No Child Left Behind?

i have researched it some….actually i get the impression that no child left behind has no relation whatsoever to special education. i think kids identified l.d (even if their “disability” is as basic as not having learned to read, or needing a more structured approach to reading) is considered an l.d. and therefor separate from what nclb is intendened to do for the regular kids. nclb’s only relation to sped from my reaserch is that when and if it ever gets in place in public schools, it may keep a small percentage of kids from ever being identified reading disabled.

the HUGE problem i have seen from reading about nclb, is that it does not seem to really apply to ALL children. if you read the descriptions and provisions of the nclb act, it continually refers to schools receiving Title I funds, or schools that receive failing scores based on the states standardized testing (which are generally Title I schools). it seems that nclb has precluded schools, like mine - wealthy, affluent, lots of parent support/volunteers and consistenetly good to excellent scores on student achievement testing. yet, this school still uses a predominantly whole language based reading approach. and yes there are kids failing to learn to read by 3rd grade, but becasue this school does not “need help in reading for many children” those that can’t figure out the code and “how” to read on their own are allowed to fail. parents here have the money to provide private remediation, or the kids get staffed into special ed in 2nd and 3rd grade because they are not reading.

sure, there are more schools with a more “needy” population of kids not learning to read. but i have 2 who have not or are not getting the propoer reading instruction and ARE being left behind. when i read about nclb i get the feeling that i just might get something out of it if i actually enrolled my child in one of these failing schools instead of the supposedly high acheiving school they are currently in.

i’m thinking the act might better be called “no school left behind.”

Interesting, my wealthy school has one of the highest percentages of LD. This was told to me by the school social worker. We rank very high on standardized tests. They also follow a whole language curriculum.

I really want to know if they are keeping their test scores up by getting marginal kids into sped therefore excluding their scores. What better way to get kids into sped and out of the testing pool than whole language?

I think that the school’s report card should include statistics on the number of sped children at each grade level. Schools that have a similar socioeconomic profile should have a similar number of sped children. The number of sped children should decrease as the grades go up if they are doing their job properly. There should be a motivation on the school’s part to achieve lower number of sped children by early intervention with scientifically proven methods of reading instruction.

I would like to hear opinions on this. I am considering taking this question to a friend of some power at a federal agency.

Ask them. I am always interested in the management of our public education systems.

I have seen statistics showing that many systems manipulate the percentages by categorizing students to the system’s benefit. Locally, this also appears to include having them drop out.

Some systems are in over their head and no amount of number juggling will help…

From the Richmond(VA) Times-Dispatch some time ago:

“After last year’s SOL testing, 46 of Henrico’s[County] 62 public schools were ‘fully accredited,’ meaning they had achieved 70 percent pass rates on the SOL tests in English, math, science and history. Only 5 of Richmond’s[City] 55 schools met that benchmark.”

John

Many children get placed in SPED because they have pushy parents and schools find it a path of least resistance. This is especially true in schools with parents who are educated and have plenty of $$$$. I see it all the time. There are ways around qualifing for sped when comparing IQ and achievement. Most of the time my administration just sits there and lets it happen. Drives me crazy! There is so much competition in more affluent schools that having your child identified and on an IEP somehow makes the situation better. Don’t ask me why but I even had a senior in high school get an original placement - go figure!

The real facts about “No Child Left Behind” is that applies to ALL kids. All kids are to make demonstrated progress when compared to the norm. As you all know - SPED kids do not fit this mold. This piece of legislation is saying you better demonstrate some level of improvement with all students or you will be in trouble. It is a ridiculous piece and I hope educators will be outraged and contact their legislators - who are so uninformed about education but they make all the rules

Are you saying that its ridiculous to ask that all kids demonstrate progress?

I don’t think it is unreasonable at all to demand progress or, dare I say, mastery of the subject matter to the very limits of each student’s ability - and then some.

