able to interact with students at the elementary and high school level.
The outreach programs Dimock is involved in are conducted at no cost to the schools, but Dimock said the NCLB Act has pulled away funding for many other worthy school programs.
"Losing our ability to challenge and excite the high end students may have a serious consequence down the road -- both for the development of a strong pool of candidates for our colleges and universities and for society in general," Dimock said.
Dimock also said the overall effect of the NCLB Act thus far has been to take money away from programs put in place to address educational concerns that were "developing a successful track record."
"This 'one size fits all' federal mandate does a disservice to states that were being successful without the legislation," he said. "For these reasons, I applaud the attorney general's effort to fight implementation of certain requirements of the Act."
Dean of the UConn Fine Arts Department David Woods also finds fault with the act.
At a fine arts department conference last November, "Developing a Positive Future for Music Education," Woods talked about the negative effect it was having on music education in his speech, "Teaching/Learning in Music - Positive Steps Forward."
"There's a lot of concern expressed by teachers about the act," Schwab said. "They're worried that because there's so much emphasis on standardized testing that there isn't the opportunity to do enrichment opportunities. They also worry that there's so little time to be creative in the classroom that it hurts their teaching."
Schwab said one of the law's weakest points is the fact it treats all students the same, regardless of special needs individual students may have.
"We know you can't apply one set of standards to a whole group," he said.
Arthur Dimock is an adjunct chemistry professor at UConn. Through outreach programs around the state, he is able to interact with students at the elementary and high school level.
The outreach programs Dimock is involved in are conducted at no cost to the schools, but Dimock said the NCLB Act has pulled away funding for many other worthy school programs.
"Losing our ability to challenge and excite the high end students may have a serious consequence down the road -- both for the development of a strong pool of candidates for our colleges and universities and for society in general," Dimock said.
Dimock also said the overall effect of the NCLB Act thus far has been to take money away from programs put in place to address educational concerns that were "developing a successful track record."
"This 'one size fits all' federal mandate does a disservice to states that were being successful without the legislation," he said. "For these reasons, I applaud the attorney general's effort to fight implementation of certain requirements of the Act."
Dean of the UConn Fine Arts Department David Woods also finds fault with the act.
At a fine arts department conference last November, "Developing a Positive Future for Music Education," Woods talked about the negative effect it was having on music education in his speech, "Teaching/Learning in Music - Positive Steps Forward."