No Child Left Behind....a positive or negative?

Question

My opinion will be posted later, but do you think NCLB should continue to be a part of our school funding requirements, or should we eliminte it? Also, are you for or against the Department of Education? Please explain your answer. Thank you!

Answer 1

I think it is a negative. Instead of raising the bar and making all strive harder, they have lowered the bar so everyone can feel happy. When I was in high school, CP and honors classes were HARD. Now they have labeled all 9th grade classes as CP so the kids in the normal classes don't feel stupid.
I say, If you feel stupid enough to care, you will strive to work harder. And if your legitimately not smart enough, the system will assist you as it already has in the past.

Answer 2

Negative. The imposition of a single standard under NCLB caused a lot of problems. Some schoolsare struggling endlessly to bring their students up to the national requirements, and many students suffer, or fail, in the transitioning time frame, and do get left behind. Other schools, like those in the state of Alaska, simply lower their expectations on their exit exams until the majority of students can pass it. We now have an eighth grade level test that we are expected to pass in tenth grade, making the last two years pointless. In the end, no one's education is being improved, because we cannot agree on what standard should be met, and forget about our students in the meantime. As a matter of policy, schools that need funding the most to improve their students performance, are being denied. Aid for poverty-stricken school has not changed, and instead a $100 million program called the American Scholarship Opportunity has been created that redirects funds to private schools when the local school doesn't meet standards. Nevermind that those school can't meet the standards without adequate funding.

Answer 3

It is definitely a negative for the children. When we lower the educational standards of our children to the lowest common denominator, we can only produce under educated students.

Currently, a years worth of education is based on 1 specific test. If the test is passed the student is advanced to the next grade level. If the test is failed, then the student will be tormented and coached until a passing grade is obtained and then they will be advanced anyway.

Student are no longer learning nor are they taught. They are instructed on how to pass THE test and we all lose as the result.

Answer 4

There are mentally retarded children in my children's school who have a teacher shadow them all day instead of helping students who could learn and keep up. It is a law of nature in everything some are always left behind.

Answer 5

a happy pipe dream....
all tied up in red tape BS...
here in FL, children are being taught how to pass the achievement tests, leaving huge gaps in their overall education, all in the name of gaining more funding.

Answer 6

It's a good way to hold our educators to some level of accountability. So far no one has proposed a better idea.

Lord knows that Teacher Unions do nothing to help the kids.

Answer 7

It is killing public schools, and screwing up our childrens' education. The idea behind it was good, but its organization and approach is completely flawed.

It would have been better just to add a couple more hours on the school day.

Answer 8

Theres too much corruption in the program and YES more kids are being LEFT behind.

Answer 9

It's another gimmick to create chaos and to give certain contractors business in building new schools. Also the books are from non-licensed sources-another blunder to add to the record.

Answer 10

It may be helping in the city schools, but in the suburban schools, which would be where I come from, it seems to be doing more of a job at keeping the more gifted students behind, in their classes.