“No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) has actually left our bright ones behind. Everyone knows that. Everyone. And those who don’t know it don’t know what’s going on in education.
NCLB has ended up leaving our brightest and best “behind.” I know of far too many kids who are far above average but who are not reaching their full potential. Those are the kids who are penalized by NCLB. Those are the kids who are lost in the shuffle. Those are the kids who no longer matter to the powers-that-be because they are achieving at the minimal level that NCLB is striving for.
That concerns me. The kids who fall below the NCLB standards get one-on-one tutoring (which is fine--something I agree with), but the kids who are achieving above NCLB standards, even if those goals are far below their own potential, get no extra help whatsoever.
That concerns me.
So, to put it another way…the students who achieve NCLB, but who are achieving far below their potential, get no help, while the students who can’t reach the goals of NCLB, even if they are achieving far above their own potential, get one-on-one tutoring.
What’s wrong with this picture???
As a teacher, my job (so it seems to me) is to help each student of mine reach his own personal potential.
NCLB hinders that goal--despite the goal’s inherent nobility.
Chris Marsh--mother, teacher, runner, coach....
I agree with you on this
I agree with you on this one.
Elle
I moved here from another
I moved here from another state and have found myself researching schools for my daughter who will be starting soon.
Where I'm from you didn't really have to choose and aside from specific teachers there wasn't a problem w/ schools in general. You went to the public school in your neighborhood or you paid for private school. That is it.
Here is what I've found...
There are three schools in our area we looked at here...
Hern Academy
Valley Academy
Constitution Elementary
Both Hern and Valley are “Excelling” and Constitution is performing.
Constitution received 61% on 3rd grad Aims reading test and about the same on the math, they got 37% on the terra nova reading and about the same on math.
Hern got 82% on the aims reading and about the same on math, and about 63% on the terra nova test.
Valley got 96% on the aims, and 74 on the terra nova tests.
Ok, here comes the clincher…
Constitution percentage of kids learning English 36%
60% of constitution’s students are Hispanic and 30% are white.
Hern percentage of kids learning English 0%
17% Hispanic population, 74% white
Valley percentage of kids learning English 0%
10% Hispanic population, 71% white.
I find that very amazing. The number say a lot about about a very complicated problem that legislation has tried to solve with the no child left behind act.
Mother of 2 beautiful girls!
one, two three.
So, what do we do? I think most schools don't know what to do with gifted students anyway. Or maybe I just don't know what school was like before NCLB (my oldest is in 2nd). How were the gifted treated before?
I'd like to meet one teacher who thinks NCLB is good teaching policy.
Chris, I disagree. If NCLB leaves anyone behind, it's the ones in the middle.
The low-performing get smaller class sizes and more individual help. But the gifted kids, the best and the brightest, as you call them, tend to get the best teachers and the most challenging work.
You know as an AP teacher what the gifted kids get -- every large district in this state has a gifted program for K-8, and every junior high and high school has an honors, IB, or AP program.
It's that middle group, the ones who achieve but don't qualify as gifted, that we should be worried about.
Mike,
I agree with your comments regarding HS gifted kids, but I disagree about the lower levels having an abundance of "gifted" programs. At least that's not what I see in our district. However, as you pointed out, the gifted HS kids in my district are treated well.
Chris Marsh--mother, teacher, runner, coach....