by Sean Davis

Created on: August 03, 2008

The No Child Left Behind Act is a good thing in theory but in reality it has fallen far short of what everyone would have hoped for when it comes to making sure every child gets an adequate education.

The problem lies with in how it was written, which belittles the efforts of school districts that have issues to deal with that outside of the classroom by taking away money that could have been used to actually help students through resources that could have counteracted the effects of the non classroom aspects of the students lives.

The way it is currently written if a school district fails to make sure that their students meet or beat the federal mandates with regards to where the students should be in certain subjects then money is taken away or the federal government steps in to take over the school district rather than actually taking a look before hand why the school district is failing or is likely to fail.

How it is currently written it means well but it is failing due to it causing school districts to fail or come to the brink of failure. What is needed is a modification that permits real solutions that would help the school districts which are failing or are in danger of failing so that they don't. This would require allowing the school districts to take the curriculum and adapt it to the way their students are more likely to absorb what is being taught rather than forcing them to teach by a standard set of protocols that for a percentage of the student body cannot cope with.

There are many school districts that the education process itself isn't the problem but the socioeconomic reality outside of the schools that is the problem which means that the schools have trouble actually teaching the students given the distractions that the community hands the students. This means that it isn't necessarily the schools fault for the failure of the students but the community itself, which forces the schools to allow some of the students they are charged with to fail or walk away.

Any overhaul has to include resources to counteract any socioeconomic misgivings of the communities that the students come from and also allow students who have trouble learning through conventional means to learn without the distractions or pressures of what is around them.

No matter how it is modified what has to be included are resources that actually promote the interaction between the schools and the communities and one way to start is to look at the communities that the schools are in and what is needed there, and then find a way of creating direct interaction between the schools and the communities they serve. One way of changing the curriculum is to teach the applied version of what is taught even if it means creating school based businesses that serve the communities that also would be capable of bringing in additional resources for the school and students.

Also it would take the Act to be rewritten so that the localities have more of a say in how things are handled on the local level rather than having the federal government dictate what to do and when to do it. Bureaucracy hinders the ability in anything and having multiple layers of bureaucracy which isn't good for the education process due to good students getting lost in a system that has failed them due to unneeded bureaucratic red tape that stops the education process in its tracks in some cases.

How can we effectively modify the act so it benefits the students in ways that actually permit them to achieve the governmental achievement goals?

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