Teacher Protests No Child Left Behind Test

Wisconsin "Conscientious Objector" Sits Out Testing, Threatened With Discipline

(AP)  A middle school teacher is protesting the federal No Child Left Behind law by refusing to administer a standardized test to his eighth-grade students.

David Wasserman, a middle school teacher in Madison, began his protest Tuesday. Instead of giving students the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam, he sat in the teacher's lounge, leaving his colleagues to oversee the test.

He said he has moral objections to the federal law, President Bush's signature education policy. The state test is used to measure whether schools are meeting annual benchmarks under the law. Schools that do not meet goals can face sanctions.

Like many teachers, Wasserman said he believes the test is a poor way to measure student progress, takes up too much class time and is used unfairly to punish schools. So after years of growing frustration, he said he decided to be a "conscientious objector" this year.

Wasserman said he originally planned to resume his protest on Thursday, the second day of testing, and through four more days of testing next week. But he said Wednesday he would likely back off and give the test after Superintendent Art Rainwater told a teacher's union official that Wasserman could be fired if the protest continued.

"I can't jeopardize health insurance for my family," said Wasserman, 36. "I want to still hold by my morals, which I feel very strongly about. But I have a family to think about."

In a statement released to The Associated Press on Wednesday evening, Rainwater noted the district was required by state law to fulfill the federal requirement.

"It is part of every teacher's duty to administer the test," he said. "Any failure to fulfill this required duty would be considered insubordination and subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination."

Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for FairTest, a national group that opposes the overuse of standardized tests, said he was unaware of any other teachers who have refused to administer tests to protest No Child Left Behind. Other teachers have boycotted high-stakes state tests used for graduation or promotion, he said.

"It is an act of moral courage, and it certainly helps call attention to the widespread misuse of standardized testing," he said. "The natural bureaucratic reaction is always to threaten people with severe sanctions. That's why people have to have the moral fiber to put themselves at risk."

Wasserman, who has taught in the district for six years, said he is being treated unfairly because his colleagues at Sennett Middle School could administer the test without him.

[cmp271]

NCLB is a Democrat idea!!!

NCLB needs to be abolished as it ultimately punishes the student.

Parents need to be held accountable for their own childs behavior. Students act like animals in school nowadays, and teachers are taught a "kim ba Ya" style to handle them. Parents need to teach their children to respect not only teachers but anyone in authority. Students are immoral, loud mouthed, foul mouthed and out of control.

HOw can teachers teach a mob? Teachers do a hard unappreciated job. It is also very low pay for what it is. Teachers should not be held accountable if your child does not learn or do their homework. Parents should be fined and put in jail for their lack of guidance.

Also it is the liberals who have ruined education. I can''t believe how kids are being taught today, it is no wonder they aren''t learning anything.

Also why are the mentally handicapped/slow/downs syndrome, and etc in the classroom. I have a friend who told me there are kids who are there in diapers and are barely functioning because of NCLB and of course the IDEA act. These malfunctioning children are a drain to the district budget and should be the parents responsibility NOT the School District. If your kid is too far gone to be reasonably taught YOU the Parent should pay and not the taxpayers. Whats next teachers have to be nurses now too???

[libsluvsuvs]

F I R E his arse..let him find a job where his morals can be rewarded..

[libsluvsuvs]

Like many teachers, Wasserman said he believes the test is a poor way to measure student progress, takes up too much class time and is used unfairly to punish schools. So after years of growing frustration, he said he decided to be a "conscientious objector" this year.

*****

these *** king liberal teachers..why test when you can lower the standard?? too much time away from thier ''political lectures''.that is why we are in this shi*t in the first place.. these morally rich liberal teachers would drop that ''moral'' for an extra dollar per hour.

fu cking liberal leaches

[olebd]

Maybe it''''s OK to leave a few children behind for the common good. Focus our attention on saving the children who want to learn. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Some schools for learning and others for sports - which is where the real money is anyway. And the gansters can play in the streets where they belong.


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Posted by vancouverboo at 11:22 AM : Nov 01, 2007

So very true. Some kids just don''t WANT to learn. If they are not conditioned early enough, it becomes almost impossible to motivate them. Just as some kids are not meant for college, yet there should be alternate paths available to them. This No Child Left Behind thing is another Bush failure. It causes teachers to focus too much on pre tests and post tests and test scores. The kids are not taught by repetition anymore because of this mess. And their long term retention of what they are supposed to learn is lost.

[tngreen]

Back when the baby boomers were in school, the kids in my working-class public school--even the mildly developmentally challenged ones--could read, do long division, and diagram a sentence. We sometimes had as many as 32 children in a class. Teachers could for the most part maintain order in the classroom. We knew how to form a single-file line. At the risk of this sounding like a "we walked to school uphill in the snow both ways" story, what the heck has happened to our public schools?

My guess is that the fault lies with parents who do not discipline their children at home or reinforce lessons learned in the classroom. My daughter''s friends were always amazed at the size of our library when they visited our home. They always seemed to have more unsupervised time than she did, with unrestricted access to TV and Internet. They were left home alone or dumped at the mall or theater at a younger age. When behavior problems arose, they were quick to defend their child before investigating the complaint. How can one teacher be expected to correct the negligence or deficiencies of the parents of a room full of children?

Perhaps a class on parenting should become a required high school course under this infernal No Child Left Behind program!

[ioweign]

Maybe it''''s OK to leave a few children behind for the common good. Focus our attention on saving the children who want to learn. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Some schools for learning and others for sports - which is where the real money is anyway. And the gansters can play in the streets where they belong.

Posted by vancouverboo at 11:22 AM : Nov 01, 2007

The ones left behind can become President and Vice-President, just like now !!

[knyghtwolf]

How about allowing Jeff Foxworthy set up & administer a standardized test? It was already proven that bush could not even pass the tests for 5th, 6th, and 7th grade versions, most people can''t.

[vancouverboo]

Maybe it''s OK to leave a few children behind for the common good. Focus our attention on saving the children who want to learn. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Some schools for learning and others for sports - which is where the real money is anyway. And the gansters can play in the streets where they belong.

[sigotratando]

ttiwkram, I thought the same thing when I read this article. I wondered also how the test results were being misused. My thinking is that we need a bit more of the story, and this article is short on journalism.

[questionnews]

Why do some of these teachers and teacher unions keep trying to lower the bar. Every other country is raising the standards of education and are blowing the US away. While the average American 4th grade student struggles with fractions, the rest of the world''s 4th graders are mastering geometry. Of course these unions will fall back on thier usual motto. "Let''s pour more money into the bloated, dysfunctional system!!"