NCLB was enacted with the goal to eliminate the achievement gap between black and white students and the one between the poor and middle-class students. It plans to accomplish this goal in just a 12 year span. Although I feel that this is a step in the right direction, I wonder if it will be achieved. Issues in education have been around for a long time in our society I feel it will be difficult to create such a level of equality in just 12 years. One aspect the NCLB lacks is a guide as to how to eliminate the gap. As was said in class, it has a one size fits all approach. It does not take into account the diversity present in our society. One solution will not be able to work for everyone. At the same time, I'm not sure what would be a possible solution. I know Kerri-Ann wants us to think more about solutions but the more I think about, the more frustrated I get. I think that it will be difficult to come up with a solution to the issue of inequality in our education system. There are many aspects which I feel need to be restructured, which goes back to of course, unequal resources. Funds should be divided based on who needs them the most. By using property taxes as a source of funding, there will never be equality between those in poor and middle-class areas. We cannot expect children to learn and succeed if they do not have the proper materials to do so. Another aspect I feel needs to be changed is the curriculum. Standardized tests like the SAT can have a great impact on a the future of a child's education. If we are going to continue to use standardized testing we must ensure fairness by making sure that all schools are teaching the same curriculum. When the issue of standardized testing was also brought up in class there is a lot negativity towards these tests because they put so much pressure on the children and the teachers. I remember when i had to take these tests that I would be so nervous. The nerves alone were enough to make me lose focus. If these tests were made out to be just another test, I think it would be beneficial. There wouldn't be as much stress put on the students. If we had a common curriculum throughout the country, I feel that standardized testing would not be so horrible because it would be able to provide a basis for comparison among the students. In theory, I think if we were able to fix the issue of funding and create a set curriculum, we would be able to lessen the gap. What frustrates me is that these solutions have probably been thought of before, but yet not much has changed. I wonder if the necessary steps will be taken to provide for a feasible solution.
We also talked briefly about the issue of accountability and who should be held responsible when the children fail. It is interesting that the government is not held accountable when they are the ones making up the policies that are being followed. They should be held somewhat accountable, because if the students fail it shows a flaw in the system they created. I don't think that the government should be held accountable 100% of the time. As shown in the Rosenthal experiment, teachers can influence their student's performance. (This article gives information on the study.) Since teachers play an important role in their student's learning experience, they should also be held accountable. Teachers should be observed in order to ensure that they are doing their job. I think random observations would work best even though if I were a teacher I wouldn't like that. But I think that if a teacher knows that he/she is going to be observed, then he/she will make sure the kids are on their best behavior and make sure to present a great lesson plan. We need to make sure that our teachers are doing the best job that they can. We need to make sure that the students are receiving the best education possible because years from now they will be the ones running the country.
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I also find it extremely frustrating and challenging to find a solution to close the achievement gap in the United States. The answer it self may come as a no brain-er, which is equity in funding to provided adequate and equal educational resources to all schools (including basic needs), but actually finding the appropriate strategies to make such equity exist serves as the challenge and it really is a shame that it is such a complicated processes. There are so many aspects of society and NCLB that need to be altered that unfortunately it will take much longer than 12 years to properly progress toward an equalizing achievement gap. Everyday that the NCLB remains as is, the longer it will take to close the achievement gap, because unfortunately the government is just out for a high test scores and not the personal intellectual development of each child.
I believe that the government should have most of the blame for the educational progress of our children. They are the ones who created the failing policy of NCLB and because of such rigid standards and rushed curriculum produced from the laws of the NCLB. In return the teachers are stressed out and unable to accommodate the individual learning styles of all their students. Furthermore, teachers are scared to stay in schools populated with minority students because sadly such schools are not receiving the funding required to provided a successful education and therefore, the teachers’ jobs are threatened when the students do not achieve the desired proficiency levels.
It does seem unrealistic to achieve the NCLB solution in 12 years. I think that there should have been a disclaimer in the program, stating that if significant problems arose in a seven year period, the proposal should be rethought. There are already several troubling aspects with NCLB, such as lack of individualism, outside resources and lack of basic moral understanding.
It is frustrating that Bush's plan is based on a twelve-year period, but he is only allowed an eight year reign. I am frustrated that the education system has been transformed and the next President will have to take time cleaning up a mess instead of furthering educational progress. Maybe he or she will not have clean up a mess, but even so, there will be more concentration on changing the policy to agree with a personal education plan instead of using Bush's platform as a basis of development, especially if the new President is a Democrat.
It's always easier to point out the problems but we are a part of the solution so that's why we are thinking critically about these solutions
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