And Now, a Word of Praise for NCLB

Nice to see Florida's 2004 Teacher of the Year praising NCLB:

The system was obviously broken, but there was no uprising among parents or teachers. I often wondered, why not? Finally, finally some brave souls stood up and said, "We're not going to take it anymore. We will not stand for mediocrity and students graduating who cannot read. We will make education our number one priority and we will hold states and schools and teachers accountable."

The No Child Left Behind Act was ushered into the new century with bipartisan support. It held the promise of improving student achievement and changing the culture of American schools in a single generation. Soon the names of "failing" schools were splashed across the headlines—those same schools that we had sporadically heard about for years. We had always known they were failing, but now they were priority Number One on the school board agenda.

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And Now, a Word of Praise for NCLB

By Dayle Timmons

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/01/17/12tln_timmons.html?clean=true

As part of a new partnership, teachermagazine.org is publishing this regular column by members of the Teacher Leaders Network, a professional community of accomplished educators dedicated to sharing ideas and expanding the influence of teachers.

It was eight years ago—one of those years when I was trying to be super mom, super wife, super teacher. My husband, out of desperation, finally decided to hire a housekeeper to come once every two weeks to relieve some of the pressure at home. What a gift!

For months the housekeeper slipped quietly into my home while I was at school. I couldn't wait to get home. I would take in the smell of Pledge and Pinesol as I opened the door. On this particular day, she came while I was working at home. When she was finished working her magic, she walked in softly and stood by my desk. When I looked up, her eyes were on the floor. She stammered, "As I've been cleaning your house, I guessed you was a teacher." "Why, yes!" I said, quite proud of my profession. "Well. … I was wondering. I graduated from high school here in town but I didn't never learn to read. Do you think you could teach me to read?"

I was appalled. How was it possible that in this day and age that a child could graduate from high school and not learn to read?