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The Edutopia Poll
by Sara Bernard
Several members of Congress are proposing a revised version of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act. Called the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act of 2007, the proposal aims to give more freedom to the states and local authorities, claiming that doing so will reduce bureaucracy and allow for more direct results when it comes to student achievement. Opponents to this idea, however, argue that state and local governments can also be held accountable for some of the problems of NCLB and that federal legislation is necessary to maintain educational equity throughout the country. What do you think?
NCLB needs to be TOTALLY
Submitted by Testing Director (not verified) on March 13, 2007 - 23:34.
NCLB needs to be TOTALLY abandoned and removed from our education systems.
All authority should be at the local and state levels. Parents should have the authority to decide who teaches their children and what is taught to their children.
The problem with totally
Submitted by Jared Bradford (not verified) on March 14, 2007 - 15:04.
The problem with totally abandoning is that states/districts will become less aware of what's going on nationally, leading to less pressure, leading to less performance. I don't think the education system can sustain itself as is. NCLB was poorly written, poorly funded, poorly monitored, and poorly implemented. But, at least it made us all have much more pointed conversations about student performance, underserved populations, and poor-performing schools. We were compared nationally, and had to be on our toes. Now what - we can go back to letting some (NOT ALL) schools and districts slink back to the way they were. God help us.
And, not to start some debate with the first poster, but do you honestly think U.S. PARENTS are the best people to decide who their kid's teacher is??? Seriously? Don't you think most American parents would just let their kids TELL them who they want for a teacher? I can just hear it now, "No mom, pleeeeeeeease, let me have Ms. Smith. She's so hot." Good lord help us if that's the solution.
No Child Left Behind is
Submitted by Teacher of Gifted (not verified) on March 14, 2007 - 16:57.
No Child Left Behind is leaving behind a giant population of our children. Those of us in the classroom see this more than anyone else. The pressure to "pass the test" is so great, that all teaching has gone out the window. The majority of instruction is spent addressing those who are in danger of not passing, so that those who will pass (on or above grade level students) are taught nothing of value.
Working with gifted students in a pullout program I see this every day. My students live for the day they can be out of class and come to pullout. There they are taught at their level, they learn, they explore, they do something other than "benchmarking" and "TAKS practice." They read books at their ABILITY level, not at their GRADE level. They learn about science and history (which doesn't happen often enough in the classroom at lower levels because these subjects aren't tested!).
I have colleagues who work with ELL students. These children are also being left behind. They aren't learning English, they aren't learning the vocabulary they need to know, they are learning "test strategies" so they can pass the test and move on to the next grade, where the same thing will happen again. When she finally refused to teach this way, an "assistant" was placed in her room to help her. While it was never said, she felt the person was put there to make sure she "followed the rules" and only taught the way they wanted her to. She is an excellent teacher and will be looking for a new position that respects her abilities rather than confines them.
While the concept of No Child Left Behind is an excellent one, due to the pressures of testing it exerts, it will never work. Children are individuals, they must be taught as such, not like little automatons that must all read, write and do math at the same age... we don't all develop and learn at the same rate.
There are not many people
Submitted by Bonnie Bracey( Sutton) (not verified) on March 14, 2007 - 19:24.
There are not many people who have lived through educational policies that excluded them from
science, physical education and the arts. As a child I was restricted in these learnings. The teacher who speaks about the gifted also has a case. Many student are restricted to grade level learnings, and are bored, or passive about education. I have been a teacher of the gifted. I believe I became proactive about the gifted because of my own experience.
I did find that using technology, it was possible to be inclusive about populations of children in a single classroom, and that I could provide resources and information for most of the children at a level according to their ability.
Obviously the people who crafted no child left behind have never taught school. Kids are not cookies , a batch baked correctly , all turning out the same way. There are many influences, variables, and experiences that shape a child's learning. To mandate a constant use of testing as the answer to student learning is misguided.
Where are the uses of technology including the insertion of metadata for learning in just in time bytes, that is with a variance of use, that incorporate various learning styles as in simulated learning similar to games.
The business leaders who want to help us often choose the wrong people to push the message. In Congress yesterday with the ideas of innovation following the Convocation of the Gathering Storm, the ideas are good, but seem to point toward inserting testing for science in NCLB.
