The Beginning of the End for No Child Left Behind?

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The President Will Waive 10 States from 'No Child Left Behind'

On Thursday, President Barack Obama will waive 10 states from the No Child Left Behind law, the AP reports. Gleaned from an anonymous White House official, the AP reports that the 10 states will be: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee--New Mexico applied for the waiver but will not see it granted. "The law requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014," AP explains. Passed during the George W. Bush administration, No Child Left Behind has seen its share of criticisms for the weight it places on standardized test scores, punishments it places on schools, and the possibility of federal underfunding.
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Like? Dislike?

I'm a former educator. Definitely intend to express my thoughts a bit later.
 
I hope this is true. I've seen how kids are shuffled out of "underperforming" schools to pad stats and receive little to no support as well as closing the schools they get shuffled to...weird how that one works. It'd be nice if we focused more on pedagogy and historiography rather than IQ tests, but we can't disrupt the narrative of the status quo right?
 
it'll be interesting to see the "anybody but Obama" crowd react to this. On one hand, states rights and reducing the federal education oversight and conceivably budget. On the other hand, it's a Bush program and it's Obama doing something.

Hard to reconcile that one.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']The only problem I have with this is that it's only ten states.[/QUOTE]

some state didn't apply the waiver
 
End it. It was bay far one of the worst decision that has been made in the modern era. I am completely baffled at the ignorance of the typical American, they can get up and arms about unions, morning after pills and moon bases but could care less that this was rotting our educational system from the inside out. Bush didnt even do his homework when he modeled it after a school in Texas. It was later found out that the school in question lied about everything to keep their numbers up.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/06/60II/main591676.shtml
 
In getting a waiver, the states had to present a plan the administration felt was viable in meeting the same goals as NCLB. In essence, NCLB is still alive and well.
 
[quote name='nasum']it'll be interesting to see the "anybody but Obama" crowd react to this. On one hand, states rights and reducing the federal education oversight and conceivably budget. On the other hand, it's a Bush program and it's Obama doing something.

Hard to reconcile that one.[/QUOTE]
They reconcile it by admitting that both conservatives and democrats are for big government but in different ways, and then they vote the proper candidate who is actually for smaller government and real spending cuts.

Along with Medicare Part D and the Prescription Drug Act, No Child Left Behind is one of the worst non-military things the Bush administration was responsible for. They are all eclipsed by NDAA, though, which is why we must stop this democrat/republican nonsense and vote for a third-party. Neither party is good for this country.

I would rather see a Nader vs. Paul election than an Obama vs. Romney election.
 
I think I was pretty much out of school by the time NCLB came into full effect.

But from what I heard from parents whose kids are in school right now, it's had a terrible effect. Since a lot of it is based on standardized tests, teachers end up teaching to the test.
 
Not to open a potentially huge can of worms, but what is the purpose of K-12 education? While I was there, it seemed to be socialization (the ability to interact with others and share) and fact retention. Seeing kids in the neighborhood coming up behind me it turned more into a self-esteem promotion lab with a hint of tax payer funded daycare. Now seeing what my nieces and nephews go through, there's very little actual learning happening anymore. My oldest nephew is now in 6th grade and doesn't know multiplication and division yet. I could have sworn I learned that in 3rd or 4th grade. The 2nd oldest one got into trouble recently for talking back to a teacher, but he was inquiring and challenging a notion. Shouldn't something like that be encouraged?

It'd be nice if kids had less of a focus on fact retention and more about "learning how to learn", but how do you cram that into a curriculum? Then you run into the "when is it proper to know what" type of thing. Do kids need to know basic US history by 3rd grade? Should they know all the states and capitals by 5th grade? When is the time to get acquainted with the 3 branches of government?
Is it maybe too much of a stretch to think that current 10-15 year olds are more or less going to be a lost generation 20 years from now?
 
[quote name='nasum']Not to open a potentially huge can of worms, but what is the purpose of K-12 education? While I was there, it seemed to be socialization (the ability to interact with others and share) and fact retention. Seeing kids in the neighborhood coming up behind me it turned more into a self-esteem promotion lab with a hint of tax payer funded daycare.[/QUOTE]
This is pretty much the result of the slashing of resources going into our educational system, the transition from single-earner households to dual-earner(related to stagnant wages), union boogeymans, privatization, resourse allocation based on property tax(de facto segregation/red-lining), and a bunch of other problems related to teachers and teaching. That self-esteem promotion lab is usually seen outside of urban schools that are poorly resourced and not the status quo for a vast majority of schools or districts.

Now seeing what my nieces and nephews go through, there's very little actual learning happening anymore. My oldest nephew is now in 6th grade and doesn't know multiplication and division yet. I could have sworn I learned that in 3rd or 4th grade. The 2nd oldest one got into trouble recently for talking back to a teacher, but he was inquiring and challenging a notion. Shouldn't something like that be encouraged?
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I remember my mother drilling me all the time on multiplication when I was in the second grade...it drove me nuts. But it really depends on what he was challenging. Saying that Columbus' expedition committed mass murder when he landed in Cuba or that Pilgrims were grave robbing slavers would be factual, but probably frowned upon...or any other regional things like the Northern War of Aggression and things of that nature. Then again, K-12 education isn't set up to make for great critical thinkers.

It'd be nice if kids had less of a focus on fact retention and more about "learning how to learn", but how do you cram that into a curriculum? Then you run into the "when is it proper to know what" type of thing. Do kids need to know basic US history by 3rd grade? Should they know all the states and capitals by 5th grade? When is the time to get acquainted with the 3 branches of government?
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Yeah, this would be nice. There were actually many programs set up for kids of color in less than ideal neighborhoods that used culturally relevant curriculum(I'm not talking about changing word problems to subjects about drugs but history and such) and managed to produce very good results, but they always seem to get shutdown like the Latino studies program in Arizona. In that particular program, the students were outscoring white kids in math AND science.

Is it maybe too much of a stretch to think that current 10-15 year olds are more or less going to be a lost generation 20 years from now?
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To be honest, I don't think this is going to be a serious problem. Kids these days are probably much more knowledgable than we were and my experience with my little cousins reflect that.

I think you're just getting old and it's only a matter of time before you start telling kids to stay off your lawn.:lol:

edit: Oh and having things like NCLB which caters to tests only leads to teaching to the test. Unintended consequences stuff.
 
Sometimes I think back to some of the crap I learned in school (cue Paul Simon) and I wonder what the point was. Some of it was flat out false (Columbus discovering America), some of them were things I was never going to remember anyway (stuff you can look up if you need to know, like the capitol of a given state). Was so relieved in college when most professors were more concerned with us understanding the material than memorizing things. The toughest gen-ed class I ever had was probably World Civ History, and I remember being surprised he didn't want us to memorize dozens of different dates.
 
I think it may have been Christopher Columbus that kicked off the whole thing, I'll have to ask him again.
 
[quote name='nasum']I think it may have been Christopher Columbus that kicked off the whole thing, I'll have to ask him again.[/QUOTE]
You're wrong. It was the Martians.
 
images


The truth is out there....
 
[quote name='nasum']I think it may have been Christopher Columbus that kicked off the whole thing, I'll have to ask him again.[/QUOTE]
Dude no, i meant this guy.
 
Even if VA makes the list, my county will still keep a program similar to it just to make themselves look good. They are already saying that 40% of our evaluation will be based on our test scores....so that means if we have a group of fuck ups and no matter how hard we try to get them to learn, they still fail and we get screwed.
 
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