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 that particular school. Some spoke Urdu. Some spoke a dialect of Russian that no one in the area had heard of before. We even had two Native American children who spoke a dialect of Native American Indian that to our knowledge only their parents spoke, but the parents could not speak English. How does the federal government expect schools to reach such students? We would sure love to; but how? Then it becomes the school's fault if we cannot.
Should local students be forced to be schooled 100 or miles away during the week, being bussed to big cities, lodging with unfamiliar caretakers, only to see their families on weekends in order to accomplish the goal of NCLB? Is a school's AYP score of 800 more important than the student actually achieving a new study skill? Why is it that federal regulators think they know more than teachers when it comes to reaching the nations' youth in the public school system? That would be like an auto worker telling a chemist how to do their job. What about the role of families in the education of their children? All too often families think that it is the school's job to teach children. It is the school's job to teach children what the schools can while the students are at school. But a lot of learning also takes place at home. Families need to realize that and be as active as possible in their children's lives, both at home and at school. The student who sees their family interested in how and what they are doing at school is more likely to succeed. Then the result could be a natural improvement that is also reflected in the scores that school districts tend to hold sacred.
NCLB is a good idea on paper. But at this point, perhaps a task force should be started to seriously evaluate its effectiveness. Feedback should come in from all around the country to assist in this process. Educators should be allowed more input into making NCLB more effective. Then and only then may it finally fully establish what it was intended to provide: a quality education available for all students, regardless of race, gender, language, or creed