NCLB does not need a new name. It needs to be thrown out and overhauled. The law punishes schools who are serving low income children.

I chose to teach at my school because I wanted the challenge. I must say that I love our kids and I love working with them. Our school is a Title One school with over 75% free and reduced lunch.

When I got there less than 50% were reading on grade level. After many years of hard work, we got up to 97%. What did that get us? SANCTIONS because of our large Exceptional Children population!! We cannot make AYP. This is ridiculous. Teachers are leaving in droves and after this year, I am one of them. The law is not rewarding schools who are doing well, it is punishing schools who have many subgroups.

New name? How about NO TEACHER LEFT STANDING!!

NCLB is an unrealistic, underfunded, pipe dream. Chuck the whole program. What's in a name anyway? Unless you are G.W. and then a name typically means the exact opposite of what the program does (see Healthy Forest Initiative, or Clean Air Act). Lets focus on things that matter, like appropriate standards, funding, and equity among public schools. There is no reason a child who happens to be born in a poor neighborhood should receive substandard education.
High School Science
Portland Metro Area

The actual result of implementing NCLB CAUSES children to be left behind. If students are part of a group that is at risk for not making "AYP", our state has advised us to put our efforts into supporting those kids who are "on the line"...in otherwords, close to making goal, but not there yet. In the meantime, those students who might make gains, even if they are not yet meeting goal, are not to receive the same level of support. Since they are so far from the "finish line", the thinking goes, we should approach it like "triage". The treatment of special needs students is, to me, the most reprehensible aspect of NCLB.

This law cannot be "fixed" -- it need to be thrown out and rewritten to address the needs of children and society not politics.

I hate NCLB. Instead of moving our school into the 21st century, NCLB has made our school resort to programs and worksheets that would fit in with my last century education. Get rid of it! Spend money that is enriching companies that produce research based workbooks (whose research?) and move all schools towards project based, computer driven, multi media presentation education. Stop requiring teachers to attend endless meetings that in theory re-train us to support NCLB and stop telling me that a student's skin color is important. I HATE IT!

I agree completely that NCLB does not need a new name. It needs to be thrown out and overhauled. The law punishes schools who are serving low income children.

Our school district faces similar challenges.

We have also faced SANCTIONS because of our large Exceptional Children population.
This is ridiculous. "The law is not rewarding schools who are doing well, it is punishing schools who have many subgroups." - could not have been better stated.

Ya!!!!! I agree with you 100%. We are in the boat with you. Many of our teachers are so frustrated with all of this stress that "NO TEACHER LEFT STANDING" works for us. Now what will the government do with all of the children?

Go ahead, "Chuck" the whole thing!

In fact do get rid of all the legislation related to NCLB. It is an effort based on the evil twins, mistrust and deceit.

The unintended consequence of this high minded and low handed deception is the further destruction of the learning process. NCLB is hurting our children, our teachers, our schools, our community and our future.

Focus instead on funding lots of things that work, things that place hopefulness in trying new ways and promotes the understandings we now have, and will have in the future, about how learning takes place. Invest in teachers that keep on trying no matter what, and those administrators that recognize that desire and nurture it.

Above all, invest in listening carefully to the children, invest in supporting their pathway to lifelong learning instead of the "same ole" industrial, efficient, blank slate, control above all else, model.

Please.

This law is so flawed the only thing that keeps anyone on its side is its name. After all, what politician would dare vote against something called "No Child Left Behind." Unfortunately, this is a law designed and "implemented" by politicians. It completely ignores all the research on developmental differences in children and advocates a "one size fits all" approach to education. It claimes to follow a standards based approach to education but WHOSE standards? Each state is allowed to create their own standards and those are the standards that are used to determine if a student is at grade level or not. Each state is also free to choose their own standardized test as well. As a result, a state by state comparison is meaningless. There is no common criteria. On top of that, the standardized tests are "norm referenced". By that very definition, it is IMPOSSIBLE for every child to score in the 90th percentile. Even if every child's raw score was in the 90 - 100% range, all of the scores would be forced into a bell shaped curve, with the students who scored 90% falling in the 10th percentile.
There is a lot of research in existence on how people learn and what makes an effective learning environment. I am not aware of ANY research that supports the premise that high stakes testing is effective in increasing learning.

As for a new name? How about "No Child Left Untested?"

How about All Kids Will Succeed!