Analysis Of Stop Blaming Teachers

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Anne Perrin’s article “Stop Blaming Teachers” draws attention to how the No Child Left Behind law has negatively affected public schools. Throughout high school, I was able to see how this law has damaged public education through the application of standardized testing, which created a system focused on federal funding, placing blame on teachers, and cheating hardworking students.
Perrin argues that the government’s influence on public education with the No Child Left Behind law is ruining public schools. This law was created with the intention of increasing the nation’s world standings in academics through the use of standardized testing, which students must pass with at least a proficient score. Perrin states that one of the main problems …show more content…

Standardized tests, and student results in general, are viewed as a reflection of how well a teacher is able to educate their students. So when a student fails, it is the teacher that takes the blame. Perrin recalls being under similar circumstances, even being told that any failure in her room is her fault (53). During my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to discuss these ideas with my senior english teacher, Mr. Sundling. Since he only teaches seniors, Mr. Sundling does not have to prepare students for any Keystones, but I found that he is still affected by the mentality that comes with these exams. When a student fails, he is still held accountable for their lack of success. Even teachers that are not a part of the standardized testing system are still pressured by schools to make sure students are producing high quality results. I remember how Mr. Sundling expressed his anger towards a system that makes him take the blame for a student’s failure. Perrin describes how frustrating this can be by comparing it to a scenario where a doctor is blamed for not being able to cure a teenager’s ailment, even though the doctor had done his job, and it was the teenager that had failed to listen (52). Students are able to escape failure by making the teacher look at fault. Mr. Sundling only wanted us to succeed, but when the occasional failure did slip through, he was the one being held

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