A Westport teacher, in a letter to The New York Times, said the newspaper inaccurately reported that the No Child Left Behind Act is causing a hard look at the achievement gap.
“A Westport teacher with urban and suburban experience, I know that urban teachers’ efforts are misunderstood by No Child Left Behind, which only exacerbates their challenges, driving them to suburban jobs,” wrote Anne Lutz Fernandez-Carol of Norwalk.
The letter appears in the newspaper’s Sunday Connecticut section.
“It is as absurd for me to take credit for my suburban students’ success on state tests as it would be to take the blame for the underperformance of students, many nonwhite, I taught in the city,” she said.
“Westport’s socioeconomics provide most of my students with school readiness, tutors, travel and, often, a parent at home during the day. They, and I, have benefit from a huge variety of activities and small classes that create high attendance and motivation.
“The hard look is not being taken at interrelated root causes of educational inequity: de facto segregation, the growing income gap and heavy reliance on local funding. Under No Child Left Behind, teachers, students and parents simply become scapegoats.”
