Teachers this is your question?

Question

No child left behind? Is it working? Have you noticed a postive change at the school you teach because of it? Or is the law the kind of thing that looks good on paper, then real life states different? I am not a teach but I do have 3 children so I am just curious.

Answer 1

No, it is not working -and it can't work- because it was crafted and implemented by the federal government without due diligence regarding the academic and scientific evidence that clearly articulates and supports the best practices regarding instruction and learning.

When a group of bureaucrats and lawyers are corralled into a room to decide the fate of education in a country which is constantly trying to hide the fact that its public educational system is dysfuntional, then the American public cannot expect an Act (law) that attends to education and learning; we can only expect "politics as usual" and that is exactly what the NCLB is.

A recent, national report indicates that, on average, American high schools are barely graduating 50% of the students that entered the school as freshmen ... in Detroit, that high school graduation rate is 24%.

Of the 155 million people in the American workforce currently, only about 28% have a Bachelor's degree.

At some point, the citizenry has to pause and seriously consider if our leadership (political and other major institutions) is even interested in an "educated public" for fear that educated people would not stand for the inequalities, unfairness, and otherwise blatant classism that permeates the culture 232 years after our original Independence Day.

Maybe our leaders are more interested in ensuring there are enough "uneducated people" to simply show up and work the minimum-wage and low-pay jobs that a service economy demands ... because, it seems, the data supports that contention more than it does the PR and spin (wink and nod) regarding Education as the "ticket" to living the American Dream.

Answer 2

As an educator for many years, I have a mixed opinion on NCLB. First, I think that the idea of setting national standards for education is probably a good one (it violates the constitution which gives that power to the state governments, but that is best left for another discussion!). However, I do not feel that the current NCLB plan we have is functioning as it should. There are many inconsistencies.

My biggest arguement against it is the requirement to label teachers as "Highly Qualified". This label is based solely upon the education of the teacher. Just because you have taken a course or two in a subject and meet the requirements does not mean that you are "qualified" to teach it. There are many well educated people who are horrible teachers and there are many with not so much education that are terrific teachers.

I heard a story about one teacher who was not "Highly Qualified" according to NCLB standards because she did not take a course or two listed in the requirements. However, this "NOT Highly Qualified" teacher had just been awarded the Science Teacher of the Year for her entire state. How can you not be considered highly qualified and be the best Science teacher in the state at the same time??

Answer 3

This must not be British thing because i've not heard of it.  We have similar initiatives.  I am not a teacher, but a parent and a teaching assistant.

I recon that as long as the education system keeps thinking its ok to have classes of more than 15 children, and keep inventing curriculums and programmes some kids will be left behind.  Those that manage to keep up may have there creative minds spoilt and their independent thought damaged.

We have 26 in our class at the mo' and we try to avoid sticking to the numeracy and literacy 'prescribed' routines and teach through topics, encouraging the children to work at their own level and follow their interests so that we can give them individual help, and targets to move EVERY child on.

This makes learing and teaching individual and helps the child become confident enthusiastic learners.  It allows them to tap into their strengths to develop their weaker areas and for others around them to see and celebrate what they are capable of.

There is so much paper work telling us of different programmes to help certain kids 'catch up' and different ways to explain things to them.  

Learning is a natural process and most teaching schemes take the childs independent learning skills away from them and attempts to reteach them it!

Answer 4

In my opinion, NCLB does not work because it moves the focus of school (and most of the resources) from learning how to learn to learning how to pass tests.  The federal government has begun to try to tweak the law, but they still do not understand that the fundamental problem is that politicians have no expertise at running schools.  They seem to think that they should be able to run a school because they used to go to one.  Using the same logic, they are all qualified to pilot airliners.

The emphasis must be returned to the students' needs, not the Congressional elections.  We have gone from a mentality of "everybody learns" to a mentality of "everybody passes".  Education has gotten lost in the process.

Answer 5

No, it isn't working, and it never will if it continues to be set up the way it is.  More kids are "falling through the cracks" than ever before.  Of course, all this goes hand in hand with the crappy economy - ALL of which we can thanks our illiterate BOOB of a president - George W. Bush.

Answer 6

No its not working,  Ive been a teacher for the past 2 years and a half and from what ive seen and experienced, my God poor children.

I start to think, school was not like this when i was growing up.  It used to be so much fun.

But like other have said, it looks on paper but when it comes to actually applying it, it doesnt work.

Answer 7

*** this is LONG, but VERY important !!  ******

It is HORRIBLE...Parents do NOT understand just how bad NCLB is and I encourage private school, homeschool, anything OTHER than public school !!!

This law was made to insure that ALL public school children meet the legal reading standards and read on their grade level. The way that the 'powers that be' over NCLB law can know this is happening is that the schools have to give state tests to all children every year to see what their reading level is.

BUT, these tests do NOT affect the childrens grades at all in most states. I know that in Texas if a child fails this test in specific grades, they have to repeat the grade.

