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It is time to Modify the No Child Left Behind Act
According to the U.S. government data and the Wikipedia Encyclopedia the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001( Public law 107-110) was passed in the House of Representatives on the 23rd. of May and signed by President Bush on the 8th of January 2002.
The act reauthorized a number of federal programs to improve the performance of U. S. primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states and school districts.
On paper the No Child Left Behind Act is a wonderful program but in reality it has serious flaws which unfairly penalize many fine teachers and administrators because it is an unfunded educational policy which mandates several unrealistic goals and objectives.
This is not to say that sound administrative leadership does not make a difference under the No Child Left Behind Act because leadership matters when it comes to having a vision, the knowledge and energy to address school system challenges. Teachers and administrators have a major impact on whether students succeed or fail within the school system.
As mentioned the No Child Left Behind Act is an unfunded federal government mandate which orders schools to bridge the academic gap between all students regardless of disability or social economic background. The proclamation is worthy but with no major funding it is similar to ordering a woman to raise ten children with no financial or emotional assistance from her husband; it is an unfair burden to place on our public schools.
Perhaps the most challenging objective of the No Child Left Behind Act is the mandate of raising the tests scores of all students to the same academic levels regardless of a learning disability, parental education or household income.
When schools fail to make annual growth two years in row they are placed on an action plan where parents are notified that they can transfer their children to a higher performing school or eventually receive vouchers for private schools. Continued failure of a school could result in the school being taken over by state officials.
The demise of the public school system is very much the possible outcome of the No Child Left Behind Act in its’ present form. Academic growth expectations are rapidly accelerating each year, many high performing student sub groups are now being affected by the acceleration of expected academic school growth. The request for increased annual academic growth is good but there should be some fair guidelines because many high performing schools have reached a point where they are not being rewarded for the academic excellence of their students. Private schools are not held to same standards, but they are being rewarded because of the failing label that has been placed on many of our public schools.
The Department of Labor data indicates that there is a $21, 000 income gap between the households of Whites and Blacks. Income differences and the education priorities of the parents have a major impact on tests scores. Students who grow up in upper middle class families and who have college educated parents tend to score higher on standardized tests.
The No Child Left Behind Act makes no provisions for schools that have a large number of economically disadvantaged children. The program has the same benchmark scoring level for all sub groups. It does not take into consideration the level of the academic performance of the sub group prior to activating the No Child Left Behind Act. As mentioned all sub groups are expected to perform on the same level regardless of where they started academically as a sub group.
Lots of public schools are at a major disadvantage because many of their highest performing students have transferred to private schools and some have enrolled in early college programs. Joseph Butler a long time Brunswick County educator says that the tests scores of students who enroll in early college programs should be calculated in the tests scores of the high school they left. It is very difficult to meet expected growth when you loose numerous high performing students to other programs.
Given the economic disadvantages of low income students and the physical disadvantages of learning disabled students; it is time to modify the No Child Left Behind Act to accommodate the test scores of disadvantaged students. High expectations should remain in place but common sense needs to prevail. All homes are not the same, there are a lot of one parent homes and there are low income homes where the mother and father are working two or three low paying jobs trying to make ends meet. These parents are challenged to spend quality time with their children. As mentioned the educational priorities are not the same in every home; therefore some children’s academic performance is bravely impacted by their home environments.
The Present plan penalizes innocent Students
The primary reason the No Child Left Behind Act needs to be modified is that it penalizes innocent children who have no control over the environments they are born into. Children are the ones who suffer the most under the present form of the No Child Left Behind Act. There needs to be different levels of expected growth in each sub group given the fact many high performing students have benefited from a tremendous academic head start.
It is difficult for economically disadvantaged students to complete on the level of high income students without some compromise. Ideally sub groups levels should be increased each year but it should not be on the level of high income, multi educational resource students. Learning Disabled Children and low income students are simply not going to perform on the same level of economically advantaged high performing students. Modifications are needed because it is discouraging to disadvantaged students to be made the scapegoat of a schools failure to meet required growth.
When the No Child Left Behind Act truly becomes a priority of our elected officials it will benefit all children for example there has been a lot of public discussion of the achievement gap between Whites and Blacks but very few Federal government resources have been given to states to address the problem. It is all about priorities for example if the government wanted to close the gap between White and Black basketball players, they would probably pour maximum resources into a program to address the issue. The program would probably be heavily funded and nothing would be spared, high tech training programs and facilities would likely be funded in an effort to close the gap.
In addition to modifying the No Child Left behind Act, their needs to be a fully funded male role program within our schools. Black males are especially needed. Everyone does want to be a teacher but there are lots of males who would make excellent school mentors and they would need to be certified and paid to maintain the program. The money that is being spent to increase the number of prison guards could be spent on male role models who are desperately needed in our public schools.
Our public schools are simply too feminine their needs to be an increased male presence. It is time to assist our public schools. Private schools are not the answer. Privatization has not been a friend to minorities over the years. This is why the federal government was forced to protect of the rights of all citizens through civil rights legislation. Public schools are not perfect but they are our nation’s best hope of educating all of our children regardless of race, color or creed.
Reverend Micheal J. Darby