Before all the partisan pundits start the rhetoric...I would love to hear from actual teachers in the field. My guess is they will tell you what a disaster this has been. Great name though!!!!

NCLB was one of the greatest boondoggles of this administration - and considering what they have done, that is amazing.

It is true that teachers now teach to the tests instead of actually educating kids. The amount of paperwork involved in this has snowed teachers under.

Plus, any law that expects schools to include Special Education students in the testing had to be written by a Republican!

I know a lot of school teachers and they all say, "No Child Left Behind is an ruining our educational process." Why won't anybody listen to what teachers have to say about education? There are programs which are helping students, even those who are disadvantaged, get educated. Testing does not help, it simply eats up much needed time.

Sure, every child can learn. They can learn, that is, if they aren't to busy inserting fire crackers in frogs and blowing them up.

http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-3nov2000-frogs.html

Bill r:

My wife is a teacher - see my post. And as a special education teacher, she has had to fill out more paperwork since NCLB than at any time that she has been teaching.

I wonder if they have NCLB in Iraq??

It should be called:
"No Childrens Left Behind".

No child left behind, my butt. "But it's such a worthy goal." Yeah, so why does the President's little brother's company get hundreds of millions in government money for his computerized reading program? Just a coincidence?

If in fact no children are being left behind it's because the whole country has been put on hold and is no longer progressing.

How about offering unlimited possibilities to those who would excell? Or, setting goals to challenge the future? But I guess with flat earth Republican types that doesn't have as much zing

We've left an entire generation behind. The dumbing-down of America has been going on for 80 odd years now. Take the time and look at a 1920's era textbook for math or english .... just a little different than now,isn't it ? School budgets were a pittance compared to now as well .... how did we do it ? The answer is: WE JUST DID IT ! IT WAS DEMANDED OF US, AND WE DID IT. Learning isn't a function of money; rather, it is a process of challenge and lighting the spark of desire to excel in the student.

President George W. Bush's program of Leave No Child Behind, was sabatoged by corrupt local politicians like Mayor Richard M. Daley, who misused the educational funds to build charter schools for the upper classed residents.

Posted by: nisleib | October 9, 2007 2:56 PM

nisleib,

That should be required reading for every voter before the 08 Prez election.

Black Panther:

Where in the world did you come up with that one???

The children who are not left behind are silver spoon fed such as the Bush twins and children of GOP corporate welfare programs such as Halliburton, Black Water etc. etc. etc. The children most left behind are the one's unborn, being born and already buried in Iraq. The NEO-Con, Ultra frothing at the mouth conservatives who proclam all women pro choice of abortion are going to hell for their immortal sins while in the same breath they say that to bomb, torture, rape, steal, murder which has and is ongoing for years to come in Iraq is justified because of the terriorist. The blood for oil program in Iraq has, is and shall cause thousands of abortions in Iraq and Afganistan because of US occupation.
I believe the self ricthous TV evangelical Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts University and Ralph Reed feel all blood shed, unborn, born, mothers,fathers, eldery blood in their eyes is justified

BobinATL...My wife was an ld teacher for 20 years. She left the teaching field from her frustration with NCLB. She has said that we no longer teach just test. Every child has special abilities, not just math and reading, but now we no longer help those to excel in the fields they may be gifted in. It is a total disaster.

This is a topic that should be dominated by teachers, not think tanks.

Teaching is not business, and children are not widgets. If teachers think NCLB should be scrapped, then let's dump it.

Bill:

My wife left the classroom this year because of:

1) The increased paperwork
2) The lack of funding for Special Education, thanks to the Bush Administration
3) The fact that teachers have to buy their own supplies because there is not enough money for public schools to buy them. But our beloved Republican Congress and President came up with a great idea - a $250 tax deduction!! Think of how much money we can save with that!!

She is now working with Special Ed kids in an inclusion class in a Pre-K school. Less paperwork, less hassles dealing with money for the classroom, etc.

As a History teacher, I have seen so much harm come from this program that I believe it is no longer any good and needs to either be over-hauled or ended all together. While I agree with the idea that all children can learn, they learn at different speeds, different levels, etc. that some will suffer and not all will benefit.

The loopholes are huge and as such across the US there isn't a standard that we can all agree on. The tests we give in Illinois are not the same one might take in Iowa, or California - each state sets the standards, according to NCLB all a school district need do is show improvement from one year to the next.

As a history teacher instructing juniors US History there are certain expectations I have when teaching them and one of those is that in 7th or 8th grade they will have had a basic understanding in geography. I have a friend who teaches Middle School Social Studies who was informed by the Principal that he was to SKIP the geography and focus an entire QUARTER on Economics as there would be more math and economics based question on the state test and it was important that they do well on the exam. I then get kids who can't even read a map and I spend quite a bit of time teaching geography literacy that I have to pick and choose what I will teach in regards to US History.

So, the question is, should we be teaching our students things they will need to survive and thrive in the real world, or should we be teaching to a test? The logical question is to say "real world", however when a school depends on funding by the government and that funding is tied to showing improvement, a school and its leadership will do what is necessary to see that the money keeps flowing (especially in poor school districts).

The other problem (although I am not 100% on this) is that when a school looks to improve numbers from year to year they also have to take in to consideration the number of Special Ed students who are required to take the same test. Special Ed kids are all over the map when it comes to learning ability and they can lower the total score of the school.

