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Forums > Community Forums > Education
Subject: No Child Left Behind?

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Author Messages
Thomas Watson
Posts:2
06 Feb 2006 18:37 Alert 
President Bush looks out from Washington and calls his No Child Left Behind law a huge success.  But how does it look to the teachers and students in our communities?  What works?  What doesn't?  You know best how schools work.  Let's start the discussion.
Tamra Vanegas
Posts:1
09 Feb 2006 3:02 Alert 
As a middle school counselor here in the Treasure Valley I watch and experience the negative implications of Mr. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" legislation daily.  In many of the schools the counselors are the testing coordinators.  This means that we start organizing the testing schedules about two months prior to beginning testing. Then we manage the testing process for four weeks.  We are responsilbe for making sure that every student in our district has been tested.  We organize and direct the testing proctors.  We assure that students on IEP's (individual education plans) and 504's (individual accomodation plans) have the appropriate accomodations in place.  We make sure that students who have been absent complete their makeup ISAT's.  The list continues.  My point in sharing this information is to lay the backdrop that illustrates the amount of time that we are NOT with the students.  This is important because our student crisises increase during the testing window.  We have increased suicide threats.  Increased symptoms of school phobia.  Increased incidents of bullying.  Increased anxiety and panic attacks.  And less time to give to the students.  These are only a few of the emotional implications that NCLB has on our youth. 
Academically,  NCLB has a great toll as well.  The students are in the classroom less, the teachers have increased stress and the relationship between the teacher and student is eroded.  Many teachers feel the pressure to "teach to the test" when the students are in the classroom and not testing.   Some educators state that they have lost the freedom to exercise creativity in the classroom.  Creativity that engages students. 
As administrators focus on making "AYP" (annual yearly progress) the student as an individual can be lost.  The student is lost as the scores are researched and evaluated.  The question stops being, "how can we help this child grow" and becomes, "how can we increase our scores". 
This is our country leaving the Child behind.  Jim, I am confident that when you are elected you will remember our children.
Tara Rowe
Posts:4
14 Feb 2006 5:04 Alert 
An increase in school phobia leads to a decrease in the number of students reaching toward success in areas post-secondary education. I was fortunate enough to have graduated prior to the enforcement of ISAT testing and the number of other ridiculous unfunded mandates now required in our public schools. I watched as the grades below me grew to despise the testing and watch now as my highly intelligent, but overly irrirated younger brother struggles in school due to the fact that he is always stressing over the next set of tests. If President Bush feels we need more math and science teachers, as he stated in his State of the Union address, he needs to realize that testing these kids until the breaking point is not going to motivate them to continue with their educations and become the next generation of teachers.

As a high school graduate and now as a college junior, I am very glad to say that I did not have to take part in any form of No Child Left Behind, but now see it on a daily basis as enrollment numbers at Idaho State University are down and will, I imagine, continue to drop due to a high number of students that reach a point of burnout in their high school careers due to overtesting.
Jennifer Anderson
Posts:1
21 Mar 2006 20:31 Alert 
As a parent of two elementary-aged students at the time "No Child Left Behind" was instituted, I have formed a first-hand opinion about the effects of it on my children's education.  Undeniably, my kids would have been left behind had the Boise School District not implemented the magnet program in which they are now enrolled.  Almost immediately upon its implementation, NCLB caused the teachers to focus on the lowest common denominator in their class.  While this body of students surely benefited, the remainder of the class certainly suffered.  Challenging work was reduced and free-form curriculum was dismissed.  Yes, the educators started teaching to the test.

The idea behind No Child Left Behind is flawed and is a further detriment to our already beleagured educational system.  It is time for another change...back to rational decisions based upon fact and research.  Let's figure out a better way to teach our children rather than to test and categorize them.
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Forums > Community Forums > Education > No Child Left Behind?

  

 
 
 
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