Are School Administrations Nationwide Trying to Hurt George Bush?

06.17.04 | mlmr

[mlmr]

I have four children in three different schools. In the past week I have talked to a number of teachers and administrators about different issues pertaining to next semester. I have been told three times so far that the school cannot manage A or B anymore becasue Individual Student Goals(or whatever the technical name is) cannot be honored because of the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT. One called it Bush's NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. Tell me, is this a national trend? Those of you with children in public schools, are you hearing that the Bush plan is hurting your child? Or otherss?

[ArmyBratproud]

Old Prof, did you ever teach some Sociology courses.
I had a Soc. Prof in college who mentioned the same thing.

It makes a lot of sense.

[mlmr]

My beef is with the requirements on the special education population. The requirements have to be reasonable. In addition, it always irritates me when people on FR want to moan and complain about how much it costs to educate each child, when they don't realize that the cost of some very needy children are spread out among all.


Auuugh! I took one right to the heart!

Spread out like taxes? Time for some fiscal responsibility and accountibility.

[ArmyBratproud]

couldn't be a bad 'big' joke.....cause they're just kids.

[SuziQ]

The most recent ad I saw was a teacher complaining the she has to spend all her time "drilling" for the standardized tests that she can't teach other stuff (probably stuff from her union propoganda handbook).

Considering that the standardized tests cover basic stuff, if she's 'teaching to the test', the kids ARE getting the basics.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

My daughter just graduated 6th grade under the no child left behind act with 7 certificates of achievement she has a 3.9 grade average on her tests she has a twinge of trouble in math other than that she breezes through everything else

She has received the art achievement award for her school district has completed the DARE programs initiatives is a school volunteer for special needs children [she wants to do that when she chooses her career path]

Our school follows the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND act and the whole schools overall grade point averages went up 67% for the fiscal year of 2003/2004 from an average of 37% the previous fiscal year of 2002/2003 these teachers work their asses off to get these kids to pass on their own and they have proved that they can with the efforts of parents and teachers working together these kids are the brightest of our future.

It seem that most of these teachers find the no child left behind act helps in many way to achieve their goals as well as ours as parents

If the teachers where you are cant stay within the guidelines of rules to teach kids seem to me like they need to find another line of work wouldn't ya think ?

[mlmr]

Unfortunatly it seems more true than ever. Each child born is precious. But people also need to look at realities when faced with the the very compromised child.

[mlmr]

If the teachers where you are cant stay within the guidelines of rules to teach kids seem to me like they need to find another line of work wouldn't ya think ?


Appears that way to me. Unfortunatly they are sucking at the government teat.

[Mo1]

She was in a special ed preschool when she was 3. It was awful for many reasons. They didn't expect much out of her and they said she couldn't do things that she could do (like cutting with scissors). They said she didn't know her colors (she knew all the major ones by 3. She couldn't say them, so you would have to ask her to point to the correct color.)

They said the same about mine and she doesn't have a disability .. she was just shy

The teacher on the first day gave be an ear full about how she didn't know this and that and couldn't use scissors

I looked at the teacher and said .. you do realize she is 3 yrs old and this is her first day of school don't you?

The look on her face was like a light bulb just went off

I pulled her out of that school and enrolled her in another .. and I was very glad I did

I'm not saying that children with disabilities shouldn't go to school and what you described of your daughter, she is able to learn ..

I just meant that child with low IQ due to severe disabilities maybe should be put in a different category or something .. not that they shouldn't be allow to attend school ..

[Mo1]

And nobody complains! (Except the kids of course...)

*L* .. it's the same at my house

[Mo1]

It works well at our school--BUT I know that it doesn't everywhere else.

And why is that??

I don't mean to be a pain .. I'm just trying to understand more

[ArmyBratproud]

I told you about my 'advisor'. She deals with the special ed issue as well. She actually blames people in her field of School Psych. for the special ed problems in our state.
She says that there have been too many people in the school psych field that jump on every new bandwagon of philosophy that comes along. And that as a result, they will prescripe to one set of theories and then turn around just a short time later and prescripe to one that contradicts the last (which they may have pushed for the state to implement as system). She says that over time its gotten so clouded that some ideas actually have contradicting premises in one theory. One of the results that she talks about is the idea of when special ed. based students are ready to go into classrooms with students in regular classes. The trend chasers have jumped on so many 'new' theories that they have advised the state to change measurments and testing several times in recent history. Her main problem with it...they advised change each time just to keep up with a new philosphy and not because it was something that works. Says it happens at the school district level as well.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Appears that way to me. Unfortunatly they are sucking at the government teat.

