Chicago - For nearly a decade, public schools around the country have struggled to meet federal academic standards, considered "failing" when too many children flunked achievement tests.
But if the White House has its way, schools and districts no longer would be labeled failures and No Child Left Behind - the landmark education act signed into law by President George W. Bush in January 2002 - would be overhauled.
President Barack Obama on Friday is expected to propose monumental changes to the way schools are judged and sanctioned based on student academic achievement, fixing what senior administration officials on Thursday called a "broken law."
A cornerstone of law - that all students tested pass state exams by 2013-14 - would be thrown out in favor of states coming up with their own plans to bring struggling students up to par in the most troubled schools. "Adequate Yearly Progress" - the annual requirement to improve test scores - would go away.
And states would have more flexibility in spending federal poverty dollars that previously had to go toward special tutoring for struggling students.
Administration officials on Thursday stressed that states will have to set a high academic bar, and that schools still will be held accountable for student performance.
The changes aren't a sure thing yet.
4 comments:
Anyone, educator or not (I'm a retired teacher), knew that the goal of every child reaching a satisfactory level by 2014 could never be met. It's a laudable goal, to be sure, but simply not attainable. The factors are too many to enumerate here, and we know them anyway, but for all students to reach proficient by 2014--or 2024 or 2034--will never happen.
It was also predicatable that, if the standard couldn't be reached, the rules would just be changed, as Obama is proposing. To leave it to the states to decide what AYP means is, of course, laughable. That was tried before and didn't work, hence the birth of NCLB.
There were students that I had who, despite anything I could do, would never reach a satisfactory level for their grade. So what to do? Either let them fail, or pass them on. You know what choice I made. If they behaved themselves and tried, they passed. I couldn't have too many failures because then the administration would be on my back, and I would be deemed a failure.
Yes it is rather sad that we no longer allow a child to know what failure is like. We tend to try to protect all from failure. That is why we are in the situation we are in yoday. We didn't want people to know the hardship of earning the right to own a house so we changed the rules so all could own a house. It failed folks and our government still has not learned a lesson as new regulations force banks again to lend to those who cannot afford it. And when it comes crashing down again the Banks will again be the scape goats for our wonderful electorates. Shame.
The teacher has it right. We blame the teacher because Johnny is dangerous, or complacent, or violent, and/or doesn't want to learn ANYTHING. And his parent (a shout out to all the single moms "who don't need no man") lurks in the background waiting for a chance to sue someone who may "disrespect" her gang banging son/daughter. It doesn't matter what LAW gets passed. Until we recognize that some students will never be smart or college bound, but instead, look to become rap stars, professional sports stars, or leaders of some gang, we will not make progress. I know that hurts some people who want the world to be "fair", but thats the way it REALLY is....
The only thing No Child Left Behind did was create the school environment where the only thing taught is what's on the test. They started teaching to the test instead of really teaching.
I know this for fact.
Kids in school are no longer "learning". They are only "memorizing" what they will need to know to pass the testing!
We're ALL going to be in a heap of trouble when this generation become our leaders! They have NO common sense, they can't add and subtract, they can't count change back to a customer, heck, they can't do much of anything that we were all TAUGHT to do!
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