Diverging Views on No Child
Greetings,
Through my bloglines, I received this article. It deals with the dichotomy of opinion between Parents and Teachers over No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In short, a new study states that 80% of parents are confident that schools can reach the standards set by 2013-2014, while only 50% of teachers are confident in that same goal.
I found this interesting because it reinforced two concepts in my head, the dichotomy of opinion on schools, and the problems with NCLB. The article suggests that one of the reasons why parents are more confident than teachers with regards to NCLB because parents often think of only their child or children, while teachers are concerned with groups of children, often of different backgrounds.
The article has also reinforced the concept that there are problems regarding NCLB. I believe it is incredibly unfair to teachers to expect them to take students in from all walks of life, and train them to the same level, despite the support or lack thereof from the parents. Face it, if education is not a priority for the parents, it most definitely won’t be for the students. To expect a teacher to take students from that background, as well as students from backgrounds supporting education, and train them to the same level, and when that fails, punish the district by withdrawing funding.
In order to prevent this funding loss, schools are forced to shut down the ‘electives’ and focus on the ‘core’ subjects. This, to me, seems to short-change the students as it would limit the diversity of education that would be available to them otherwise.
However, I would agree that NCLB has shaken things up in the American public schooling system, and has improved the education that the students have received in the “core” subjects, which is a definite positive. It has also provided for a model for other programs that might be initiated, for example foreign languages and history, which will continue to improve the education for the students. I, however, disagree most heartily with cutting funding of schools who do not meet the stringent goals, as the schools that will be hit the hardest will be the ones that need a high level of funding in order to improve, and the majority of those will probably be inner-city schools, populated primarily by minorities.
Work Cited:
“Diverging views on ‘No Child’ expectations.” Associated Press. CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/04/20/nochild.poll.ap/index.html?section=cnn_education>