It also seems that someone said on here that highly liberal areas in the US are the most of the ones complaining about the NCLBA which would seem to fit in the montra of the left everything in highly liberal citys and countys are this way they make it hard on themselves bynot doing it the right way or by not doing it at all and blaming it on the system

Its seems to be the liberal way in heavily populated areas have ya ever thought of maybe moving to a less populated area something with more of a country down home setting some of those schools are outstanding in the teaching feild course you may have to live agood peice away from a city but the education and fresh air is worth it !

[Intolerant in NJ]

We're seeing a heavy run of an anti-nochild ad on Philly TV from some private group which is stupid, even from a bunch of teachers - gibberish about schools not being able to teach geometry or other important subjects because they have to drill for the nochild examinations - as though schools never gave standardized tests before nochild (opps - the ad just came on again even as I was typing this) also complaining that they can't get updated materials, teachers' training, or smaller classrooms because of the law (even though federal funds to education have been increasing about ten percent per year under Bush) - teachers and administrators are scared to death that they are finally going to be held accountable for how poorly kids might do in their classrooms, and hysteria is setting in......

[Clara Lou]

Considering that the standardized tests cover basic stuff, if she's 'teaching to the test', the kids ARE getting the basics.
Let me give you an example of what I think this teacher was complaining about. (It has to do with the fact that students need to know more than just "the basics.")

I teach high school Spanish for 8th-graders. I have to teach students about nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and direct and indirect objects, and use examples from both languages. I have to be able to use words like "antecedent" to discuss pronouns and objects. I have to teach them about verb tenses, and occasionally use words like "gerund" and "infinitive."

Teachers who spend all of their class time "teaching to the test" don't have time to get past nouns, verbs, adjectives. They have students write (in preparation for one major state test) read (for another part of the state test), teach punctuation, and they have students take benchmark tests (to see if students are making progress toward the state test's goals).

So, the situation is that teachers are teaching "the basics" (nouns, verbs, adjectives), but there is a massive amount of knowledge to which students are not being exposed because that knowledge doesn't come under the category of "basic" and there isn't time to teach it.

Please note: This is just one example from my little corner of teaching. Also note this: Improved scores on state mandated tests (such as Texas's TAKS test) do not result in higher SAT scores. This is a serious matter. I don't think that this should be true. It's probably because the SAT asks for more than "basics."

[paulsy]

we home school our kids

[Clara Lou]

Some misconceptions about NCLB that are being posted on this thread are just overboard.
You're right. I don't think that NCLB is perfect by any means, but the misconceptions make it seem evil.

[GailA]

Carol Johnson, formerly the current mayor willie herenton spent years as the super. They've had 2 others since then, the female made super of the year, she really did a number on the system, left it even worse than king willie.

[GailA]

Memphis city schools has a few of those, parents line up all night to just register for a chance to get their kids into them.

[Major_Risktaker]

Some are born mentally retarded, brain damaged, severely autistic, in addition to those who are learning disabled.

In my school we have about 50 Learning Disabled kids, but we have 10 kids in the severe population. These kids have IQ's in the 30's and 40's.

_________________

Are you saying mentally retarded children are
learning with normal children?

What year did this social engineering experiment start?

_________________

Main Entry: 1re·tard
Pronunciation: ri-'tärd
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin;
Middle French retarder, from Latin retardare, from re- +
tardus slow
transitive senses
1 : to slow up especially by preventing or hindering
advance or accomplishment : IMPEDE
2 : to delay academic progress by failure to promote
intransitive senses : to undergo retardation
synonym see DELAY
- re·tard·er noun

_________________

Talk about slowing down a class.

Many people can't drive cars because of a lack
of education. Look at the retards that causes
problems for everyone else.

Good Luck!!!