Everyone has a story. What's yours?
 Linda Thomas
twitter: @TheNewsChick
About Linda
Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

If you have a news tip or story idea, I'd love to hear from you...

To leave a voice message for Linda about any of her stories call toll free 1-855-251-2363

Follow Me on Pinterest


2013.jpg
The Class of 2013 was in third grade when the federal No Child Left Behind law went into effect. A former high school teacher apologizes to college professors for sending them students who are very bright, but not prepared for intellectual challenges. (Facebook photo of a senior class from Maryland)

A high school teacher warns colleges about the Class of 2013

March 14, 2013 @ 5:07 pm (Updated: 8:20 pm - 3/16/13 )

As the University of Washington sends out its college acceptance letters today, a high school teacher writes an open letter to professors everywhere apologizing for the class of 2013.

"I have just retired as a high school teacher. I have some bad news for you," says Kenneth Bernstein. "In case you do not already see what is happening, I want to warn you of what to expect from the students who will be arriving in your classroom, even if you teach in a highly selective institution."

Bernstein was a teacher in the Washington, D.C. area who spent 13 of his 17 years in the same high school. He notes something special about the class of 2013 - my daughter's class - the No Child Left Behind law went into effect when these seniors were in third grade. Their class has felt the full extent of the law's testing requirements.

"As kids started arriving after a couple years of No Child Left Behind, they were starting to arrive in our high school in 9th grade without having meaningful social studies," he says. "Social studies was not tested, so increasingly in districts and schools that were worried about their test scores they started sliding away from stuff that was specific to a content area to preparation for the testing."

He saw students, even in advanced classes, who didn't have a grasp of American history, world history, geography, and civics or government because those subject areas weren't included under the "adequate yearly progress" for schools.

With test scores serving as the primary measure of student and teacher performance, anything not being tested has been given "short shrift" for the Class of 2013. State tests are a problem too.

"I look particularly at the very, very bright kids I had in AP (advanced placement classes) and I found myself between a rock and a hard place. They're going to have to take the AP exam, therefore, I have to teach them how to write badly," he says.

Careful, quality writers put a lot of work into their topic sentence of an essay. But, as someone who has graded the AP exams, he says students don't get any credit for that. Once again he found himself having to "teach to the test."

Bernstein says he wanted his students to be critical thinkers, and many of them are, but he wishes he could have done more. He couldn't simultaneously prepare them to do well on tests and teach them to write in a fashion that would properly serve them at higher levels of education.

Many teachers, who entered the profession to make a difference in students' lives, are leaving sooner than planned because testing policies are increasingly restricting how and what they teach.

He also asks of college professors, "Please do not blame those of us in public schools for how unprepared for higher education the students arriving at your institutions are. We have very little say in what is happening in public education."

Our schools are structured for the convenience of adults, he says, not for what makes the most sense for students.

"If we really want our schools to be effective we'd step back and rethink the entire system, Bernstein says.

The way the school system is set up is based on tradition, and does not take into account the fact that children don't all learn at the same ages, in the same ways.

While schools in the U.S. are considering extending the class day and class year, the trend in South Korea and Japan is to cut back on the number of hours of school.

Members of the class of 2013, arriving on college campuses this fall, "may be very bright," but they're not prepared for the kind of intellectual work and critical thinking the professors expect of them.

"It is for this that I apologize, even as I know in my heart that there was little more I could have done," says Bernstein, "which is one reason I am no longer in the classroom."

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

MyNorthwest.com - Purpose of Comments statement
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria.

Comments (97)


  • Add A Comment

  • Paladinlich wrote...
    Public Education
    March 15, 2013 6:42 am
    Public schools are generally worthless. Most kids don't learn proficiency or actual history until they get to advanced education. Beyond that, "If all you know is what you learned in school, you have a poor education" - Dr. Abel Ossorio
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    "Our schools are structured for the convenience of adults, he says, not for what makes the most sense for students. "
    March 15, 2013 6:55 am
    They are also structured for the convenience of the union that runs shotgun over our public education system....been saying it for years, the whole system needs a major reboot. The monopoly needs to end and the agricultural calendar needs to end as well.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Zoeller wrote...
    What else would we expect?
    March 15, 2013 7:01 am
    When you have union thug’s running the public school system does anybody really expect a good outcome? When an education teaching system is based off of seniority rather than merit it has already failed before it has begun.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • usetoliveinseattle wrote...
    Teacher Apologizes
    March 15, 2013 7:11 am
    Sick of the excuses. "It's not our fault". How about put some blame on the teacher's union? How about holding teachers accountable for their lack of teaching ability? It is so easy to just blame the previous administration, dang Obama is still doing it, why not the teachers.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    totally.
    March 15, 2013 11:24 am
    NCLB was perfect.

    it clearly has been working.

    stupid teacher and their stupid big, bad unions. THEY'RE the ones to blame for a teacher who feels that a FEDERAL education act is bad and hasn't properly prepared his students.

    unions didn't pass NCLB. going after them about this shows your ignorance.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    usetolive
    March 15, 2013 11:35 am
    Did you see the term "teach to test" in the article?Thats the problem not the teachers not the Union.They are teaching the answers not how to solve a problem so the kids can pass the tests because thats what the school administers want them to do. Get it?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • WAmovesRight wrote...
    Total Political Rant...
    March 15, 2013 7:23 am
    ... stupid.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Public schools.
    March 15, 2013 7:25 am
    That is one huge issue. Yet the unions and liberals will fight to the death when it comes to charter schools or vouchers. So look in the mirror when wondering why our kids educations suck...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    couldn't have ANYTHING to do with the system...
    March 15, 2013 11:28 am
    right?

