by William Bosch

Created on: February 12, 2009

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) sounds like a good idea on paper; but is it working? I think this issue needs to be looked at from a number of perspectives to get a proper overview. After looking at this issue from a variety of angles, it still appears as if the best choice for NCLB is to go back to the drawing board and start over, because it simply is not working the way most Americans would like it to work.

No one would argue that it would be beneficial for all students and the future of our country if all students were able to receive a proper, equal opportunity for education. This would be the goal of every teacher in America if it were ultimately in their control. However, NCLB was put into law at a federal level with mandates, expectations, and curriculum standards. Then President Bush cut federal funding for the program and essentially told the states that it was up to state agencies to monitor and uphold the program. There is nothing wrong with wanting to engage all students in learning. There is nothing wrong with using a variety of strategies in order to accomplish the goal of meeting the needs of all students. There is nothing wrong with developing learning experiences that help facilitate interaction, problem solving, analysis, and critical thinking. But there is everything wrong with making such expectation federal law and then cut funding to it and telling everyone to figure it out for themselves or government agencies could close down underperforming schools.

There is much more to learning than a number on a piece of paper. Public schools want the numbers in order to receive federal funding, and that is also important. But it should not be the biggest mitigating factor. I could care less if my school's score jumped 200% in ten years only to have a greater percentage of students than before succumb to the pressures of higher education simply because the attention was aimed at improving test scores instead of learning study skills that would help them throughout life. Development of good scholars should be the goal every teacher should have for every student. Children are much more than a number on a page. But that seems to be how we treat them under NCLB.

When I was student teaching for a year to earn my credential, I worked at a high school where 27 different languages were spoken as the student's primary language. I had never even heard of the language of Punjabi, let alone the names of even more remote languages, before student teaching at

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