NCLB

I do believe it this statement, “For the first time ever, we are looking ourselves in the mirror and holding ourselves accountable for educating every child. That means all children, no matter their race or income level or zip code."-- Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. I think it is very important to provide each student with the same education no matter what state, county, or town he or she lives in. I read the pros and cons of NCLB on Wiki and took away some key points from each category. The Pros: NCLB “supports early literacy through the Early Reading First initiative.” I believe it is important to teach reading at a young age, according to most of the theories we read, they explain that teaching reading early is very important. Another pro is that it “Requires schools and districts to focus their attention on the academic achievement of traditionally under-served groups of children, such as low-income students, students with disabilities, and Blacks and Latinos.” This is clearly important as I mentioned earlier every student should receive the same education.
The cons: I am not personally familiar with the standardized tests that students receive because I work in a private school for children with autism and we provide APA portfolios. I have heard from many of friends that work with children with disabilities, that their students really struggled with the tests this year. The testing also took over a weeklong and the students seemed to get really frustrated because of the tests and not being able to answer the questions. I feel that is sad for students, I remember being the student hated taking those tests. So like I sad before I don’t really know much about the tests but it hurts me to hear that the students really struggled with the tests. On Wiki, it is also stated that physical education has been cut back which is not good. Child obesity is on such a rise I don’t think it is a good idea to cut back on physical education. Many students don’t come home and engage in much physical activity so I do think it is important to keep it in schools. “Other critiques are that some students can't learn as well as others and can't do the standardized testing as well as others in their grade.” I do agree with this statement some students don’t test well and having to take a standardized test each year puts more pressure on the students.
The idea of NCLB is a good one. Every student receives the same education as the next makes sense, but I guess like most things in life there are flaws with it that need to be fixed.