5 Myths About No Child Left Behind

Washington Post ^ | 3-30-2008 | Chester E. Finn Jr

[SoftballMominVA]

t's the 800-pound gorilla of U.S. education. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the sweeping legislation enacted six years ago to improve public schools, seems to make a lot of people unhappy. But President Bush, undaunted by the barrage of criticism aimed at this beleaguered measure by states, teachers' unions and politicians on both sides of the aisle, is pushing Congress to reauthorize it this year . Many Capitol Hill observers believe that it won't survive without the political clout a new president and Congress would bring -- but after a starring role in five straight presidential elections, education is a bit player at best in the 2008 race. Could these widespread myths about No Child Left Behind have poisoned the well?

[SoftballMominVA]

Interesting take....I would personally like the article better if the author had included some back up data, but still a fairly cut and dried look at NCLB from both sides of the aisle.

Seems nobody really likes it at all....just a red-headed stepchild

[SoftballMominVA]

Public Education Ping

This list is for intellectual discussion of articles and issues related to public education (including charter schools) from the preschool to university level. Items more appropriately placed on the “Naughty Teacher” list, “Another reason to Homeschool” list, or of a general public-school-bashing nature will not be pinged.

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[Political Junkie Too]

How about a compromise measure: Every Fifth Child Left Behind?

-PJ

[Amelia]

I'm sure that many here would disagree, but I am beginning to think that a national curriculum wouldn't be such a bad idea. As the article mentions,

For this to work, of course, good standards have to be in place, and NCLB doesn't address the problem of mediocre or even downright silly standards. Compromises needed to pass NCLB left the law laid-back about standards yet fussy about what states and districts should do when those standards aren't met. The upshot: low expectations on one hand and too much micromanagement on the other...the majority either expect woefully little of their students and schools or have developed such nebulous standards that nobody -- not parents, not teachers, not test makers -- can make out what students are supposed to be learning.

I feel that in many areas, our state has set the standards too low to do much good, so that fewer schools would be failing. There are still failing schools, but students who meet the low standards and their parents get a false sense of security about how well they are actually achieving.

There is also the problem of students who move from one state or district to another and are expected to meet totally different standards.

I had a parent tell me last year that her child was going to fail a grade because the child couldn't meet the standards in our state, so the mother sent the child to live with a relative in another state (with different standards) for the last month or two of the school year so that the child could be promoted, then brought the child back home. The net result was that the child did not have the skills to be successful in the higher grade and was failing again.

[shag377]

My thoughts about NCLB are the same as they always have been.

In Georgia, where I live, the early grades are notorious about socially promoting kids left and right who obviously cannot do the work of the higher grade.

They make it all the way to high school, cannot read, do simple math or much of anything, but I am expected to work magic on them and get them to graduate high school.

Unfortunately, no amount of federal intervention is going to change the fact that some kids will simply never graduate high school, and if they all did, they should all be physicians. If you can make it out of high school, you can make it into and out of college.

[Amelia]

In Georgia, where I live, the early grades are notorious about socially promoting kids left and right who obviously cannot do the work of the higher grade.

I'm wondering if RTI will end some of that...or at least result in better remediation.

I think that instead of funding "graduation coaches" in middle and high schools, Gov. Perdue would have been better off suggesting reading specialists.

[P.O.E.]

Kids need to read more. TV & video games work against that.

Kids need to play outside more. Not being able to beat the snot out of child molesters works against that. Ditto the video thing from above.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of “trades” jobs for current students to fall back on.

[bboop]

In California, you can go to the City College at age 18, with or without a HS diploma.

[KC_for_Freedom]

As the article says, teaching the standards required is not a bad thing when the standards are what the child needs to learn. Nothing anybody does will make the learning acheivement the same in every classroom, and its time we recognize this, but standard tests represent a way to verify results and this is needed in our education system today. Bush got his tests, Kennedy got certified (union) teachers.
A better solution would be to let schools and teachers negotiate for their jobs and salaries. Someday maybe the public will get behind this, until then we are going to have to do the best we can with what we have. BTW, I am applying to return to the classroom, to get up close and personal with NCLB and the rest of it. (Wish me luck)

[Caramelgal]

Seems nobody really likes it at all....just a red-headed stepchild,

And even some kids don’t like it. I saw my 14 year old niece last weekend and she was telling me about school.

She’s a really smart kid; straight A’s from the 1st grade, honor society, two time winner of the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence, and last Memorial Day won not one, but two essay contests on Patriotism, one sponsored by the American Legion and the other by the VFW. She was awarded both prizes at a Memorial Day ceremony and it was kept secret from her until the last minute. Then she was asked to speak and completely unprepared and off the cuff, with much poise and humbleness, she not only thanked the AL and VFW commanders by name, but also thanked an Iraq War veteran who had spoke earlier, and of course her parents. I did say she was smart but did I also say she’s a really great kid?

But she told me how she was really bored in school this year. She said she gets very little homework and what she gets, she typically finishes in class.

She also told me the teachers are spending most of the classroom time “teaching” to the required tests under No Child Left Behind and that even in some of her honors classes, there are one or two kids who can’t keep up and the whole class has to slow down on their account.

She told me that she wrote a letter to President Bush telling him how and why he was wrong about supporting No Child Left Behind; how it wasn’t really helping the kids who need more help and in effect punishing kids like herself who strive for academic excellence and cheating her and others out of a quality education under the very wrong presumption that everyone is equal academically.

I asked her to email me a copy of her letter as I’d really like to read what she wrote. Once I get it, with her permission of course, maybe I’ll share it with all of you.

[SoftballMominVA]

My daughter (who is now a senior in HS) had similar experiences through middle school. It wasn't until she got into high school and started with her AP classes that she felt that she had truly found kids her equal.

Of course, AP teachers also teach to a test too, but the test includes such broader learning and is to intricate that it doesn't feel the same as to teaching to a 40 question multiple choice test.

I'd love to see her letter!