Illinois Teaching Standards

Today in class, we talked about the state of Illinois’ teaching standards by first reading each other’s articles from the ISBE website. While we had the opportunity to understand some of the standards that the state has, this assignment also introduced me to technology, improved my research skills, and caused me to collaborate with others. Each of these skills are important to develop before becoming a teacher. We began our class discussion by defining what standards are and the four different types of standards. Our discussion quickly moved to the No Child Left Behind Act and tracking in the classroom. Although the No Child Left Behind Act was mean to keep teachers and schools accountable for the success in their students’ learning, it has been unsuccessful thus far and the gap between middle-class students and minorities and low-income students is growing. Whenever this act was brought up in my high school classes, our teachers discussed it with a negative view. This is because most educators (in fact, all the educators that I’ve talked to) believe that the No Child Left Behind Act interrupts learning in the classroom. Because schools must meet certain requirements, teachers prepare students for standardized tests rather than taking time to teach other important lessons. Teachers are motivated to train students to perform well on testing instead. Just like tracking, students are put into groups in order to observe their improvement. During today’s State of the Union Address, President Bush briefly talked about the act and how it has been successful, which surprised me because I have heard little praise about its results. I understand what legislators are trying to achieve, but I feel that they are going about the wrong way to do so. It is my hope that one day creative learning and the assessment of the quality of learning in a school can be combined.