Barack Obama: No Child Left Behind

Well definitely, all children can learn, but not all children come to school equally prepared, and it is extremely difficult, if not impossible for a solo teacher, with limited resources, to create a space where every child will learn successfully.

When some children come to school without breakfast, and others have delicious breakfasts. When some children are read to from birth, and loved, and others are treated to neglect...all will NEVER become equal.

ok, i would like to apologize if my previous comment came off as rude

i'm starting to think i shouldn't go on about a system i know nothing about, i just h8 government standardized tests

it's fine. i'm all about home-schooling and the newer child-interest-guided education systems some people are doing. public school [and private, the teachers receive training in the same way] is a sham. it forces kids to acclimate to that feeling of pressure, long hours away from their homes, their communities, following orders. and it is extremely effective. mostly because they collect every little personal detail about the child and compile it into a database. public opinion is paramount here.

m8, i just voiced my opinion, i didn't ask for a detailed account of NCLB

all i think is that there are schools out there where children as young as 6 have no Recess, hours of homework and immense pressure to do well, all for the sake of the school having the best test scores

there's more to life than 2+2, and kids will be leaving school with almost no life skills, and a missed childhood, will they thank the people who told them it was important?

Because it is so hard to find a teacher who likes NCLB, either A) Almost all teachers are selfish, or B) There's something wrong. || The idea that teachers, who are really some of the most caring, motivated, educated, and underpaid professionals out there are just trying to serve themselves is insulting in the extreme.

I think NCLB is against the Republican value of "less government control." It's an extremely invasive move into an area that is outside of the policy maker's expertise.

Agreed Quizoid.

And Vianey, most testing is not done by age or grade. If a child is retained (left behind) then testing him by grade would possibly make him look smarter due to having already done the material. If tested by age, then he usually ends up scoring lower since the age group is all ahead of him.

Most teachers do not like using grade or age scores for this reason. They use standard scores instead. The age and grade scores are there to help the parents better understand.

Real life example: "Equal access to curriculum," sounds good. However, this rule was made by non-educators. The result: I was mandated to teach a low IQ 7th grader who didn't grasp the concept of, "the same," about equilateral triangles. Developmentally, he'd be better served sorting shapes in bins. He is not going to catch up any grades. According to the charts, he will appear to be falling further behind every year. The fast paced system leaves ~him~ behind, not his educators.

I'm certainly not saying that education should not progress. As researchers research and educators teach, they build upon the knowledge of those who came before, while improving and blazing new trails. This is true for most any field. The issue I'm talking about is not progress, but the measuring, defining, and rewarding of that progress from top-down organizations that don't really know what they are looking at or how to measure it.

what the non-educators who mandate the structure of the education system are looking for is opinions and family information. and they get it. and what they measure for is a child's ability to accept change and be molded into an obedient worker. any ACTUAL education you receive in school is superfluous with regards to the intent of those in charge. there has been much research done into the subject and you can read the legislation, most created in the middle sixties by huge corporations.