"No Child Opponents Criticize Law: Control should return to teachers, panel tells educators"

This article, written by Alan Borsuk, on February 8, 2008, states that a number of the critics of the No Child Left Behind Act gathered at a convention in Milwaukee to appeal to the Wisconsin State Reading Association arguing against the loss of control teachers are experiencing in the classroom. It is their belief that teachers should be allowed to decide what curriculum they will teach to their students and what methods they will use to do so. In their opinion, the No Child...Act dictates exactly what, and how, teachers will teach in their classrooms. The opponents of the act are especially frustrated with the emphasis placed on phonics and rigid, set curriculum expectations in reading programs. They argue that standardized testing is not an effective way to gauge how well our students are being educated. In their opinion, teachers should be the ones to evaluate their students and decide what they have learned. To achieve the highest standards in teaching, they feel that excellence should be encourage within the school systems, at all levels, from teachers to principals. They argue that the power should be placed at the school level, not be filtered down to the schools from higher authorities that may, or may not, have a real grasp on what goes on within the school systems.
I am inclined to agree with these opponents. I think it would be easy to make decisions based on statistical information, without actually having to experience what truly takes place in the classrooms. I have always found fault with standardized testing. I think it is impossible to use the same test for so many different types of learners, being taught by so many different kinds of teachers, in so many different environments and expect that test to accurately depict how much students have learned. Even if those tests show what students have learned, it is impossible to know, based on the tests, why students have, or have not, learned a particular fact or subject. There are far too many variables to consider as to why and how students learn the way they do. The teacher in each individual classroom is, and should be, the greatest authority on what his/her students already know, what they still need to learn, and how they will best learn it.
As far as reading programs are concerned, I also think the teacher should be given the authority to decide on his/her own teaching methods. Not all students learn in the same ways and who better to decide what ways to teach those students than their teachers? I especially appreciate the statement made by one of the opponents, a professor of education at the University of California, by the name of Stephen Krashen. Krashen said "'the obsession with phonics" should be replaced by "an obsession with libraries" and putting books in the hands of children."' This is so inspiring to me. As a lover of books, and an avid reader since Kindergarten, I am saddened, and worried, by the turn I see our literate culture taking. With technology becoming such a huge part of our society, I fear that fewer and fewer children are stepping into libraries and feeling the joy I felt when thumbing threw pages and pages of reading material, wondering what wonders were waiting for me within those pages. That experience played a major role in instilling in me my love for reading. There's something to be said for the power of hands-on experiences. With all of the regulations being placed on teachers today, how can they possibly be expected to ever follow their own paths and excite their students in ways only they could know will be effective?