The mention of the NCLB act is enough to send my school teacher wife into a fit, after which I have to wash out her mouth with soap.
While this bill had lofty goals, and was enacted by Republicans, it was co-authored by the Deep Sea Driver, Ted Kennedy. (And it works about as well as you would expect out of something he had a hand in...)
The end result of it is that the amount of paperwork the teachers have to do has tripled, but they don't make any more money.
I don't agree with the basic premise of "No Child Left Behind", anyway.
A more effective approach would be "Every Child Must Keep Up.'
I don't mean to be contrary, I just wanted to offer my perspective, from way up close to the issue...
Yeah, what can I say? They can't all be gems. This bill is bad precisely because Bush trusted a Democrat to write it. He and his father have the weenie gene -- they just can't believe there are people out to destroy them no matter how nice and cooperative they are. When mothers can routinely educate their children at the kitchen table at the 96th percentile, there is something terribly wrong with our public school system. Liberals have changed our schools into indoctrination camps.
As one of those punished by this law, I must say that overall it sucks.
It is/was a great idea, filled with too much BS to make the idea work. It is true that schools DO need accountability. Some of the laziest people on earth become teachers because they think it will be an easy job.
In part they are correct. There are few things in life I love more than helping a kid understand. However, this is not characteristic of most teachers and as a result they do as little as they can and still get by. Therefore we need accountability. The problem lies in the level of attainment possible with such a vast group of kids. The students I have in one class can come from homes with a 20K/year household income or a 320K/year household income and be in the same class. The NCLB act says that that fact shouldn't matter. They should perform the same, and if they don't it is the schools that are failing.
Anyone who says that household income doesn't matter in how prepared a child is to enter and succeed in school is LYING to themselves. Our education system will not survive the NCLB act unless it is changed somewhat. (Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.) It is simply not possible to have 100% of "lower-quartile" kids reading on grade level when you must include ALL of the special-education students and ALL of the immigrant population regardless of their English proficiency. The NCLB act requires that after a few short years or the school is labelled a "failing school". Yes, then the school gets more federal aid to fix the problem, but it is a problem that cannot be fixed. Certainly not by throwing more money at it. We are bankrupting ourselves trying to prove that all of our children should go to college and that none of them will flip hamburgers for a living. In the meantime, teachers are threatened with their jobs (some of them rightfully so), smothered in paperwork that makes no actual difference in the quality of education, and even good teachers working and worrying themselves to death are being told they just aren't trying hard enough. If they were, the problem would be solved already.
6 comments:
Wooo...
Don't say that too loud, LR.
The mention of the NCLB act is enough to send my school teacher wife into a fit, after which I have to wash out her mouth with soap.
While this bill had lofty goals, and was enacted by Republicans, it was co-authored by the Deep Sea Driver, Ted Kennedy. (And it works about as well as you would expect out of something he had a hand in...)
The end result of it is that the amount of paperwork the teachers have to do has tripled, but they don't make any more money.
I don't agree with the basic premise of "No Child Left Behind", anyway.
A more effective approach would be "Every Child Must Keep Up.'
I don't mean to be contrary, I just wanted to offer my perspective, from way up close to the issue...
My wife writes a blog as well, and her latest post was on this very issue.
Check it out if you have time, at http://www.evilconservativeteacher.blogspot.com/
Yeah, what can I say? They can't all be gems. This bill is bad precisely because Bush trusted a Democrat to write it. He and his father have the weenie gene -- they just can't believe there are people out to destroy them no matter how nice and cooperative they are. When mothers can routinely educate their children at the kitchen table at the 96th percentile, there is something terribly wrong with our public school system. Liberals have changed our schools into indoctrination camps.
As one of those punished by this law, I must say that overall it sucks.
It is/was a great idea, filled with too much BS to make the idea work. It is true that schools DO need accountability. Some of the laziest people on earth become teachers because they think it will be an easy job.
In part they are correct. There are few things in life I love more than helping a kid understand. However, this is not characteristic of most teachers and as a result they do as little as they can and still get by. Therefore we need accountability. The problem lies in the level of attainment possible with such a vast group of kids. The students I have in one class can come from homes with a 20K/year household income or a 320K/year household income and be in the same class. The NCLB act says that that fact shouldn't matter. They should perform the same, and if they don't it is the schools that are failing.
Anyone who says that household income doesn't matter in how prepared a child is to enter and succeed in school is LYING to themselves. Our education system will not survive the NCLB act unless it is changed somewhat. (Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.) It is simply not possible to have 100% of "lower-quartile" kids reading on grade level when you must include ALL of the special-education students and ALL of the immigrant population regardless of their English proficiency. The NCLB act requires that after a few short years or the school is labelled a "failing school". Yes, then the school gets more federal aid to fix the problem, but it is a problem that cannot be fixed. Certainly not by throwing more money at it. We are bankrupting ourselves trying to prove that all of our children should go to college and that none of them will flip hamburgers for a living. In the meantime, teachers are threatened with their jobs (some of them rightfully so), smothered in paperwork that makes no actual difference in the quality of education, and even good teachers working and worrying themselves to death are being told they just aren't trying hard enough. If they were, the problem would be solved already.
Oops...
Identity Crisis...
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