Do you think that the No Child Left Behind Act should be renewed?

Question

Evidently, President Bush is asking congress to extend the No Child Left Behind Act. What is your opinion, do you feel that it has made things better or worse for students? Also, are you a teacher/employee in the school district, or a student, or a parent of kids in public schools?

Answer 1

NO! It is a nice idea, but it is never going to actually work. I would love it if 100% of kids were passing standardized tests in a few years, but realistically that will not happen. It puts too much pressure on teachers to teach to the test. It puts ridiculous strain on students. I teach 4th grade and actually had 2 (in a small class of 16) students break down during a test. Do we really need to break their spirits with tests before they are 10? I think having standards is a great thing. I do think teachers need to be accountable for what they are doing. But NCLB is not an effective way of measuring that.

Answer 2

NO NO NO NO~~~

NCLB is merely another way for the government to evaluate the teacher and her program, without going through another round of formal observations (read: less paperwork for administrators) and to satisfy George Bush's need to be recognized as having "stood for something" besides defending his daddy's term in office.

NCLB is a fiasco. It is underfunded, the Portfolio process is the most ridiculous, embellished (and completely fabricated, at times) and underfunded program that the government has ever imagined. And there has been PLENTY of those.

Instead of halfway funding a program like this, we could use that meager amount and provide better materials for kids, higher salaries for teachers to retain the best teachers. Buy the best maps and globes and provide more meaningful fieldtrips so that the information will be retained in the child's head.

How can teachers be expected to teach on meager salaries that put them near poverty line, sad benefits, little retirement, and then spend lots of their own money back into their classrooms, because there is no money to buy necessities with?

And Bush with this crazy scheme is forcing teachers to "teach to the test" == something that every good educator is taught NOT to do from the time we enter college. How much is being retained into the child's head??

Give us better reasons to stay good teachers -- not more reasons to quit! Take away NCLB so that we are not all online looking for a job that will pay at least enough to take us off the poverty line.


Special Ed. teacher

Answer 3

I think that the no child left behind act is basically
useless because there is no way to effectively meet all of the criteria for the promotion of every student without teachers and school administrators fudging test scores. What I mean to say is that a mentally handicapped child can not be expected in all cases to test at thier age appropriate grade levels which is one of the requirements of the no child left behind act. My aunt works with severly disadvantaged children (from mental and physical handicaps as well as those that have suffered severe abuse) and her school is required to teach every child regardless of thier ability to learn the same cirriculum as every other child in thier age group. And even beyond that say in an normal school setting teachers no longer have the ability to decide that a child needs to be held back as a result of that childs laziness, immaturity, or developmental slowness because the no child left behind act states that a certain (and very high) percentage of students be promoted. With everything else that educators have to deal with like violence and the issues that many of thier students face at home there simply are not enough hours in the day to privately tutor every child who needs extra help. And sadly it is a fact of life that not everyone is created with an equal amount of intelligence or motivation. The no child left behind act was a great idea but it either needs to be motified or discontinued completely.

Answer 4

i will see the way it variety of feels like a sturdy theory, even nevertheless it wasn't for sure theory out. each and every pupil has a various speed of discovering. some are slower novices collectively as others capture on somewhat quicky. This regulation is a concern interior the lecture room because of the fact then the instructor feels tension to maintain all her pupils attempting to learn on an analogous speed and a few will nevertheless be at the back of and get pushed forward devoid of for sure information the fabric.

Answer 5

It wont do a thing. They (BUSH) make Acts sound like a good thing. Its just more money down the drain (WAR)! It was suppose to help inner city schools, I dont know who is benefiting form this Act. (NOT) Books are still old, technology is outdated, they lie about test scores, and drop out rates. What the use?

Answer 6

No.I think children should learn every thing they need to know before they are promoted to a higher grade.Like last year we asked to put my grandson back in the second grade because he need to learn more before going on to the 3 grade.

Answer 7

It shouldn't be renewed, it screws over a lot of smaller school districtss forcing them to pay for services they can't afford.

Answer 8

I think it is a good idea, but there are some things I would change in it.