The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 was supposed to create clear, reliable data that told parents how local schools stacked up against schools elsewhere in the nation. It has not worked that way, thanks in part to timidity at the Department of Education, which initially allowed states to phony up even the most basic data on graduation rates.It's pretty disappointing that states are trying to cover up the fact that high school graduation rates are too low. They should acknowledge that there is a problem, and address it; figure out what can be done to make sure more students graduate from high school.
I've heard many teachers complain about the No Child Left Behind Act and i agree that the law has many flaws. However, I do think that it is a good idea and thus it should not be totally shelved because it was poorly designed from its inception. I think it is a good idea to have some federal government oversight into out public schools so that all Americans can be guaranteed a quality public education.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/opinion/28mon3.html?ref=opinion
5 comments:
Covering up the truth never helped anything. It's just that no school wants to have low graduation rates, especially in comparison to other schools. If one school does it, then the others have to follow their lead or are left at a disadvantage.
There are loopholes and flaws to NCLB, and some of these issues are pretty significant. Many people complain that the NCLB has forced schools to follow a narrow curriculum that focuses basically on math and english, while ignoring all other subjects like art and the social sciences. This robs students of a well rounded education in order to raise test scores in the math and english department. The Act also allows for certain schools to leave out tests scores of minority if the scores are not "statistically significant", meaning that if there were only 5 minority students at the school, their scores wouldn't be counted. This means that students are being left out from receiving all the possible benefits of the NCLB Act, and that has to be fixed immediately.
However, I do agree that the legislation is headed in the right direction. Scores have generally risen and there are more quality teachers in the classroom. The NCLB Act just needs some basic reforms that take out its flaws and allows the American students to have a equal and beneficial education
I'd agree with Eddie that NCLB is a good idea in theory; it just hasn't lived up to its theoretical goodness. The idea of the government requiring some sort of baseline, standardized education from all public schools is nice, but restricting. Maybe schools of lower caliber need these guidelines, but it seems like the requirements of NCLB only hold back other schools. I believe NCLB is the act that causes teachers to 'teach to the test' or something like that? In any case, I'm not a fan of all the standardized testing. Or these apparently phony graduation rates.
I definitely agree that there is too much emphasis on math and English in tests. When we were younger I remember being taught that we all have different areas of strength in our learning abilities.
Generalizing students' performance on a narrow scope of subjects doesn't seem right to me. This kind of goes along with the fact that testing throws the subjects that testers don't find to be as important out of the window. I personally think there should be more of an emphasis on writing in tests, as writing is a very important skill in any professional setting.
Also, the schools lying about graduation rates is just kind of sad note about the American education system. I think that if schools had the right funding for supplies and to pay teachers a more reasonable salary, then this wouldn't be as much of a problem.
I agree that federal oversight could help public schools be more effective. This would be easier if states were given funding for education, which is obviously much easier said than done. I think it's pretty unsettling that schools are changing their graduation rates in order to look better, but it's hard change public schools if states don't have enough funding or resources to significantly better them. I think something should be done because education is critical for a successful country.
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