Woodyspda said:
And it punishes the school system when it isn't necessarily to blame.
It makes zero sense for a gifted student to sit around and wait for an average student to catch up. It makes even less sense for the average student to wait for a mentally challenged student to catch up to them. They should all be taught at a relative pace to their capabilities. I reiterate what I said before..... parental interaction is a major factor as far as student performance goes. If you aren't willing to sit down with your child every night to at least see what they are learning, you have no right to complain when they fail or falter.
NCLB is a way for the government to standardize the national school system... oh wait, there is no national school system.
Why is it considered punishment when a school that chronically fails to meet standards is examined and changes made? What NCLB is meant to do is to identify, examine and rectify failing schools and it does just that. In the old method the government would just throw more money at them as if a dollar bill is going to march in and teach how to add fractions. If a superintendent/principal/teacher or other official is relieved of their duties because a district/school/grade continuously fails to measure up vs. county and state averages then so be it. It is not personal but has to be done. What do you propose leaving them there and letting another couple hundred kid wallow around in a sub par educational facility so their feelings don't get hurt?
You can beat the parental interaction drum all day and all night and it is not going to change the fact that a bunch of parents think school is daycare. They are not going to step up, they are not going to interact they are not going to care. The other indisputable fact you cannot change is that those kids with indifferent parents to education are those that are going to make up the bulk of the low end. That being said, NCLB has to step in and set standards for the school to achieve, or try to achieve so the place doesn't just become the day care center some think it is.
Every business, every organization and every person must have some motivation to achieve. In most cases it is money, or to prevent negative consequences. NCLB does give that motivation. Whereas before if Johnny couldn't read and do basic math in the 11th grade there was none. Too bad for Johnny. If they do not achieve on par with county, state and national levels (and the categories are fairly broad) the school is identified. If they still don't they are examined, if they STILL don't then changes happen.
As far as the different levels of achievement and students sitting and waiting unchallenged even for brief periods you have to be realistic. There is no way a public school could asses and sub divide classes to meet every child's learning pace. Even in gifted classes you are going to have "really gifted" and "Kind of gifted". Short of assigning a teacher per kid someone is going to have some unchallenged periods. My kids school uses several techniques to address this. Boy was behind the curve in reading. So if you have a kid who cannot read on par why make them sit in classes that have a great deal of reading like Social Studies and hold everyone back and drop the average of that class? So they have different classes that teach the same subjects at slightly different levels until they can improve enough to rejoin the regular class. Same with math. In my kids elementary school they are very proactive in moving kids around to allow a lower student to teacher ratio, different level subjects, extra help, not as much help and so on. Some kids may change classrooms 2-3 times a day to get instruction that is more tailored to them. All because of NCLB. Now there are negative consequences for having capable yet ignored, lower achievers bringing down the grade average. Conversely there are also negative consequences to ignoring gifted (I hate that term) kids mire themselves in mediocrity because they can also lower the grade average by not achieving to their full potential.
NCLB act is not a way for the government to nationalize schools, it is a way for the government to stop wasting money with no recourse when the school system in X still fails. It has been left up to the states and for decades they have done little more than stick their hands out and want more money. Now the responsiblity rests directly on them and the unions they are in bed with and they don't like it.
The schools do not set the standards the state/fed government does. IE: A fifth grade student should be able to calculate the area of a circle. then they test to see if they can. :shrug: Same with reading. So, if the goal is to teach them the skills needed to pass the test, and you teach them how to pass the test, you are defacto teaching them the core skill they want tom to know anyway. 
But your first statement caused me to wonder when some jackass is going to say a school district would actually tell a school that was a high achiever to slow down so they didn't inflate the average for the rest of the district.
