Is No Child Left Behind Working?

I have to hand it to my children's teachers...in spite of the government oversight and, in many ways, crippling of our schools' ability to handle their own business, their teachers (most of whom are excellent educators, extremely committed to educating their charges) are finding ways to educate the whole student. My daughter's first grade teacher regularly squeezes "classroom PE" time into her class schedule to compensate for the school's pared-back funding of special programming.

Many of my son's teachers go above the required progress reporting and send progress reports home on a weekly basis. They are happy to answer any questions or concerns I have. The key here is staying involved in their education on a daily basis.

Fortunately for us, my children attend a school with an "A+" rating. This has not always been the case. This law is flawed, leaving many children behind. The law is too results driven and does little to address the underlying "why".

No Child Left Behind does NOT work in Alaska.

As a grandmother of 6, from ages 4-19, mother of 5, who does volunteer work in one grandchilds classroom, the school library and in the State Capitol lobbying our elected officials on a variety of issues, I speak from a different perspective than the folks with whom I don't disagree. All make very valid points. The No Child Left Behind Program has a number of good points, but misses several others. I feel it is not as broad as it should be in some cases, and leaves many children out of the plane they should be working on. I have a cousin whose oldest son is autistic and was accommodated by the school system in Maine, due mainly to her efforts to ensure he wasn't closed out of any resources to help him reach his full potential.Other family members have children who could have benefitted from such a program had one been around back in the early 70's. It doesn't allow the states as much leeway for true excellence in their programs. Oversight by PTSs and local school BODs is critical.

No. No. No. Leave the teachers alone. The principal should watch for poor teachers and weed them out before they get tenure - then get out of the way and let the long-suffering teachers do their job without the government sticking its nose into that much more of local business. And believe me school is a business. SE Womack

I agree with most everyone's comments. Many people don't understand that schools are judged by their AYPs(Adequate Yearly Progress). The problem with this is that, no matter how much growth/progress a school had made with its students, if only ONE subgroup has not met the required standards, the entire school is considered inadequate. Many schools have as many as 17 subgroups. A subgroup can include such groups as those who have English as a second language, exceptionalities, economically deprived, etc. The other thing people don't realize is that the arts are listed in the law as a CORE subject, but are not treated as such by administrators because they're not tested in the standard statistical ways.
Gramlin

I am not sure if the law as a whole is working, but I do know it has been a God sent for my youngest son.


I have an adopted child who is EH (emotionally handicap) due to the issue from his bio-mother and years of abuse. We have had a hard time keeping him in classes, due to his behaviors, until I found out about this law and started using it to my fullest ability to get him help and keep him in school! Now he is in special classes where he gets the attendion and re-direction he needs to stay on task and succeed!


He is thriving rather than failing now and I owe a great deal of the sucess to this program. With out it...he would have ended up kicked out so many tiems, they would not have let him back into school and he would have had to attent teh "alternative school" where all the little punks go. Which could have been a very bad and detramental situation, for a child who has had enough trama in his life!!!

Teachers and schools spend to much time teaching the tests and not teaching what our kids need to know to live a successful life. We live in a district that depends on the results of these tests to get funding. That is not right. If the kids don not do well on the tests then the schools funding goes down. No child left behind is not the solution.

The Law is certainly a flop! The results say these things: the teachers are forced to "teach the test"; the schools are dropping the important subjects such as, social studies, PE, art and music; both ends of the performance spectrum are being dropped - special ed and advanced classes; the schools that need the most help are being punished. Need I go on?
You might ask where do I get the right to criticize this "federal" program? I have taught public school for thirty years AND isn't education supposed to be the responsibility of the states?
Please look at your schools and ask the TEACHERS what they think!!! Thanks, Kacy

Part I

Hi Julie,

I was interested in the thoughts that you shared in your recent posting. I find it a bit disconcerting that the schools have adapted the model where they teach the testing materials such that student will have an increased likelihood of embracing the rote method rehearsed in the class room, thus making the schools stats appear to be improving. My criticism is that if the student has embraced rehearsed methodology and has not learned the logical rational for understanding and deriving the applicable Methodology for resolving the problem, I would suggest that real learning has not occurred. When this young person advanced to a college or university setting, the student will discover how the public school system has failed him or her.

Part II

My wife and I chose to home school our children using a number of available Christina centric curriculum. All of our children (six surviving) completed the prepared material with few difficulties. All of them have gone on and have done a stellar job in their respective college work, all graduating from Texas A&M, a top notch University, with honors and highest honors. While most have moved on with family oriented objectives, one in the Texas court system and one is currently serving as a Doctor in the US Navy.