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President Obama on Monday called for a major overhaul to the Bush-era education policy "No Child Left Behind," emphasizing the need for more effective measurement tools in assessing the success of teachers and schools, and pledging that "we cannot cut [funding for] education" despite the nation's economic woes.
In remarks at an Arlington, Virginia, middle school, Mr. Obama challenged Congress to send him an education bill to sign "before the next school year begins," and outlined a series of proposed reforms that he argued would make American students more competitive in the global arena.
"The best economic policy is one that produces more college graduates," he told the audience at Kenmore Middle School. "We need to make sure we're graduating students who are ready for college and ready for careers."
"We have to reform 'No Child Left Behind,'" he said, arguing that "the [program's] goals... were the right goals," but that the methodology of the legislation was not effective in actually producing them.
Absolutely.
Speaking as a teacher NCLB, while a good idea for having minimum standards, is fatally flawed.
The flaw is this: it is relatively easy to raise scores from 40% passing to 80% and make AYP. It's almost impossible to go from 95% to 96%. Don't make that and you get put on the watch list, don't do it the next year (and now your number is 97%) and you get reconstituted. Those last 5% represent the kids who, for various reasons, won't, or just plain can't, meet the standards.
Does anyone know the percent of students going on to college in countries that are more successful in educating their children? I'm curious if they are that much higher than us.
At the same time he made sure fundig for the most successful alternatives in Washington was closed. Rethoric on school success.
Don't think that's the President's fault - District schools get funding boost | Lisa Gartner | DC | Washington Examiner (http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/03/district-schools-get-funding-boost - broken link) The city of Washington DC, like all other city's in this country, is having budget problems.
Whoever created NCLB just didn't think it through. Any program that relies heavily on test scores to prove success is being short-sighted.
Does anyone know the percent of students going on to college in countries that are more successful in educating their children? I'm curious if they are that much higher than us.
Most of those successful countries track. We don't. They also don't tell every parent their kid is college material.
We need to start holding students accountable and stop teaching to the least common denominator. The culture of youth doesn't place an importance on education. I mention this because if kids had the desire to learn, they would learn, regardless of their situation. Stop teaching for tests and start teaching with an emphasis on creativity and critical thinking.
I support year round school (4 quarters, 10 weeks in/3 weeks out). I support ending math as a course, and placing math into required courses. Since math is used in everything, why not teach the theory and make it applicable to a relevant topic? It would improve interest in learning the most boring subject. In short, make every course interdisciplinary. Have every course combine a liberal art or two with science or math (geography & geometry, psychology & statistics, and or history of [name the scence or type of math]). Another option would be keeping the standard track from K-10. In 11th and 12th grade, students go into tracks. In these tracks, they are taught relevant skills to the subjects they are being taught.
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