No Children Left Behind Act.?

Question

Ever since President Bush approved the No children left behind act do you feel that it helped our American children? For my point of view I have a niece that needs help and my sister in-law had a hassle and it took months in order for my niece to get the special needs. What is your point of view about the act?

Answer 1

My sister-in-law is a teacher and she says their assistant principal won't let them hold anybody back. She kept 2 kids back anyway. She is now working for the summer school program, and she says it's a joke. They have a certain criteria to follow, and if the students still don't pass, then they have another option that allows them to pass. This isn't fair neither to the student because it doesn't teach them anything, and the teacher, because it's a mountain of paper work for them to hold a student back.

Answer 2

As a teacher who last taught in the inner city in a public school, I can tell you that children are STILL being left behind all the time. When there are children, like your niece, who needs help it usually falls on the parents to fight for the rights of such children as you sil is doing. Thankfully, in your case, your sil knows what the law is in her state and is fighting for her child. Where I taught, the parents either didn't know the law or couldn't have cared less, even when we risked our jobs telling them what the law was and told them how to fight.

Unfortunately, the President and his advisers, like most people, seem to think that those in administrative positions with doctorate degrees are the best sources of information and how to deal with such problems. That isn't usually the case, though. Doctors of education are in offices, reading research by other doctors and haven't been in a classroom in years. They don't really have a clue. These are the same people who blame the classroom teacher for school system failures and expect the classroom teacher to perform miracles with little or no help. The classroom teacher, who work with children day in and day out, be the one making policy and advising the President.

Answer 3

I am glad to see in the Democratic Presidential Candidate debate that all those candidates agree the act needs to be revisited, and the intent repaird.

I am anxious to see response to similar question to Republican candidates.

However, I have concerns that are not being addressed.
1. I believe the locals, and graduates of teaching colleges, are best qualified to judge on educational needs, as compared to national partisan politics, but what we are seeing is critical decisions leaving local needs and teacher expertise, and moving to national political arena.
2. Problems get identified, documented, analysed, discussed and we end up with several opposing view points out there in political debate, cannot get resolved, compromised, while the needs go unaddressed, and fester get worse.
3. Funding is shrinking, so we get a trade-off of who gets funded, who not

Answer 4

Everything Bush has done has failed.....

No child left behind only helps schools that are already doing good. The schools that need help get left behind. So does the children. School is only a conditioning tool by our government for our children anyway. Better to home school your children.

Answer 5

No. It has helped nothing. It is a Federal intrusion into state and local province. It has financially strapped schools because it provided requirements but did not provide the funding. It actually leaves more children behind because it added bureaucracy.

Putting more resources into helping schools would give more benefits than does more red tape.

Answer 6

As an educator I think I speak for a majority of us who think it wastes our time doing a bunch of paperwork trying to "prove" we're doing our jobs when in fact, the paperwork takes away time we could be using to make more exciting lessons, collaborating with colleagues, and trying to make real learning experiences for our kids! We, as teachers, generally think it is terrible. But, we know that with Bush leaving, there will soon be something else to replace what he started. Our careers and lives are mandated by people in Washington who don't know a damn thing about the real world in U.S. public schools, yet they make arbitrary rules to govern us.

Answer 7

All it does is push kids through with problems that are not being take care of. Already a diploma is about useless, so pushing kids through without giving them the help they desperately need is not going to help.

Answer 8

I think it's given the country a good set of educational statistics to base future decisions on . . . however, it's time to take the program to the next level. U.S. students are simply not competitive with European students. This will lead to our economic downfall. On a side note, I live in an area with very good "special needs" services. My son is speech delayed and have found the process to amazingly good. However, it did take me about three to four months to start getting services.

Answer 9

I think its a great idea and overall will help but it badly needs some adjustments.

Answer 10

It is working.