One of the major problems I’ve had with No Child Left Behind from the very beginning, before the law even had a chance to prove its inadequacies, was its reliance on numbers; numbers that could be manipulated with remarkable ease by administrators looking to mask their school’s shortcomings.
Case in point, when NCLB was instituted in Texas, while W. was governor there, principals disguised the number of daily student absences by reporting that chronically absent students had transferred to other schools or districts. NCLB requires a daily attendance percentage in 90’s, and for schools in high poverty areas with high levels of transience and student turnover that number was a bad joke and nightmare all rolled up into one. The principals did what they had to in order to survive. I don’t blame them for that. I also can’t fault NCLB for wanting to enforce what data shows to be a highly determinate factor in student success. Both were, however, treating the symptoms and not the disease.
The New York Times website ran an excellent article today reporting on the ridiculous amount of manipulation that states do when compiling graduation rates. One more example of how NCLB uses flowery language to fill stump speeches, while leaving real world implementation of those mandates up to politicians and administrators who will act with their own best interest in mind.
The solution? Exactly what NCLB asks for. Implementation of scientifically based teaching methods by highly qualified teachers. I am writing this blog entry from an education library filled with thousands of ways, stated in theory and proven by practice, to motivate and involve students of every type and persuasion; and help them graduate with an education that prepares them for a competitive global job market.
And this is the moment at which this polemic comes full circle. Better results need better students need better teachers need better education requires money teachers/schools need more money government needs to give more money government spends money on fruitless tactics (a war maybe?) cuts budgets schools lose teachers/resources students get left behind graduation rates plummet to 60’s public demands better results government demands better results…
I have a headache
–Luke Webb
The war in Iraq has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of education in the inner-city. (It was crappy before and will be after, ya know!)
I’d submit to you that we could defund all the public schools and save a LOT of money. Then we won’t be fooling ourselves that these children are getting any sort of education at public expense. No testing would be needed and there would be no disparity between publicly-educated children in rich and poor areas. Problem solved!
You’re welcome. :]