Is There An Intellectual Future For Our Youth?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a government funded program which sets up a structure for schools to follow across the United States to insure that schools here are teaching our kids effectively and timely, to insure future success. This structure is strictly based upon standardized test results. Schools must provide students with the knowledge they need to pass a certain test, during a certain part of the year…then after that, well you’re on your own until “testing preparation season” comes around again. I state the former sentence with much sarcasm, for that is the feeling that I get after reading article and article about how our Texas schools are failing our youth under the NCLB Act. Dallas high schools account for a third of the Texas high schools that are failing to meet the federal ratings, 10 of the 30 high schools, whom are failing have been failing for so many consecutive years they are listed in the worst stages of the NCLB Act. I say our government is failing our schools, teachers, students, and parents by allowing unacceptable ratings to be permitted year after year and not implementing any type of action plan for improvement. Why does it take a school to be on the verge of being closed down because of substantially low academic performance before the government decides to step in and assess the “what” “why” and “how’s” of what went wrong. By this time it’s too late for many of the kids who have dropped out and makes it increasing discouraging for the teachers and students who are still there. I thought this article was very interesting and gave some insight into how something that was designed to help kids succeed in school is probably doing more harm than good. The structure of the NCLB Act is not realistic, though I like the uniformity that it provides state wide, the concept of “one test, one score” is overwhelming for teachers, students, and administrators. I believe this immanent need for schools to meet the score provided by the NCLB Act "or else"…is the rain shower that produces the mud slide.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/030710dnmetdallasreform.3f9194c.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080214080530.htm
http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-04-10/news/so-much-for-no-child-left-behind/
(This article is a sad testimony to what our schools resulted to…it’s all about the grade and not the child)