NCLB

As a teacher, I am going to try and remain calm when discussing No Child Left Behind, as it has caused an uproar of frustration in many arenas (public, private, familial). I think the National Education Association magazine said it best in article from a February issue of last year, "Why is the federal government so involved in an area they know little about? Can you imagine the federal government walking into a surgeon's operating room and telling them which instrument to use next or asking questions as to what they were doing with a patient?" (NEA, 2006).

Its not as though I am unappreciative of the effort. The news release, President Discusses No Child Left Behind and High School Initiatives, is a valiant effort to help schools help children & adolescents succeed. But I feel as though the articles just throws amounts of money out there. Does anyone have any idea how such millions of dollars should be appropriated?! Why don't we have a committee on that? The federal government has no idea what goes on behind classroom doors - it is just too large of an area to govern.

With NCLB, I have seen teachers manipulate grades from 50's to 70's just so they don't get reprimanded from their principal. NCLB almost falsifies education. Some parents refuse to acknowledge a child's learning disability, refuse to change their diploma status and I have that child in my biology class with a 74 point IQ. That child has taken the biology SOL three times and because NCLB states that 96% of special ed. students are required to pass, teachers are frustrated and unable to help such students understand certain concepts because honestly, that child's brain just doesn't work the way NCLB wants it to. But they have to pass the SOL - they're in that class and the principal and the child's family is watching you.

Accountability is absolutely essential in education and I understand that is part of NCLB's plan but accountability should not lie within state standards only. Today, learning styles vary from student to student and from school to school. There must be another way for students to show us they are knowledgeable of the material being taught.

In NY, we knew we had Regents exams at the end of the year. But I do not remember the teachers telling us on a daily basis, "This is what you have to know or you will not pass the Regents exams." Other students were placed on a different type of diploma status and they were not required to take the Regents exams. They are successful today. If a teacher is dedicated to education, SOL's should not be a focus - content should be a focus and the SOL will fall into place naturally.

My co teacher and I have taught by the curriculum map and have achieved the highest pass rates in the county for inclusion classes. I am in no way bragging, just saying that we study the curriculum and the important aspects of biology. Then we plan and plan and plan to make sure we have an educationally rich environment, lessons that mean something to the students and something they will remember and understand. We also spent countless hours after school, offering 5% to tests for those who stayed after. Papa John's donated many pizzas for such events too, which always helps. But not all teachers have relationships like this nor do they have the time. Some teachers actually have part-time jobs to attend to after school and so do the students!

Yes, I think the NCLB initiatives are with good intentions but seriously, how much time do you have at the end of a teaching day to tutor or rescue someone from the illiteracy route? We don't have time. With these initiatives, I spend a good portion of my day trying to catch up with the 18 students on my caseload, answer 120 emails to parents who will complain if they are not answered within 24 hours, speak to teachers about so and so's learning style and progress, work on my own lessons, grade papers, document goals and progress, get lessons prepared for the ED classroom and breathe!

If we want to see money well spent, why not allocate funds to pay teachers to stay after school? Why not make a national literacy program so that all schools receive the same books, the same instruction on what is proven to help a child read? Why not have some testing requirements for AP classes? I have seen kids in AP classes that have no business being there, waste the teacher's time and it's all because their parents do not want them in inclusion classes and want them to try and get some college credit.

There just isn't enough time to try and appropriate all these funds being thrown at us. I don't even know where Bush gets these funds. And where do the funds go? Really, we should be appropriating the money to colleges, making the future teachers prepared for what is going to happen when they get into schools. Help future teachers with reading instruction. Get some math incentives out there for future teachers. Help them with the knowledge they will need to get students to succeed in class. Principals of high schools and teachers at universities know education like the back of their hand, have them develop initiatives for a federal plan, not the government - they just do not know enough about it.

Well, some do. You know back in 1976 the late Gerald Ford said, "We do not have the man power to carry out the Disabilities Act. It will tie up administrator's hands and education will be further from the teacher's daily activities" (Education Weekly, 2006). Yes, this is going a tad astray from NCLB but the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) certainly plays a large role in NCLB. Both say, all need to be successful, no matter their IQ, environment (home, school and public) and that is how we will measure the state's standards and the kid's success-NCLB states you will educate that student and they will pass like everyone else. But they can not pass and parents and teachers need to work together in alleviating some of these blunders. Little can be done, however, after identifying an individual disabled because it seems everyone has a disability - 300 students out of 1800 are labeled under IDEA's criteria in my school and we do not have enough man power to develop learning plans for all of these students. Nothing has been done to alleviate IDEA's agenda. Administrators and teachers still have their hands tied and I do not see much in the future in terms of untying those hands. Everyday, I hear the words, AYP or special education or IEP. It's just too much. When did we begin to stray so far away from the basics?

We need more in-services that are dedicated to NCLB's agenda if we are going to survive the field of education. We need proven methods for teaching literacy, math, special education students. We need maybe a parenting protocol for NCLB's initiatives. Why not appropriate some funds to parenting classes?

NCLB is overwhelming and so is education. I think the federal government should delegate some of their own employees to sit down and analyze 8th grade test data for incoming 9th graders and when they see a student at risk or falling behind, go get the student and see what they can do about remediation. Who has the time to work with 48 students that are falling behind in one school, as the population for 9th graders in my school is 496 students! We just do not have the time and that is why so many students have fallen behind in subject areas and that is why teachers fix grades and pass students that warrant too much of their time.

Teachers, parents, administrators, and community members should be the ones appropriating funds and writing initiatives. It would be great if county schools could get together on a paid trip over the summer and really get somewhere in terms of alleviating failing children and counties from all over the country were getting together as well. Then the principals come together and go over planning for such a humongous task. But again, time is such an issue.