This is my first Diary entry, so take it easy on me.
I spent the wee morning hours looking for some interesting or disturbing news that I hadn't seen yet in the blogosphere. I came across this
article on yahoo! news and it just reminded me of all the crap that I went through while I was being educated in the Los Angeles Unified Public School District. Education is an issue that is very important to me, mostly because my incoming freshmen high school class was just over 1000 students, and 570 people graduated four years later.
The aforementioned article summarizes how the federal government rates each states testing system for its school children. Out of 50 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico, four states passed: Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Six states passed, but had recommendations for improvements (Arizona, Delaware, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah). Four states pending approval, but were not expected to lose any funding (Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Massachusetts.) Everyone else is in danger of losing their federal funding. Also,
this article summarizes the fallout of this report.
Arizona is sueing the Feds over when ESL students' test scores should be included in a key accountability measure for the state. Originally, ESL student scores were added after their third year, but the Feds have changed it back to one year (clearly, these Fed guys haven't ever tried to become fluent in a second language in only one year.)
On Monday, the National Education Association voted to lobby congress for extensive reform of the act. There were also people there who thought that the law was just too flawed and needed complete repeal. It's not just the big guns that will be lobbying congress for reform. New Jersey High School students are at it too.
I know what I think about the No Child left Behind act, especially since I was a student when it was first introduced. It has its flaws (like being under funded and relying too heavily on test scores), but it's still a good idea at heart. Of course, the same thing could be said about Communism...
UPDATE: So, I think I need to clarify my position. The way that NCLB is now is totally warped from what I think it should be. I think that the way that testing is done is completely flawed because its making educators teach to the test and not to the actual material. I obviously think education needs more funding, and I kind of understand the need of the Feds to regulate their money. However, its really dumb to take away funding because a school, district, or state scores low. Obviously, this means they need better education and more money! That is why I think the law needs to be withdrawn or extensivily reformed.