Another reply to another blogger that believes No Child Left Behind doesn't work...
"You obviously haven't had No Child Left Behind influence your childs education like I have. My son is 8 years old, and was born with ADHD and functional autism. We always knew he was an intelligent child, but a little different than others. This became extremely apparent in Kindergarten as our son started failing every piece of work he did, despite constant tutoring from my wife and I (usually 3-4 hours a night, 6 days a week). Our son taught himself his ABC's when he was 21 months old, and by Kindergarten was a whiz with math, but ALL of his scores didnt reflect what we knew he was capable of.
It was No Child Left Behind that saved him. The funding directly from that program allowed him to get tested and diagnosed, as it would for any student with any educational program. Yes, we had to sift through the local school districts policies and guidelines, we had to research what our rights were as parents under the States implimentation of N.C.L.B., but it was there for us, and for our son.
What No Child Left Behind does is more than just standardized tests. Those are just a small part of the program, usually politicized by the left to instill a political class warfare against those in a nice school districts and the parents of inner city children. What is not told is that the program does so much more for every student, and if utilized can revolutionize the classroom.
For example, teachers dont just give out standardized information to a classroom based from an imposed teaching plan and hope the child learns. Now they have to make certain that each individual child succeeds in education. N.C.L.B. provides the funding for this, and ensures that the teacher is not alone in meeting a childs needs. In our case, our son required extensive psychological and physical testing, an ARD meeting was set with his teachers and school staff (and our family), and we worked together to have an Individual Education Plan put in place for our son to make certain that he wasn't just given a 'pass', but that he could be taught the information he needed to succeed at his grade level.
Before N.C.L.B., the only way to achieve this was for a parent to acquire an attorney or the backing of a national parents rights group and force a school district to work with a family. In many inner city situations this either bogged the system down or was never taken advantage of because of the time and resources required for a family that either involved a single parent or two parents working around the clock to make ends meet. In other words, the old way wasn't working for the poor, and those kids were getting left behind.
The beauty of N.C.L.B. is that it is law, and works in favor of the child. My sons first grade teacher fought the rest of my sons commitee at every turn, she thought he was stupid, believed that psychological problems didnt exist, and that my boy was just a problem student. (If you ever met my son you would understand within minutes that he is sweet, smart, but obviously a bit different than other children his age... he can defragment a hard drive properly at age 8, but still gets confused on how to tie his own shoes...his mind just operates a little differently).
Even though this lady did not want to take the extra effort to make certain our son learned, she was forced to by law. And learn he did. After a year he was able to catch up with his grade level, and in some areas, such as math, he even excels over his fellow classmates. Tests are given to him differently, teaching materials are presented to him in 'smaller doses' and other things are implemented for him to achieve without distracting or hindering his fellow students.
Those standardized tests your talking about are there, and they make certain he knows what he's supposed to know. Like math, reading, problem solving. We know that he IS actually learning. Thats the point of school - to learn. If we cant hold his teachers and the school district accountable for educating our children then they cease to serve a purpose. Thankfully President Bush understands this, and has given parents the tools they need to ensure their children will actually be taught, regardless of the circumstances."