Community Lines Up for Public Education
On Sunday March 27th Promise the Children held it’s first screening of No Child Left Behind at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn. No Child Left Behind is a documentary by Northeastern Professor Louis Kruger on the impact of “high-stakes testing” on Massachusetts children.
There were about 20 participants attracted to the screening and discussion from the church and the local area. We showed the film to raise awareness of the raging debate on educational reform and to better inform ourselves on some practical ways that we can work to improve public education particularly for minorities: children of color, english language learners, and children with disabilities.
Much of the discussion focused around the particular needs of special needs children and how they are being abandoned by our public school system. One retired teacher spoke of how he would design studies to help students pass the MCAS knowing that they would be better served learning other things that would really help them to function in life.
Another woman who helped advocate for children with special needs lamented that she had grown weary of seeing “ed plans” again and again set goals that she knew would not be met but satisfied some requirement of the system.
I walked away with a little better understanding of the trials faced by children and parents of special needs kids. We didn’t come up with any grand new ideas or proposals for change but we did meet others who are deeply concerned about public education and we did meet a few people who want to take the conversation to other churches in the area.
If you have ideas about how Promise the Children can propose programs or changes that will help to turn around the ever widening achievement gap in the US please comment. We would love to hear from you. Clearly there are profound flaws with using one test to evaluate children and their teachers like the MCAS, although the value of testing and accountability is great.
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