Published on October 17, 2004 By d3adz0mbie In Current Events
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."

Comments
on Oct 18, 2004
I don't know...

All of those standardized tests take a lot of time out of the year. At the school where I work, the third and fifth graders spend at least two full weeks of school taking various tests. A lot of time (above the two weeks) is also dedicated to cramming for these tests that kids are required to take. (Of course this cramming is not aimed at the highest performing two-thirds of the kids. Ask your kid if the test prep is hard. It probably isn't, but is necessary.)

Another troubling aspect of all this is that the required tests need to be paid-for. The money for those tests isn't coming from the federal government (that mandates the tests.) It is coming from school budgets, thus detracting from your child's education. (I am sure that the big testing companies are happy to get the money.)

Finally the expectations for these tests are going up and up. It is fine now for those of you who send your kids to suburban schools, because your schools aren't "on the list." ...yet. Once the expectations get high enough, your minimal amounts of DCD students, LD kids, other special education students, or your non English-speaking newcomers will nudge your school's scores down enough to cause your school to be penalized.

Then a back-door to publicly financing private schools opens up. Private schools which aren't subject to the same standards as the public schools get the money, but don't have to bother with the tests. They aren't accountable, but they still get the money. That's not right.

I don't imagine that parents would like to have to pay to send their kids to private schools, but that's what will happen if the public schools are penalized into oblivion. Think your property taxes are expensive? More expensive than private school tuition?
on Oct 18, 2004
Darn...I liked adding comments to the article against it.

I agree with T-bone. I was just thinking about the whole private school issue tonight as well. With the bar constantly being raised...more schools will suffer because they dont get the funding they should get to help them improve the scores...which means more private schools get $$ and students. But they dont have to take the tests? Why not?

Think about the funding issue as well....how is it that upper new york state schools get on average 15-20k a student for funding...and other schools like those in Missouri, get 4-5k a student.....but they both have to take the same test? Who do you think is going to do better?
on Oct 19, 2004
Thinking about how something might work is nice, but it cant beat real life experience. You guys arm chair the NCLB act as it is implemented to death, looking for whatever you "THINK" might be an issue. It works for real people, with real students, daily across this country. My son is PROOF of that.
on Oct 24, 2004
I dont arm chair the law...because I am forced against my will to work with it daily. I know the implementations of it and what does and does not happen as a result of that law. I have spent the last five years in college learning about the law because (and i know the thing hasnt been out for five years) of its large impact on education. As I said in the other article....NCLB did not do one thing to impact your childs education...it was the combined works of IDEA and ADA which are Special Education laws which have been around longer than NCLB. It may provide more funding...but either way...if you knew about those laws...you could have enacted your rights as a parent to have them work for the benefit of your child. Dont say that just because NCLB gave more money that it allowed yoru son to be tested....because the school district has to test that child no matter what...it can not say that it just doesnt have any money to test. It legally has to test that child, period.
on Oct 24, 2004
So despite my real world experiences with NCLB, despite all the documents that my wife and I have read through, youre right and everything Ive experienced is wrong.

Ok, whatever you say.
on Oct 25, 2004
So despite the fact that people who work in the schools and actually deal with the law and it's ramifications on a daily basis tell you otherwise, you refuse to aknowledge even one iota of truth in what they say. Personally, I'll trust the teachers and administrators at schools before I trust the anecdotal word of one parent. Just because you had a good experience with the law does not mean everyone does.