My thoughts on NCLB

I believe that in theory NCLB is a great thing, unfortunately, in practice I do not think it works. I completely agree that every child in the United States should be able to read and write by a certain grade level but I do not think that NCLB is the way to accomplish this. I have family and friends that are both teachers and administrators, I've learned that there is more criticism, than positive reactions to NCLB. The first problem is funding, it is easy for the federal government to pass acts when they do not have to worry where the money to cover these programs is going to come from, that falls to the state and local governments to do, not an easy job for school budgets that are already over burdened. On top, of this there is corruption and kick backs for adopting certain programs, such as we read in the Reading First article. Then we get to the overall problem of standardized testing, not everyone tests the same and I think to make funding or graduating dependent on passing a test is not fair to all. There should be different ways to assess students that would be different but equal for all.

The next area is teacher accountability, I do believe that as with every other occupation there should be accountability and that they should be highly qualified in the area they would like to teach, but the whole success or failure of a student can not be put only on the teacher or school's shoulders. How about parent accountability. I remember years ago a teacher friend saying to me, I can do everything possible to make sure my students get what I need them too, come early, stay late but you need it reinforced at home. Having put a child through school from K - post graduate work, I know how important it is for a parent to sit with my child and help with their studies.

For any educational program to work, I think it needs the input of teachers and administrators because they truly know what is and is not going to work in a school system. NCLB should be revamped so that it is based on the knowledge of these professionals not on favors owed to those that made heavy donations. It should not be tied to other programs such as recruitment, that just shocked me but I did forward that link to everyone I know with school age children to make sure they know they have the option of opting out.

I also believe that we should not do away with other studies in order to teach to the test, I've heard that subjects such as social studies are becoming a thing of the past in order to allocate more blocks of time for Literacy and Math. In a world where our borders are shrinking more and more everyday, I beleive that we need to raise well-rounded educated students in our school systems.