    NCLB was perfect. it's FAILING because of the TEACHERS!!!

    YEAH!

    STUPID, RICH TEACHERS!!!

    OH! and LIBERALS!!! (nevermind that NCLB was passed by Bush, but let's skip that)

    AND UNIONS!!! the biggest bullies of them all! they're the reason NCLB FAILED!!!

    even though no union had any hand in passing that stupid education act.

    you guys are spouting off about things you don't know anything about.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Nothing less than our Constitutional Republic at stake when we "teach to the test"
    March 15, 2013 8:09 am
    Oh my gosh. Notice that most people clamoring for standardized tests are *not* part of the education system? Union or not, classroom or administration? Few educators in any public or private school endorse teaching to the test. Standardized tests are the product of politicians pandering to armchair educators.

    The teacher's primary job isn't to stuff as many unrelated "facts" into a kid as possible. The teacher's primary job is to help kids develop critical and analytical thinking skills.

    Ever hear the expression, "So and so is a walking encyclopedia!" Nothing would be more worthless than a walking encyclopedia that had no ability to *apply* those facts to analyzing situations or solving problems. However, we quite stupidly think that if we crank out "walking encyclopedias" (on certain subjects) we are successfully educating kids.

    Left, right, center, Democrat, Republican, and independent, we should be *alarmed* at the current educational priorities! No history? No civics? No geography? No social studies? Teach kids that the only proper answer to any question is the one that they have been forced to memorize?

    If I had a long term agenda to take over a country and a society, I wouldn't be able to think of a better beginning than teaching kids to recite by rote, without independent thought or understanding of the big picture. Certainly, soft pedaling history, geography, and social studies would also make it easier to get future generations to either politically or militarily surrender this nation without a fight.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    Agree Chuck which is why I say
    March 15, 2013 8:22 am
    The entire educational system needs a re-boot where everything is on the table.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Slater wrote...
    My thoughts exactly
    March 15, 2013 9:30 am
    I came here to write these exact thoughts down. While testing can be an important measure, we also need to be teaching critical thinking skills. How do you measure that?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ToldYa wrote...
    the systematic dumbing down
    March 15, 2013 8:46 am
    of america, forget its history - its all predicated upon fabricated crisis these days and knowing history undermines their objectives.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    03-15-2013 No Child Left Behind...
    March 15, 2013 9:13 am
    was a desperate and ineffective attempt to correct the lack of performance in public K-12 education in the face of Democrat opposition to school choice.(aka freedom of choice) Unions own the Democrats and the teachers unions own the classroom. Competition is the only cure for the complete failure of our Democrat dominated K-12 education system and it is exactly that the teachers unions fear and loathe. No amount of money thrown away on the monopoly will ever improve its performance, it is a jobs program for people with teaching certificates, not an education system.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    "Unions own the Democrats and the teachers unions own the classroom."
    March 15, 2013 11:32 am
    AAAHAHAHAHAAAhhaaaaa!!!

    please. like unions don't own EVERY INCH of the republican party.

    heck, the Teaparty is FUNDED BY TWO RICH GUYS!!! look it up!

    your post was a joke, right?

    HIlarious!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Zoeller wrote...
    Oly80: Really?
    March 15, 2013 1:19 pm
    "the Teaparty is FUNDED BY TWO RICH GUYS" What did you think it was funded by two poor guys? What does the Tea Parties funding have to do with Union Thugs running/Ruining the public education system?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    if you have to ask...
    March 18, 2013 1:53 pm
    you'll never know.

    the point was no party is without it's bully/ruling classes.

    and if you think the unions are the only ones "running/ruining the public education system" you're clueless and are the EXACT person/sheep the far right loves to cater to.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • happy happy joy joy wrote...
    Why test anyone?
    March 15, 2013 9:41 am
    Testing is ridiculous. Never in your life will you ever need to be tested for a job. When will anyone need to know math? Obviously our leaders in Congress and the Senate do not know or understand math. So why would we need it? You obviously do not need to take "any" tests to be a teacher, or a lawyer, or even work in law enforcement. Heck if you are a mechanic you do not need to do any testing. I just can not think of any reason why kids or teachers should be tested in our public schools. The idea of it is just ludicrous. "SARCASM OFF'
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    @HHJJ: you are dead wrong
    January 1, 2002 11:42 am
    Oh wait, i just turned on my sarcasm meter.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }