No Child Left Behind (or Ahead)
As the grandchild of a teacher, the child of two teachers, and now having nearly completed my own degree in secondary education, this issue of how to assure that each child gets fair and adequate schooling is something that has been in the forefront of family discussions my entire life.
During the first years of the Bush administration a bill that came to be known as “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) became law. Since NCLB has come into effect I have yet to hear or see one truly positive outcome. According to the federal government the program is working effectively and positive results are already being seen. My experience in the classroom, information I have gathered from speaking with other educators, and articles I have read have all lead me to believe that the program is doing much more harm than good and is turning out to be goldmine to certain companies headed by persons who just happened to be large donors to the Bush administration.
An article written by Kathleen Kennedy of Education Week cites clear evidence that “federal officials seemed biased toward a particular instructional approach, direct instruction, and did not screen consultants for potential conflicts of interest.” Due to this particular bias it seemed that materials from particular companies were “approved for use” when no such recommendation is supposed to exist. “Moreover, the department did not ensure that employees and representatives followed legal restrictions that prohibit them from directing or influencing curriculum and assessment decisions.”
Direct instruction is far from the only way to teach children and even farther from the being the most effective. All children learn differently and an educator that uses many different instructional methods is going to be much more successful in reaching greater numbers of children.
In addition to the to the glaring problem that NCLB seems to be benefiting partners of the Bush administration, it has also taken away a great deal of states’ rights when it comes to educational decisions. Shouldn’t each state be deciding what is best for its students? Surely the educational needs of students in California differ greatly from those in North Dakota. It is likely that the needs of Northern California differ from that of Southern! Most states already have standards that school districts have to abide by and these standards were created based on the demographics of the state as well as the essential skills that all children need to acquire before entering college or the workforce. Teachers already have enough to worry about when it comes to making sure children receive a proper education and adding another set of laws and standards is only making their job more difficult.
For more information on this subject check out the following sites:
http://blog.citizensforethics.org/
If you want to find out what the U.S. Governenment has to say, officially, see the NCLB website.
