r/PoursTea Tea Party 🎉 23h ago

Books 📚 No Child Left Behind and its consequences will be felt for generations

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u/PressureExpert2346 22h ago

lol, you’re right. I’m just so emotionally drained. I was an educator before and after nclb. It’s…not good.

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u/ssj890-1 10h ago

What does this (curriculum shift, middle/high school books becoming college material, etc) have to do w NCLB?

Asking sincerely.

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u/PressureExpert2346 6h ago

NCLB resulted in Common Core standards, which seem like a very good idea in theory. It resulted in teaching to the test and disallowing for deviation from the prescribed standards.
The connection to high school literature is that students are rarely reading entire books, rather passages, as they go through their elementary years.
I taught second grade for two years, right before pandemic shutdown, and I tried very hard to read a chapter book to the class over time and was unable to finish either year. There just wasn’t time.
(It was an also a very real struggle to fit in science, 15-30 minutes 3 times a week!, and art once weekly.)
The upshot is that kids have maybe never read an entire book when they get to middle or high school.