by Tammie Washington

Created on: February 28, 2008

The topic was chosen because I noticed that the focus on standardize testing in our state seemed to be becoming more popular. After researching the material related to the No Child Left Behind Act. I discovered that President Bush has set a time line for all students in American to be on grade level. The time frame is 2014 however minority students seem to be farthest behind based on the reported ratios.

I interviewed several people from different arenas. One who is an elementary student, another who is a high school student, another a Leon County employee who works with the home school program and lastly an Leon County Official.

I discovered that all of those whom I interviewed agreed on one point. That point is that we must find a way to accomplish our goal of proving the knowledge of our children. The prospect of having all students performing on grade level by 2014 seems all but impossible if we do not find more creative ways to teach the required information. I believe that we should also have more than one manner in which to test the student. We could include an oral presentation to be included along with the standardized test.

We as a nation believe that we can only teach our children to pass the FCAT or any other standardized test through repetition and drill. We have abandoned the creativity that used to set the teachers apart. Teachers were known for their ability to think outside the box.

The pressure to succeed has taken that away and now all teachers seem to be the same. The teachers are frustrated and the students are performing poorly, this should have set off an alarm that we have a real problem but it has not.

If we allow ourselves to remember, our children learned how to speak without any of the drilling that we see today. Those same children picked up habits and words that we would have preferred that they never learned all by themselves. My point, is that children learn easier when they are not pressed or drilled the information. If we place our youth in the right environment with the teachers that are creative and exciting we will have impressive results.

It has been said that black children learn differently, if this is true than those same children must be taught differently. We must discover what works! We can no longer just leave children behind because they learn differently. Those same children may not have a parent at home that can explain the material. Our children may need tutors, but in most cases no tutors are available. These are

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