It would be good if the people who help to define what it is that we teach have some teaching experience and the same qualifications that they ask us to have. That is, what are the qualifications of Margaret Spellings?
The problem with No Child is
Submitted by Rhonda Browning (not verified) on March 15, 2007 - 03:03.
The problem with No Child is No Child. It has tried to put all students and all schools in the same box. It has really hurt special education because with the reinterpretation of IDEA combined with its demands, special needs kids often don't get what they need---core courses that are taught at a level and in a way that helps them learn even if that way is not as fast as someone else. Plus it is an unfunded mandate. The feds require states to meet the standards, but then expected them to do a lot of it out of their own meager budgets. This put special needs in a position of scorn (like we weren't already) because with most of the cognitive related disabilities the students are going to be slower to learn. I wish No Child would be replaced with a standard for functional literacy. Then it could give grants to the states and let them be creative with how the goal is accomplished.
The other thing is that they need to do is quit breaking scores down by race and replace it with socio-economic data instead. I would rather know if the low income kids were improving.
I have to agree with Teacher
Submitted by SPED Teacher (not verified) on March 15, 2007 - 03:19.
I have to agree with Teacher of Gifted. My students run the gamet - Special needs to exceptional learners (sometimes they are both special needs and exceptional learners). It is frustrating for both students and teachers to focus on passing a test, rather than learning the material. I am lucky in that Special Education classes are smaller and am given some latitude in teaching but I find it incredible that first graders are learning test-takiing strategies.
6 year olds shouldn't come to school with stomach aches because they have to take a test in school.
No Child Left Behind is an
Submitted by David Warlick (not verified) on March 15, 2007 - 10:07.
No Child Left Behind is an industrial age solution to an information age problem. It's affect is graduating students who know the same things, think the same way, and who know how to be taught, not how to teach themselves. This made perfect sense for the industrial age, when you needed a workforce who could work in straight rows, performing repetitive tasks, under close supervision.
Today, the value that we bring to our endeavors is not based on what we know that's the same as everyone else. it's what we know that is different, how we think that is different, what we can teach ourselves how to do in order to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.
http://2cents.davidwarlick.com/
My first recommendation is
Submitted by Julie Lumpkin (not verified) on March 15, 2007 - 11:47.
My first recommendation is that everyone involved in education, including those who makes policies affecting education, read the "New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce" report that was released on Dec. 14, 2006. You can read the entire report at www.skillscommission.org. If you want to know what to do about education, this is a must read.
We have failed to motivate our students to take tough courses requiring them to think and stretch their imaginations. We have failed to motivate them to have high work ethics and to work hard. We have failed by building systems in which the people who have the responsibility do not have the power, yet the people who have the power do not have the responsibility.
Do we need a change in our educational system? Absolutely! Is NCLB the answer? I don't think so. It seems that we need a complete overhaul. The comment about the industrial age educational system is not working for the information age student. Amen!!
In respondance to the {my
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on December 18, 2007 - 16:43.
In respondance to the {my first recommendation is}...
I dont think it is the state or the teachers fault... I think it is just the childrens lack of apathy... I am 15 and attend high school... my mom never looks at my grades or even cares what i make,,,, i always do well in all my subject .. I am # 5 in my class and i do not think it is the teachers it is the students, i am around it all the time. The no child left behind act is actually hurting the school system... With people not as capable of learning in some of my classes it really slows things down when it is always that one person that doesnt get it. Also it hurts the teachers who have to go out of the way to make special moddifications for them. It not only lowers the self astem of the special kid but renders learning for others... ZThey need to have there own classes and then things would not be so hard... i do agree edu. is goign down hill, but there are simple things to do to stop it.. We just need to do something about it...
The Teachers need to be able
Submitted by Debbie Perry (not verified) on March 15, 2007 - 12:11.
The Teachers need to be able to stand in front of their classes as powerful adults. Teachers need the power over scheduling their students. Teachers need the power over disciplining their students. Teachers need the power over providing the curriculum required for their students. Until the power is given to the teachers, there will always be children left behind.
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