Special Education parents - has No child left behind helped your kids?

Question

Hi! I'm doing a research paper for class on No Child Left Behind and how it has changed special education.

Do you feel that special education has been helped or hurt by No Child Left Behind?

Do you feel that your child will now be able to achieve reading at grade level? If so, how are they doing this?

Answer 1

Ok. I am a special educator and this was a huge topic at my school recently. If you look online at the department of ed, you will see that various schools across the country are classified "failing schools". The reason behind this is because IDEA and NCLB are contradictory.

NCLB states that during standardized testing, schools are broken down into various categories, white male, white female, hispanic male, etc. One of the categories is special education (emotional impairment, cognitive impairment, etc). If any of the students recieve accomodations on state testing, their scores don't count toward that category. If a school gets less than a certain amount in that category (I think it is 90%. not sure) they are considered a "failing school".

The problem with this is IDEA states that a student classified as special ed gets accomodations on state testing in order to succeed.

So what rule are we supposed to follow? I am going with IDEA personally. So I feel that special education is being hurt by NCLB for the sole reason that these students are being discriminated against because of the fact that they are protected under IDEA. If we follow one law, we are in violation of the other.

Answer 2

NCLB has helped some children with learning disabilities because it has forced the school to be accountable for their learning. Previously children in special education did not have to meet high standards so the teachers kind of forgot about them. In this way, NCLB is a good thing.

Answer 3

I think the NCLB act is a great thing. My daughter was premature at birth. She finds it very hard to complete some tasks at school, she is NOT removed from her classroom but receives special help in areas she lacks the ability to understand.

My seven year old son was behind in reading and he was taken out of the classroom for "reading help" and now he reads at his grade level and above. He was not picked on and it has boosted his self-confidence!

No child left behind is a great thing in my OPINION!

Answer 4

i have children in both ,regular and sp.ed , this "law" is terrible !! it has placed sp.ed in regular classrooms where the sp.ed child is supposed to "fit in " where she is laughed at , ignored by other students, pushed aside where her self esteem suffers. they are not accepted and in my opinion where they DONT belong. the rest of the class suffers because its always " wait for jamie" or "help jamie" and the learning that they could be doing is lagging because one child slows up the whole class. then you have the "jamie doesnt have to do it" and "jamie throws her crayons" and gets away with it why do i get punished when she doesnt? they can take this no child left behind ruling and stick it up the nearest politicians behind.