The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation has highlighted the need for educators to be accountable for the achievement of all students and English language learners. Do you think this is a realistic goal? What changes would you suggest to NCLB that might increase its effectiveness in meeting its goals?
I feel that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legistlation is a great thought. And in a perfect society of learners it would make a lot of sense. I agree that a bar needs to be set for both students and teachers. The NCLB legislation has provided a systematic framework that gives the state and national governments an assessment of both students and teachers. I believe that teachers should be held accountable for their work, just like many other professions. The main overarching goal that is present is for all students by the year 2014 to be literate by the time that they reach the fourth grade.
Furthermore, this might be a high goal to strive toward, but it is also an unattainable one. Students are all at different developmental stages, and ability levels. Even if students are given the correct guidance and strategies, not every student is going to reach the NCLB goals. Another piece of NCLB that directly impacts the teachers is the achievement testing, which is commonly known as "high stakes testing." Within the assessments which are conducted on an almost yearly basis, all of the students are held accountable. For example, if a student is an ELL student or English Language Learner, and they arrive late in the school year. It is the new school's responsibility to have that student up to par for test time by the test. If a student cannot understand the test then it is unlikely that they will perform at the correct level. This is unfair for the teacher's and administrator's whom are being blamed for the poor test scores. Also, the assessments make the teachers accountable for students in low income status areas. These students primarily do not get the same time and attention that other class systems recieve. This has led to lower test scores time and time again in various research studies. This makes it even harder for teachers of low S.E.S. communities to reach the goals that are set forth through NCLB.
Furthermore, there is a solution to the current system in place under NCLB. It is what I call student progression assessments. All classroom students would be presented with their own individualized goals. They would each have a file and a progress chart that would indicate assessments and give an accurate model of how students are making way toward their own personal goals. If the student is not being tracked and not making progress then it is the administrations job to help that teacher figure out how to better differentiate instruction for that student. Their would be a point system that would be in place, where if a teacher would not be making headway toward progress they would have to go to a professional development seminar in that area of expertise. This way teachers are constantly being educated to better their students progress. This assessment tracking system would be for low S.E.S. as well as E.L.L. For the E.L.L.s it would comprise more of the transition from their native language to english, but they would still be held accountable for making progress in the content areas.
