Too Many Kids Left Behind

[dArKeR]

President Bush's initiative to improve public schools has an ambitious name: No Child Left Behind. But there's mounting evidence that countless children are being left behind.

A state report card in Illinois, for example, shows 44 percent of schools don't meet federal standards, reports CBS Correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

These kinds of circumstances often leave parents with nowhere else to turn.

Jackie King wants the best possible education for her sons Marlon and Marcus, but she worries her sons' neighborhood school isn't properly equipped to teach.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/05/eveningnews/main582121.shtml

Junior meant to say, 'No GOP CEO left behind!'

[truthspeaker]

1. should have been titled "No school board left funded"

Cut funding to schools, set them up to fail, and give parents the option of getting vouchers to private (for-profit and/or Bible-thumping) schools. In a couple decades you have the end of American public education as we know it, and federal money going to the Southern Baptist equivalent of wahabbi madras schools.

[24HRrnr]

2. Hate to be disargeeable

but hte No Child Left Behind legislation was sponsored by Kennedy and increased federal funding of education. The federal standards not being met are new and this is the first measurement against them. If you matched state performance to the standards, say, three years ago, they likely (don't know for sure) would've been worse.

Funding is not the critical issue, culture is.

[Bridget Burke]

4. Kennedy sponsored it but the funding was omitted.

Your writing style is a bit difficult to decipher, but what do you mean by "Funding is not the critical issue, culture is"?

[lovedems]

7. You must be buying into the spin

because the federal govt. isn't giving the funding needed to meet the new requirements. Schools are struggling big time and there is concern teachers will "teach to the test" or try to make students who won't score well exempt from the test. Numbers could be fudged so schools will get the money they need. You really should do some serious investigating into the Texas Miracle and you will see the potential problems with this legislation.

By the way, my husband use to work for the Illinois State Board of Education and his job would've been to oversee the network database of the No Child Left Behind Network that tracks the children. Guess what? He got laid off because of lack of funding. He is one of the 3 million who lost his job under this administration.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

3. It's about time the public

started to see that NCLB is doing MUCH more harm than good. It needs to be scrapped completely, special ed needs to be fully funded separately (not with education money) as per the law, so that schools don't have to pit Sped parents against parents with kids who don't need special services. The name "No Child Left Behind" is as honest as the phrase "Clear Skies Initiative."

[central scrutinizer]

5. its a scam

Like everything Bushco does, NCLB is simply a way to divert more tax dollars into the pockets of their cronies. The bill mandates tests, tests, and more tests. Guess who profits most from the need to produce and publish tests? For one, brother Neil Bush, who must have already run through all of the millions he stole from Silverado Savings and Loan (wasn't it convenient that Poppy Bush was in office at the time to make sure he got off scot-free?) started a firm to write tests and by some remarkable coincidence was awarded a lucrative contract to supply all of the tests in Florida. Another big publisher is owned by the Washington Post so NCLB puts them in a conflict of interest position regarding honest publishing of this corruption.

[lovedems]

6. Just look at the Texas Miracle that the chimp used on the stump

while campaigning. It is a joke chock full of fraudulent or missing numbers. Guess what? The man responsible for the Texas Miracle is now the education secretary. HMMMM. Just another lie and deception on top of hundreds of lies and deception.

The chimp stood with Kennedy to praise the education bill and then failed to fund it. Tax cuts for the wealthy are more important than good education. I guess it doesn't matter because those on the hill can afford private education. (We can't but we sacrifice to send our kids to private school because the current status of public schools, and we live in Illinois)

[JackDragna]

8. NCLB is the biggest unfunded educational mandate..

..in U.S. history. Within a year after enacting the legislation, Bush cut federal funding for a program to train new teachers. There won't be anywhere near the amount of teachers necessary to raise student performance to the levels the NCLB suggests.

Not that the standards were reasonable in the first place. For those who don't know, the heart of the NCLB Act are mandated increases in performance on standardized tests. NCLB, unlike state standards for tests, only recognizes students as satisfactory or unsatisfactory in terms of their scores. Schools must show a modest increase for the first five years of the act in the percentage of the students that have satisfactory scores. After five years, however, the percentage of students that must score in the satisfactory level jumps significantly: at 10 years, 100% of students in a school must score at that level. When the act says 100%, it means 100%, too: one student screws up and your school has its ass in a sling.

Not only will all schools fail to reach 100% satisfactory scores at the end of the act, most poor schools have the deck statistically stacked against them by the act. NCLB forces all students in a school to take standardized tests and have their scores count toward the school's rating. NCLB recognizes nine subclasses of students, ranging from ethnic minorities to students with disabilities. All of the subgroups must receive satisfactory scores: if your school has an overall satisfactory score but one of the subgroups does not, your school fails and is subject to special action.

The real fun part lies in that students can be members of more than one group. If you have a dyslexic Hispanic student in your school, that student is a member of two subgroups. If that child fails all the standardized tests, he bombs the averages in two of your subgroups. Guess what sort of schools have a lot of minority students that need special education? If you said "poor schools", then you're right.

Sorry for the rant. I just thought you all would enjoy some quick fun facts to use against conservatives. NCLB is a disaster.