“No Child Left Behind” (NCLB), or as  some   teachers  call it “NickelB,”  was introduced  by the George W. Bush administration to improve our nations  educational system.  It had a good purpose and great intentions, but like most political  bills  , it sets  high goals with no direction as how to  acheive  the goal.  The  bill  was modeled after the state of Texas’ education system.   Students showed  impressive  improvement and achievement on their  Texas state  standardized  assesments  .  Only years after NCLB was  put into law  did President  George W. Bush  and  our  nation find out that the Texas state scores  weren’t  accurate .  It was  found out  that  when  a state subject test was  presented  to  eighth  grade students  , some districts/schools  were holding  back lower  achieving  seventh  graders , then  would skip them to  nineth  grade  this way  they didn’t have to  be assesed on  the state  exam .  Only the brightest and best  in these districts were taking the test .  This   discprepency  gave reasons for  the incredible  scores increase  and success of their testing system .

As a result of NCLB,  schools   around  the nation are chasing this goal, like “Ricky” jumping for the balloon in the movie , “Better Off Dead.”

Here is a  short  list of some of the  identified  goals of NCLB:

• All Students will score proficiency or better in reading and math by the 2013-14 school year.
• All teachers will be highly qualified.
• Schools and classrooms will be safe, drug free, and conducive to learning.
• All students will graduate high school 

I will discuss each item in the list and why or why not it is a reasonable expectation.

1) All students will score proficiency or better in reading and math by 2013-14 school year:

This statement  says  that  all children  will  excel in math and reading  .  This isn’t possible .  As aneducators , I know that every  child  has his or her own   abilities, strengths, talents  ,and yes, weaknesses.  This is what makes  us  different and unique individuals .  To think that you can legislate everyone to be the same , doesn’t make sense.  Also, many children  attend school  inconsistantly  .  These  children  may miss 26 days per semester.  Why would we expect them to be proficient in reading and math .  what can  an educator  possibly do  to help  students that are absent much  of the year  ?  Many of these  children   don’t/can not  make up  missed  work or ask  for extra help?  Finally, there are students that  do not want   to learn.   These students   do not complete homework , they do not study for  exams  , and  calling  parents has no effect on students’ effort or desire to succeed in their education.

2) All teachers will be highly qualified:

This  topic  can definitely be  addressed and  reached .  There are some   issues  that need to be addressed in order to meet this requirement.  First,  we have  to make teaching more desirable  to young college  students  . With  low  pay and  huge  amount of responsibility of today’s classroom teachers, new  educators  leave the  career  after 2 years (average).  Administrators need to take pressure off of teachers so that the job is less stressful and more rewarding .   If it continues  , schools  will have to fill  openings  with  anyone  they can get.

3) Schools and classrooms will be safe, drug free, and conducive to learning. 

I don’t know if there is anything that can  make our  classrooms  completely safe. I believe that many of  the steps being taken to eliminate illegal drugs in our schools are  beginning  to work.  Again, can we ever stop  the drugs  completely? The  portion  of  the  statement that needs to be addressed the most is the idea of “conducive to learning.”  Many times a teacher is evaluated  on classroom management.  This means that if  an educator  sends a student to the principal’s office, he/she is actually  evaluated  lower on his/her evaluation.  This could cause teachers to miss a pay-raise or other negative repercussions .  Many  educators  just try to deal with unruly  students  and hope for the best.   School and school district budgets are tight .  Districts are often paid by their state by  the number of  children  that are in school.  Therefore, it is bad business to suspend students out-of-school for discipline reasons.   The  disruptive students  do not leave  school and make it  very difficult  for the teacher to maintain a conducive learning environment .  The final  result  is that students know there are no consequences for bad behavior.  Soon the students that want to learn give up because they  can not  learn in this chaotic environment and say to themselves, “Well, they aren’t doing their work.  Why should I?”

4) All students will graduate high school:

There  isn’t a  way to  make someone   graduate.   I have had students drop out of high school  so  they could work for their parents’ business.   In a short amount of time  some of  my  former students make twice as much money as I make as a teacher.  Who  are we  to say to a student, “You have to stay in school.”  There are many times that students  just want to get out  of high school and theyjust quit .  We as  teachers can counsel  them to stay in high school, but the final  descision  is up to the student and his/her family.  Why is it that these students, for what ever reason, refuses to stay in high school, counts against the school district  dictated by  to NCLB?

Just the fact that the federal government  desides  they know what local schools should teach is not logical .  I live in a small town where many of our students become farmers or work in the coal mines.   Some  of these  people  have no desire to go to college and  want to follow  in their fathers footsteps or even going into the family business.  These students need to go to school to  learn  what they need to be productive members of society and to get a job that will support their families.

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