The No Child Left Behind plan is beautiful as a general principle and idea. If one looks at the brief overview the president gives one would fall in love with the plan. Of course, since it is such an important plan, it is very detailed and has many different things attached to it. The plan is supose to work to help schools that are in need, but in the end it hurts those schools more because the funding that is promised for the students isn't given until after the fact. Schools are basically given a checklist and told that they have to fullfill each and every one. If there is a situation where the school doesn't mee the requirnments two years in a row then the students attending that school are given the option to go to another school. Around this same time the government may decide that this school is a high priority school. With this title, the school gets more funding and support for special teachers and programs. Of course this is very helpful, but many times it is given way after it is needed. Even this wouldn't seem that bad, but in many cases because the school isn't making its checklist the school will actually lose funding. It is almost like some of the schools are given up on, leaving children behind. These two situations dicussed are prime examples of why the program needs to be fixed. Also, many teachers, prinicpals, and faculty are negatively effected by this plan even when they may not be the ones at fault. There may be a fourth grade teacher who didn't teach well enough to the test or well enough at all and because of that students are given the chance to move. If enough students move to another school, then there may be not enough money or need for a different teacher in a different grade.
In this plan children are still left behind. Like most things the plan is based on certain areas hitting certain percentages on a test. If 70% have to pass the test to fullfill the plan there still is room for 30% to fail. This leaves children behind. Also in many cases where more support and funding is needed there can't be any given because this project wasn't funded enough. With better funding and a new plan, this basic idea could be something wonderful for children.
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About Me
- Cam
- I am a student at a research university in the south and am focusing my discussion on the No Child Left Behind legislation.
2 comments:
Cameron,
Why do you believe that this program didn't work out the way it was supose to? If a school isn't doing a good job don't you think the student deserves to go to somewhere better?
Grant,
Of course in all situations I believe that a child should get his/her best education available, but the school was created because there was a need for it. I believe that we need to give more funding to those schools that aren;t performing as well so that it can be an affective school. I believe that it did have a good basic idea, but all the details even in the original plan stopped it from becoming a wonderufl educational reforming bill. Also, as I mentioned a plan is going to fail if it is not giving the proper funding.
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