AND, this testing is NOT done to see how well the children are LEARNING, it is done to see how well the schools are TEACHING so the child can learn to read.

SO, you would expect that schools can do everything in their power to make sure the kids are reading at grade level, right?

WRONG! They are doing everything in their power to make sure the kids are passing the tests BECAUSE --

the higher scores they make on the tests-- the MORE MONEY the school gets!

SO, here's what happens in schools because of the NLCB law--

1. Teachers can ONLY teach what is on the state tests. They can NOT teach in the way THEY want to anymore, they have no say so whatsoever in what THEY want to teach.

2. They spoon feed the answers to the tests into the students like robots so they can MEMORIZE, not LEARN, so they can pass the state tests and the schools can GET MORE MONEY!!

3. Gone is the individualism because it's now a factory churning out everyone doing and learning the same things.

Gone is the creativity, hands on learning, etc.

4. Gone is learning what the students NEED to function in adult life. There are more illiterate students than ever before.

5. The schools do not TEACH kids HOW TO READ,

they only give answers to the state tests. HOW is this TEACHING?!?  HOW is this LEARNING TO READ ??

6. What's more, most, if not all, schools have to pass the child from grade to grade ANYWAY, even if they actually FAIL, so this will look good on the schools so they can

GET MORE MONEY!!

7. Kids are not learning how to THINK anymore. They are now being told what to THINK, what to DO, ect. They will grow up and not be able to hold jobs, not be able to stand on their own two feet because they will be so use to everyone else telling them what to do, think, etc.

8. Remind you of something ???  COMMUNISM, ANYONE!!

I truly believe this is all set up to bring in COMMUNISM into this country.

9. Schools are even going so far as to do these things to insure the all mighty dollar--

a. Some schools are PAYING the kids to PASS the state tests! I know for a fact they are doing this in ATL.

b. Schools are mandated by NCLB to provide school programs, some after school, to 'tutor' the kids to PASS THESE TESTS!

The school did this for my daughter and 'disguised' it as helping HER to learn, to help her with her learning problems.

It took me 2 1/2 YEARS, after much resistance from the school for me to learn the TRUTH, that their 'program' was to help kids pass the state tests and NOT to help the child with their individual problems!

I removed her from this 'program' immediately!!

c. It has been proven that some schools do things like change the kids answers on the tests to show they are correct, change the scores on some tests to make them higher, do not even report the lowest scores, etc.

ALL this has been proven in GA and WITH the knowledge and APPROVAL of the GA dept of education!!

After all this giving the kids the answers to the tests and other things, guess what? the kids are STILL FAILING the state tests!!

One reason is that the kids are starting to learn this means NOTHING to their education. They are losing their love of learning because the schools are putting so much pressure to pass these stupid tests, and they don't care anymore!!

h**l, I wouldn't care either !!!

Want to know why there's so much bullying, fighting, disrespect, and KILLING going on in schools?? NCLB!!!!

This law also states that the schools will get MORE MONEY for the LESS disclipline issues they have. Since this is true, then WHY is there MORE behavior problems??

You would think that the schools would do anything they can to make sure the bad problems stopped to get that money, right??

WRONG !! The only way that the 'powers that be' of NLCB can know if there are disclipline problems at school is thru the schools files of disclipline reports.

Guess what?? THERE ARE  NONE!!

Schools IGNORE the bullying, fighting, disrespect, etc so they will not have to make disclipline reports on the kids!!

NO DISCLIPLINE REPORTS, MORE MONEY!!!

EVERY teacher that I have EVER read about on this yahoo answers board (and LOTS of other groups and message boards)  come here in desperation wanting to know WHAT TO DO about the bad kids in their classes becasue the ADMINISTRATORS will NOT back them up in punishing the kids!!

SO, it is the SCHOOLS fault that there is so much bad behavior in school!! BUT, the school will always cover up this fact. Instead, they ALWAYS say it's the PARENTS fault that the kids are so bad. They say it's the parents responsibiltiy.  

This is TRUE, BUT it is the SCHOOLS responsibility  to disclipline the kids when they are in their care, but they DON"T!

What kid WOULDN"T  act up and be bad when they KNOW nothing will happen to them ?!?!?

WE as TAXPAYERS are paying these sorry people their PAYCHECK to do this to OUR OWN CHILDREN!!

They are using OUR MONEY to make OUR OWN children ILLITERATE, BULLIED, KILLED !!!

GET THE KIDS OUT NOW!!!!

Answer 8

No, NCLB is definitely not working. I work at an inner city school and the kids have figured out how to work the system. For example, they think that after the standardized test, school is over. They've come to the conclusion that they've learned everything for the year so they can "relax" after the test. (Our tests are given in April and school isn't over until the first week of June). Also, the kids have figured out that because of NCLB, they can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the first 2 grading periods and still receive a grade of 60. Then they can use the final grading period to raise their grade to passing and get credit for the whole semester!