I understand the Act. I think it is wrong. I cannot think of one reason that low functioning children should not be in day care or at home. Mind you I am not saying that these children do not need care. But school is the wrong format for this care.
The act appears in some lights to be an employment program for some. An entire subgroup has come into existence PCAs. A daycare is more cost effective.
And who would pay for this? Where would it be? Who would be trained to work with the kids? How would you prevent violence against these children? Or would you just have them sit in wheelchairs and stare at the wall?
What you are talking about is warehousing, and that helps practically no one. Many low functioning kids can learn and need to be taught.
I think you would change your mind if it were one of your children.
The special ed children should be left out of the testing, however. My wife teaches special ed and is having to have kids that function on a 1st grade level tested on a 4th or 5th grade level when they cannot even read. That is ridiculous.
Some of the problems in the No Child Left Behind program is that states have to interpret it and they make many of their own rules to comply. They seem to make up rules that enable them to bash the program itself.
BTW, she is a rabid Bush fan even though she has to be in the NEA for insurance purposes.
The NCLB Act is indeed an awful piece of legislation. My son is perfectly capable of self care, however, he is below grade level in math and reading. The school told him that he would have to take the Federal mandated test for 3rd grade, even though he had never been introduced to most of the material. Do you have any idea what that does to a child?!!! My son came home after the first day of testing, and said "Mom, I got all of the questions wrong. Please don't make me take it again." Needless to say, he was being homeschooled the next day.
The NCLB act is organized so that schools will fail. If a school fails two or three years in a row, the federal govn takes over the school. They fire the adminstrators of the school, and most of the teachers, and place their own people in. It really stinks to high heaven. Accountability?!! What a laugh. They have just discovered a way to federalize schools. Make all the kids, even those that are incapable take the standards test, and if the score isn't up to par, the locals lose control. You should study the act. It is no less than horrifying. And it was Bush that put his little John Henry on that line.
The NEA is a side issue. Don't get distracted, get the facts.