Education in Politics

James Crawford wrote this blog post about the topic, in which he linked this page of quotes from candidates about education and this page linking candidates to their advisors for education policy.

And because I'm most interested in Obama right now, I read this statement by his advisor, Linda Darling-Hammond.

As a teacher, I can assure anyone who wants to know that NCLB isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. There are teachers in my school who openly confess to teaching to the test and simultaneously bemoan the fact that they can't cover everything the students need to know about the subject matter. This semester will be my first teaching an End of Course Test class, English I, and I'm not so sure I'll be able to hold out against the pressure. I mean, it's not just whether or not I plan my lessons around the test itself. The entire county has "streamlined" unit plans and lesson plans to make sure all the teachers teach to the test. I just heard an assistant principal say that if he goes from one English I teacher's room to another, he should be able to see the same things being taught at the same time. Good God! Where's teacher autonomy these days? What happened to trusting well-trained and highly qualified teachers to do what's right for the kids? To return to my point, teaching to tests isn't making sure no kid gets left behind; it's making sure they're all getting sub-par education. Expensive standardized testing will never be able to show what teacher grading can about a student's progress through the year. (And here I'll plug FairTest.Org.) What current NCLB legislation overlooks is that it takes more than one type of measurement to really determine a student's growth.

So, if you care about what a teacher thinks should matter in the upcoming election, then be sure to focus on what the candidates are saying and promising about education. NCLB doesn't need just reform and funding. It need a complete overhaul.