Is "No Child Left Behind" an effective program?

Question

If so, what group of students is it most beneficial for, and are there students that it leaves out?

Answer 1

No. No federal programs are effective. The federal government is too big to handle this sort of thing. Less fed!!!!

Answer 2

Perhaps it does benefit the "average" student, but as the mother of a child who struggles to keep up with the new standards I can tell you he is definitely being left behind. He attends a middle school in a middle class suburb that used to have special education classes for the kids who did not learn at the same rate. Now, apparently because of the NCLB, there are no longer special classes. EVERYONE ATTENDS THE SAME CLASSES AND IS EXPECTED TO DO THE SAME WORK AT THE SAME RATE NO MATTER WHAT THEIR NEEDS ARE. I knew when my son was in the earlier grades he was going to have a hard time, but I always thought he would get the help he needed when he got to the middle school. Now that help has been cut out and it is an absolute nightmare. I sit with him every night doing his homework because there are so many things he does not understand until I explain them to him. Homework often takes 2 hours on any given night. The curriculum is overwhelming, the projects endless and many times they are reading and working on two novels at the same time. So much emphasis is put on Language Arts now that there seems to be very little time for the other core subjects such as math and science.

And what do you do when these kids want to join other extracurricular activities? Perhaps play sports? Do you say no, there is no time for it because of all the homework required on a daily basis. Is this fair?

I think the government standards are pretty ridiculous and no one is really benefitting from it. Many of the educators feel the NCLB act has failed as well - my sister-in-law has taught school for 30 years. Right now in her fifth grade class she has 3 children with Asperger's Syndrome. How is it fair that these kids with learning disabilities and very special needs are being taught in the same class and how is it fair to try and teach the other 22 kids when you have 3 kids that need such constant attention? Why does the government have such a hard time understanding something so simple. ALL CHILDREN ARE TEACHABLE, BUT ALL CHILDREN DO NOT LEARN THE SAME WAY AND AT THE SAME RATE.

If you are interested, you can check out the online petition to dismantle the NCLB Act. There are also many links to other sites with a lot of good arguments.

Answer 3

It is a good idea but the child that is ahead of the class is the one that suffers. This child is left bored, feeling dispaired and feels completely left out. This child pay for the other children that are way behind. As for the financial side of the program, I don't see that this program is providing supplies for the school anyway. As a parent, I spent over $150 in supplies for one of my sons to take to school. This included pencils and cap erasers, crayons, glue, scissors and paper for the entire class to use. This also included dry erase markers for the teacher to use. What happened? On top of that we are required to buy paper towels, clorox wipes, baby wipes, paper plates and utensils, markers and alcohol stuff for their hands. When did this get so out of hand?? I know there are many people who can't afford all of this stuff!! If a class of 20 kids brings in all of this stuff, what happens to the left overs??

Answer 4

it's effective if used properly. the program is intended to bring children up to a more equal playing field, and to treat them the same, but sometimes this isn't the best route. there are some kids that the program might do more to alienate, and some it would benefit. for instance, you should do all you can to incorporate children of different cultures, races, and backgrounds, and abilities into a child's routine so they learn to be accepting of all different types of people. however, sometimes a child with a severe disability might prove to be more disruptive to a class than others. this is not to say a child w/ a disorder such as tourette's shouldn't be allowed in a classroom, but there are some disabilities that prevent the disabled child from benefitting from a more social situation, and if forced to be there would not only disrupt the class, but the individual child. so you shouldn't place every single child in a cookie cutter classroom setting, just for the sake of diversity, but we should strive as a people to encourage all our children to lift up their peers, which i believe is the initial goal of the program. those who are running the program must be educated and trained to accomplish it's real goal. anyway...that's off my soap box...hope you can use some of my rambling :)

Answer 5

The No Child Left Behind Act should be helpful to all students even those who have incapabilities(disabilities) they are still children or student and are no different than any other.

Answer 6

NCLB has good intentions but simply does not work. The schools that need help and funding to get ahead and buy supplies that are needed to raise their test scores do not receive additional funding that is needed and are eventually closed. Then the children are shipped off to schools where they are behind in subjects and it is just a case of the poor getting poorer. The idea of having standards is great, but withholding money to buy better supplies (newer books, papers, pencils, science equipment, and performing arts equipment, etc) is not the way to go about doing it.

Answer 7

It was a good idea but if I remember correctly it leaves the "gifted" children out in the cold.

Answer 8

it really does. i remember it was provoked by George W. Bush aiming on the importance of reading, especially for 3rd graders and younger. it benefits most of the "average" kids and leaves out the smart.