National test data released last week could add weight to Kansas State Board of Education chairman Steve Abrams’ argument for Kansas to pull out of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Math scores were up slightly among fourth- and eighth-graders. But reading scores didn’t improve for fourth-graders and went down for eighth-graders.
It appears that maybe no child is getting ahead.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- okobserver on Open thread 11/23
- okobserver on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
- okobserver on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
- Chas on Open thread 11/23
14 Comments
I would imagine that if NCLB is working, we would see it as a front that passes through the schools systems, beginning in the lower grades and passing with them to the higher grades. The schools are now loaded with upper level kids who don’t perform, either because they don’t want to or are unable to (perhaps because they were socially promoted?). All of these kids must get out of the system and be replaced by those who have been educated under NCLB. Therefore it may take a decade or so, IMHO, to see scores change in the higher grade levels, and that’s assuming that NCLB will have an effect.
This timeframe is probably too long for administration officials and for school supervisors. I’m sure they will start the blame game long before they’ve even given the changes a decent chance.
Oh hell, take it to court and throw some more taxpayer’s dollars at it.
The only way “No Child Left Behind” can possiby work is if no child gets ahead!
On paper NCLB is great. Unfortunately bush refuses to fund it (<20% funded) so there is little chance of it succeeding. Now I’m not particularly fond of bush but this is something I really wanted him to be able to put a feather in his hat for. I think it has great potential. But like most things done by this administration it was done half assed and without thinking it completely through.
900 BILLION on Iraq and our universities full of foriegn students? Who is getting left behind? American students?
American students are getting left behind because they are off getting degrees libral arts degrees….like journalism for example, while the forgeiners are happily taking all those spots left in the engineering and sciences to get degrees in things that the world actually needs and THEN leaving this country to go back to thier home country.
What are you children going to be when they grow up? What are you doing? How do you stress the education race in this country to your kids? We need to make it clear that the real battle for economic promince in the future world will be won in the class room. Where as parents are you setting the bar?
dr,Obviously not high enough, judging by your spelling.
Tex–
You dumbass.
Why is it any worse to have int’l students spending their money to go to college here than it is to have them buying our exports?
Answer: it isn’t. Thanks to higher education, our balance of trade is a lot better than it otherwise could be.
Int’l students keep a lot of graduate programs (like engineering) running so that American students who want them can get them.
Their families often come over for visits, helping tourism.
It also allows American democratic ideas to take root among future influential leaders all over the world.
It’s hard to imagine anything BETTER for the US than our colleges attracting large numbers of int’l students from all over the world.
Too bad you numbskull conservatives still don’t know shizen from shinola.
“Don’t mess with Texas–it makes enough messes all by itself.”
Oh, it also exposes American students to the fact that there’s a whole world out there beyond US borders.
But then that’s probably what folks like you want to forget . . .
Racial realities will always render NCLB and other such nonsense unworkable!
“It’s hard to imagine anything BETTER for the US than our colleges attracting large numbers of int’l students from all over the world.”-Galahad
Yes, I actually agree but you miss the other part of the equation
Most of these students are using out universities to get an education and then LEAVING this country! I encourage you to talk to some forgein students at WSU about where they plan to go.
Americans, getting arts degreesForgeiners, getting engineering and science degrees
The problem is NOT NCLB ! (Which by the way, did every one forget Ted Kenedy wrote)
I talked to many of those students, being a former engineering student at WSU myself, and dr’s allegations are statistically misplaced. MOST of those foreigners WANT to stay in the US, maybe even bring their families as well. The problem is to find themselves a sponsor, e.g., an employer. Nowadays, they also had to fight the xenophobic junta in the WH, who in the name of “keeping our borders safe,” has dramatically cut the quota for foreign skilled workers, priced it out beyond many employers’ budgetary ability, and encouraged many firms to lay off foreigners in the name of national security. My buddy from across the Atlantic, had been promised a job at Cessna upon finishing Ph.D., but it was rescinded because it posed threat to national security by being a damn foreigner. No wonder many tried so hard to find themselves some Kansas farmers’ sons and daughters to marry before finishing their degree. After all, a 10-year hellish marriage is nothing compared to the ticket to the New World in their eyes.
But, I thought NCLB doesn’t cover higher education. Maybe I’ve missed some paragraphs back then!
Boy, am I glad to see you still posting Ian, my brown buddy from Al-Andalus! But, seriously, what does race have to do with NLCB failing? The reality is that there are many children of ALL races being shortchanged by the politicizing of education. Don’t anyone remember these kids are the people who are going to pay into the Social Security funds to support our retirements. Or should we all instead receiving gold watches, accepted cyanide pills, just in case?
Shouldn’t we also be worrying about the high school students suffering because of this egregious bias on the part of “Special Education” kids? Is it not just as important to support those brilliant young prodigies as it is to include the “below-average” young adults? A myth seems to exist among educators that bright children will be fine with their own responsibility for their education. They can figure it all out for themselves. They’re smart, right?But bright children are often lacking a sense of direction and purpose. These advanced young minds that require careful nurturing are often transformed into bitter pupils that never achieve their full potential. If only public education would acknowledge the brighter side of life!Although the No Child Left Behind Act seems to be ineffective to assist in the education of “average” children, it clearly spells doom for the more intelligent children. As schools are required to fund the below-average kids, bright children are conveniently absent from that law. Who cares about the kids who score in the top ten percent of standardized tests? They can easily succeed without any extra assistance!My daughter returns home every school day condemning public education. Even though she does acquire some knowledge from what she calls a “pointless waste of time,” her rate of learning is so accelerated that the turns her face to the window in exasperation after the first five minutes of a class activity.”Tracking,” a policy in affect during my own school years, placed kids with similar intelligence levels in the same classes. The system was great–the only problem was that children were not allowed to switch from one academic “track” to another for different classes. If an arrangement such as this were implemented in public schools, all of the students would benefit by learning at a pace right for them.