The other item no one is willing to address is the fact that the kids taking the test can CHOOSE to do poorly on it if they want. I have worked at other schools where some of the kids TRIED to fail in order to be removed by their parents (who did not want to pay large sums of money to send their kids to a school where they would fail-out). And why did they want to be removed? To be with their friends in the local public school. If they choose to fail either a test or a class or flunk out of school, why should teacher retention and pay be tied to that? The kids aren't stupid, in fact they are quite smart and if they knew a teacher could be fired because they all failed a test that doesn't effect their grade, they would try it. Who's to say it that it hasn't already happened?

There is much more that is wrong with this that I could write a book, but I will leave you with a political thought:

The NCLB bill is tied to government funding, show improvement you get money, no improvemnt no money. One feature of this bill is that school districts can opt out of it and then can do as they please, BUT will then not get any government funding. I believe that a school district in near Denver has opted out, there could be others. But what if this is what the Conservatives wanted: "too much money being spend on education, we couldn't cut it outright or we would look bad, but make NCLB so difficult to follow that the bar would be set to high and schools couldn't show improvement and thus do not recieve money, OR make it so enough schools are angry at the hoops they have to jump thorugh, they opt out and in the end save the government the need to scale back the Department of Education, as the school will be given less and less money."

Just a thought.

Buckley, thank you for your insights.

My nephew graduated from High School. He still can't read and write properly. So, NCLB is obviously phony.

I don't think it's working. But, I do admit it's a start. A start is better than nothing.

Buckley...Thank you for your thoughts and I would hope that more people as they read what the teachers in the field actually think about this program, they may look beyond the wonderful name "no child left behind" and see that it is hurting the education of our children.

"BIG POPPY SPEAKS OF HIS IMPERMISSIBLE EXERCISE OF EXECUTIVE POWER AND ATTEMPTS TO STREGHTEN THE GOP CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS BY ATTEMPTING TO REINVENT HIS FORESAKEN LOVE FOR CHILDREN"

So what he says if I spend 10 billion dollars a month in IRAQ.

WHAT I SAY GO! THIS IS DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY AND WHAT I SAY GO!

SEVEN YEARS OF A FAILED POLICY, SEVEN YEARS OF A FAILED PRESIDENCY.

How many more speeches can Alberto Gonzales write this President before we simply call ROTER ROOTER PLUMBER, MS. PELOSI AND DEMAND SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE CRAP THAT WE CONTINUE TO GET OUT OF THIS TOILET OF AN ADMINISTRATION.

PHONY ADMINISTRATION, PHONY ACTS. PHONY PROMISES, PHONY PROMISES KEPT!

"Now the question is, whether we will finish the job,'' Bush said today.

have you ever seen the test scores of public schools in Texas??? Now that is leaving Children behind. This guy (Bush) has never finished anything he started, unless of course you consider selling Harkin a company that lost money to the Saudis!!!

Bush once sent a letter to me describing how he and Laura support educational programs for kids, how Laura once worked as a school librarian, pushing the joys of reading to kids.
Yet he forgot how those programs carry over to other areas, must continue to be funded both in school and outside community programs.
He chose to put a war killing many, over his own people. George, your priorities are misguided, worse, self serving. The children of this country deserve better.

George, your priorities are misguided, worse, self serving. The children of this country deserve better.

Posted by: Maria Torrini | October 9, 2007 7:24 PM

In Bush-world as long as a child can say KRB or Blackwater, they're educated. They should teach kids to spell war criminal. History will not be kind to Mr Bush.

Not sure who Buckley is but you all might want to read it. HE? Or SHE? had alot to say. And having a child who could be "disabled" school wise READ IT and pass it on. This testing bullshit(sorry) is just wrong.Mine has ADHD but at 15 will not take meds . Her choice. What we need are alternative ways to graduate. We have them here but she needs to fail 2 years before she can be acccepted into this program. INFURIATTING to she and myself.Already have 1dropout and tryning to avoid another. Bottom line HELP THOSE AT HOME THEY ARE THE ONES WHO WILL VOTE AND HOPEFULLY GET IT RIGHT!!!

Buckley, well said.

I would like to add that NCLB has not been funded. The amount of money spent just on paper to comply with all of the regulations can cripple a school budget. Money better spent on teachers and class supplies.

Funding is a big issue. Depending on where you live it can mean success or failure. I have seen evidence (not a published report) that shows schools that do not have Special Ed or minority populations always make AYP. Those who schools that struggle with ELL & Special Ed do not. Add to that a percentage of the school student population that just does not care and does not want to be there.

The NCLB has one tenet that may be worth preserving; the notion that educational theory and practice should be based on real science. Because of NCLB several Science of Learning Centers have been established to study how children actually learn. This could greatly enhance our educational practice and student achievements in the very near future.

The entire Bush administration seems composed of cases of child abuse, all of them inapable of responding rationally or with compassion to the misery of others.

Let's remember why we have NCLB in the first place - the public schools of our country were/are not performing. They needed, and still do, to be held accountable for the billions of dollars they spend to educate our children.

Why doesn't anyone ever mention Teddy Kennedy when they are complaining about NCLB?