Study: Most teachers pan No Child Left Behind
By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell/San Bernardino Sun
As early as kindergarten, California teachers spend as much as 40 minutes to an hour a day doing assessments of their small charges in preparation for the years of testing to come. By second grade, much of the school year is devoted to readying students for a whole week of testing in English-language arts and math, and the momentum only builds through 11th grade. The focus on reaching the high standards of the No Child Left Behind Act means educators spend hours every day sharing test-taking skills with students and teaching math and English, with only minutes left in the day to teach other subjects. "When you look at the philosophy of teaching the whole child, you have to expose the children to all possibilities," said Gerald Kasinski, the former principal at San Bernardino's Davidson Elementary School. (more...)