NationStates Jolt Archive

The No Child Left behind act has been nothing short of contreversial.I want to know what you think of it.I saw a few segments on it on The News Hour With Jim Leher. Here are some bits on it from pbs.org.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/education/july-dec07/nclb_08-14.html---When No Child Left Behind was passed in 2002, it was hailed as an example of congressional bipartisanship. Since then, however, the law has provoked complaints from school administrators and teachers that it is under-funded and does not take into account testing scores of students who have disabilities or speak English as a second language.

The law requires public schools to meet certain state-set benchmarks toward improving all students' reading and math proficiency, and if the schools fail to do so, they could face firings and eventually be shut down.

Two leaders on one of the reauthorizing committees, House Education Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and ranking member Howard McKeon, R-Calif., answered your questions about what changes to the law they may seek.



Here is a link of map to map test scores for all 50 states.I've included directly the states with the three highest number of electoral votes...CA,TX,and NY.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/map.php

New York (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/map.php?state=ny)

California (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/map.php?state=ca)

Texas (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/map.php?state=tx)


State Reports and more(including teacher acountibility)--http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/accountability.html

States reports
Some states will have an easier time demonstrating compliance than others.

A majority of states -- 37 plus Washington, D.C. -- met only some of the criteria and must submit new data and plan improvements to the Department of Education by Sept. 29.

Four states: Hawaii, Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin, failed completely. They must submit new plans by Nov. 1 and undergo monthly auditing of their teacher quality data.


Is the goal reachable?
While some states are making concerted efforts to reach 100 percent compliance there are skeptics, like Nevada Schools Superintendent Keith Rheault, who think the goal is unreachable because teacher training can't keep up with the demand for new teachers.

"We'll never catch up," Rheault told USA Today. "When you hire 3,000 new teachers a year, you can't get them all highly qualified."

The Education Trust's Peske disagrees.

"We are shirking our responsibility to say it's an unrealistic goal. If we say that it's unrealistic, we're saying it's OK for some children -- and they become poor and minority children -- not to be taught by highly qualified teachers," Peske said.

Peske said the best state plans are district specific and make efforts to guarantee that poor and minority students get equal access to highly qualified and experienced teachers.

Meanwhile, urban districts like San Francisco may be losing teachers who can't afford to live in the city while rural districts face fewer teachers in the applicant pool.

"Different districts have different issues and needs," she said.



I fell this is important--"Different districts have different issues and needs,"

Here are all(or hopefully most of the links)You can navigate the site yourself if you want.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/basics.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/testing.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/accountability.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/federalvstate.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/impact.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/before.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/frontlines.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/map.php

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/test.html You can't really "take" the test.You can face your answers against the answers and honostly see how you did.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/education/no_child/archive.html

Comment.Take the test.Poll coming soon.

It's a fucking joke.

All it does is place the burden of blame on the schools and the students, rather than the actual government. Pathetic, but that's just how it rolls. Hopefully somebody can break the fog of stupidity and repeal it before too much damage is done.

Well i got everysingle math question right.Now on to Reading.

Do these studys take into account demographics???

Amount of income in the different sectors?
Amount of time spent by PARENTS helping kids with schoolwork?
Office Jobs vs. agriculture ... etc?


Its silly to think that a 3 generation family of hard working corn farmers would have the same test scores as a 3 generation family of Kennedys in Mass.

Who thinks this stuff up?