Impact on Teaching

• Stedman cites many studies that show how the drive to prepare students for state and NCLB tests has damaged teaching and stultified classrooms. McNeil found teaching has “shifted away from intellectual activity toward dispensing packaged fragments of information sent from an upper level of the bureaucracy.” Kozol describes a “fanatical insistence” on uniformity and time management. Administrators have become obsessed with rules and standardization. Schools have cut recess in spite of growing obesity and fitness problems. The arts are being reduced, along with other untested subjects. Humes reported that students are stressed out and have become “test-taking machines” who work “until they score the grade they need, then move on.”

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