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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND IS LEAVING COUNTLESS BEHIND
The current status of the No Child Left Behind law has all the makings of a really bad TV reality show. To be a winner, you have to get your group off a desert island. The show's producers promise to give you the necessary supplies, but they don't: Karen Johnson / Tennessean
Once again, we have another example of a Bush boondoggle masked or framed under a slogan like " Stay the Course " or in this case " No Child Left Behind ".
I have yet to meet a teacher who does not have serious reservations about this program but few have articulated the problems better than Karen Johnson of the Tennessean ~ who compares the program to a really bad TV reality show.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/05/02.html
WHAT'S WRONG WITH NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/OPINION01/704130404
KAREN JOHNSON, TENNESSEAN - The current status of the No Child Left Behind law has all the makings of a really bad TV reality show. To be a winner, you have to get your group off a desert island. The show's producers promise to give you the necessary supplies, but they don't.
You're required to load everyone into the same boat at the same time, even though some of your group members need special help. Even worse, your rules keep changing while other contestants have different rules - but you're all judged by the same standards. . .
What needs to change? The list is substantial:
- To be considered "successful," schools must now meet dozens of benchmarks. If they miss just one, they're labeled "low-performing."
The blanket penalties are impossible to explain and give the entire school a negative stigma, when in fact, it is an excellent school.
- The federal government makes the rules without paying for the cost. Schools are required to help students who are financially needy, who need to learn English or who have disabilities The necessary federal money falls far short in each category, particularly in special education, where the feds pay only 18 percent of the actual cost.
- The rules keep changing. At first, students who are just learning English took only the math portion of the annual test. Last year, they were tested on reading - even though they couldn't speak English. . .
- The rules are different. Other states are allowed to set lower pass marks to reach the testing benchmarks. Other states are allowed to test high school students only once before they graduate, instead of the three tests necessary for graduation in Tennessee.
- Private schools don't have any rules at all. No one really knows if private schools are doing a good job because NCLB doesn't require private schools to report their test scores - or even participate in testing.
- The ultimate goal is just not realistic. NCLB mandates 100 percent of students meet all testing benchmarks by 2014. It doesn't matter if those students come from impoverished backgrounds, if they just arrived in the U.S. with little or no English proficiency or if they have disabilities.
It's not fair, and even worse, it is tearing away the very foundation of public schooling in America. This is no reality show. Congress must change the law.
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on CONSCIOUS TALK RADIO | 