What is sad is to see recent high school graudates who can’t read at the 5th or 6th grade level and can’t for the life of them can’t solve 2 1/2 + 1 1/2 = ? or 2 - ? = 1/4. It isn’t that every school system is a total disaster, but I’ve seen numerous examples from around the state day-in and day-out for going on 30 years. Just to be clear… I’m not even talking about just the special education students for the most part, but they too are allowed to slide through school as often as the so-called regular students.

Let me ask a question. When was the last time anyone heard of an employer asking to see a high school diploma - or even a copy of one - as part of the application process? Maybe with the some meaningful standards in place they will.

Isn’t a large part of the purpose of education to prepare students to succeed in life? And honest accomplishment brings self-esteem.

John

i am still confused about this piece of legislation called no child left behind. i recently got some info from my state dept of ed. and they referred to no child left behind as the new “Title I legislation,” implying that nclb ONLY applies (at least at this point in time???) to schools receiveing Title I funding, which my public school does not…

does ANYONE know the real story on no child left behind? does it actually apply to MY 1st grader who is currently being seriously left behind in reading in his regular 1st grade classroom?

1

No way - I think all kids shouldn’t be expected to reach the same level. Progress is important and that is my point of arguement. If a child makes a two grade level improvement in reading in one year - good for them. But with the No Child syndrome - they must reach a specific level or they are failing. Some schools are making sped and non-sped retake classes until they can take the exit exam at a specified level. Oops, last time I checked we weren’t all the same - some of us will soar higher when it comes to paper/pencil/text measures. Potential is a deterrent to academic success whether we like to admit it or not.

Slide, what an interesting comment. If I can get some of my students to the 5th grade reading level - I’d be elated. They don’t read outside of school - spend hours in front of a video game and rarely do work at home. (these are high school age) They won’t cooperate with their parents so that’s out. Last time I checked osmosis isn’t working either. When we want to put them in Reading classes they scream, parents scream, admin. makes us pull them. I would like to have some of these people sign contracts saying they realize that their child might not improve their academic performance. As far as adding fractions with unlike denominators - good luck. Many of my kids don’t remember what to do from today til tomorrow. Of course they are LD and that’s how it works.

The way my state and local educational system are viewing it - the answer is yes. We have been told that all students will achieve an 80% on the state reading assessment before they graduate from high school. There are appalled that many of them are at the 50th percentile. Wake up - that would be great for a lot of slow learners and LD kids. It is, afterall, above average. Grab on - this may get very ugly!

When you compare what we spend on education in this country to other countries the results are appalling.

Too many districts are still using whole language despite the fact that there is signifcant evidence that it is not effective.

When that phenomena has changed you can cry it can’t be done. Until all schools are using what has proven to be effective we really don’t know what can be accomplished.

At our last staffing we were infromed that it did include all children. It states that all children will be “proficient” by 20something. No where does it define proficient. The special ed staff decided that the government has developed a pill to cure LD. We can’t wait to start dispensing it, because no matter how hard I try I can’t compete with the computer or tv to get them to improve their reading scores. This “pill” will be a god send. I hope the government is working on a cure for the other special students with more issues than LD, and also making a pill so no child will ever be born with any type of disability ever again. Maybe they are seceretly cloning the best of the best after all!

If you get extra pills in your shipment, would you send some my way? I know a few who could really use them :) Oh, maybe we can even hand them out in the teachers room too!

Hello,
I am a University teacher in China. In China most students learn something not for interest but for examination,therefore they don’t want to go to school , for the teachers they first meet just tell them how to make your examination successful . Under this kind of the educational system , students and teachers find it hard to learn and teach.

Hello,
I am a University teacher in China. In China most students learn something not for interest but for examination,therefore they don’t want to go to school , for the teachers they first meet just tell them how to make your examination successful . Under this kind of the educational system , students and teachers find it hard to learn and teach. Could you give me some statistics to show which educational system can change such serious educational situation in China.

It’s more than scary !! now we’re suppose to bring them up to grade level performance, with larger classes and less 1 to 1, more time teaching to the tests and less on remediating their skills!! I’ve taught since 94-142 first came out….and I can’t believe how backwards everything has become…. and they call this progress ????