Teachers Taking Responsibility
Time for Teachers to Take Responsibility
Identifying the problem.
In today's society, many factors contribute to the academic failure in urban education. As time passes, however, schools and teachers are placing more blame upon the students for lack of potential, discipline, and motivation to learn. In reality, however, this scapegoat allows many teachers' to relinquish any responsibility for their students' not learning. Many students in urban schools live in poverty, have learning disabilities, or come from bilingual backgrounds where English is not their native language. When in this society did we start blaming the victim, or in this case the students, for not having the resources needed to nourish their bodies and minds, let alone their educational needs. As teachers, we need to break the vicious cycle of blame and start being held accountable for the achievement gap that progressively grows wider as urban children develop.
The current status of the issues.
In January of 2002 the Bush administration passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which "proposes to close achievement gaps and aims for 100 percent student proficiency by 2014" (Guilfoyle). This law requires schools to give standardized tests to students and holds individual schools, districts, and teachers accountable to nationwide standards. These tests carry consequences for schools and districts that perform poorly. If schools fail to bring enough of their students to proficiency, they face government reprimands. Are our schools measuring up to academic standards? According to a report by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, "most states
are doing a poor job of narrowing achievement gaps despite attention focused on poor and minority students by the federal No Child Left Behind Act" (Jacobson, 2006).
Unfortunately, this law may be causing as much harm as good. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools...
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