I'm sure you meant, "They and Magnet Schools." :innocent:
NCLB has done what was intended. Overall, teacher weren't teaching and there was no focus in the public schools, except for ongoing social drivel. NCLB, as flawed as it is in one direction, is just what was needed for another direction. It got the focus back on academics. The complainers have no one to blame but themselves.
If a school is too busy teaching "to the test", there is less time to pump the little minds made of mush full of socialistic unusable crap. Yes, the wonders and enlightenment of homosexuality had to take a backseat to the Dead White Men.
Ted "Fatass" Kennedy had no idea what he was doing when he drafted and endorsed NCLB. He was roped and then doped. President George W. Bush is brilliant!
I agree about the part of holding teachers to higher standards and that it is necessary. The problem with NCLB is that once a child fails a test and is held back, there still are not enough resources to help the child. Let me give one example. A student I was working with was getting some more simplified instruction during class (while the others were participating in regular Reading instruction). It's not enough. The student needs some intense, one on one instruction to catch her up to the other kids. They're going to hold her back in her grade. I told them straight out it won't do any good if she can't receive the instruction she needs. Since she hasn't been diagnosed with a disability, she has no IEP. I'm afraid that she'll be given the same instruction next year that wasn't helping her much this year. I gave them ideas on instruction that appeared to be working with her. I don't know if they'll listen to me though because I was only a volunteer.
Here's another problem with the law. It currently says that a school receives federal funding if their overall success level is of a certain amount. At the same time, most students with disabilities are expected to take and pass grade level tests when most of them are not able to. NCLB does not currently take that into a lot of consideration. It's meant to help bridge the gap between those with disabilities and those without. I don't see where it has done that yet. I'll say this much. If the students are expected to take grade level tests, then they need more intense instruction to try to catch them up. A lot of these kids are grade levels behind, but are expected to take the grade level test.
People often say it was good for Bush to involve Kennedy in NCLB because he involved Democrats. I agree, but here's the thing. How many teachers, administrators, and others in Education were involved?
As for teaching all about the white men, I'd be happy to. Honestly though, can we also teach about the women and people who aren't white? Oh, and can we please tell the truth about the white men? Columbus was not the founder of the New World. Schools, please stop telling this lie. I think that we were told a lot of stuff from the pov of America so we could never question the country's government. We were hardly ever told anything bad. I didn't have a History teacher tell me the truth about some of this stuff until 11th Grade. She was one of the few teachers that ever really fussed at me in school. lol. I think I respected her for that because few teachers spoke to me that way. lol. Anyway, I also respected her because she was one of the few teachers I had before college who spoke about the other side of things. She was the one who told us that Jackson was in on the Trail of Tears. She discussed a lot of bloody stuff that makes one question things. She didn't do it to get kids to hate America though. She did it to get kids interested in History. Meanwhile, she always spoke about our civic duties. She spoke about what it meant to vote, to get involved in politics, etc. She even told us about how a student was involved in the Republican Party in Lexington if we were interested. Of course, I don't think she mentioned MLK's Socialist leanings. I found that out later.
I don't think that telling everything involved in America decreases patriotism. I think kids can handle the truth. If they don't love a country because of things in the past that aren't always pretty, then they need to grow up some.
Yes, I meant to say they. :innocent:
