Education System
Will No Child Left Behind Still Rule the Education System
One thing is for sure: educators are very much hoping that President-Elect Obama’s administration will overhaul the No Child Left Behind act. This is largely because the legislation that was so popular when it was first proposed has proved to be a large…we’ll go with “mess” since this is a family site.
When it comes to education, the No Child Left Behind act had noble goals: make sure that students were really learning and that school districts were not getting paid to merely baby-sit kids but to actually teach them. The problem stems from how learning is judged under the act. Under No Child Left Behind, a child’s education is judged solely upon his or her performance on a standardized test.
The standardized test has been used for decades to determine how well students were learning basic skill sets in individual states. Because schools are publicly funded, tax payers wanted to make sure that their teachers (who have the hardest job in the world) were earning their (tiny) salaries. Before the No Child Left Behind act, however, teachers weren’t forced to teach “to the test” and were able to cover a wider variety of materials that taught students how to think. Now, after the passing of this act, students are taught how to test well.
Another criticism of the No Child Left Behind act is that it provides incentives for teachers and school districts to lower education standards to both keep their federal funding and to keep from having to push the students who do not perform well from the district altogether.
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Education – A Parent’s Responsibility
One would be foolish to think that our education system meets the requirements of every child that enters at the tender age of five or six and leaves after thirteen years. However, some parents actually think that our schools are totally responsible for the education of their children. Parents who believe this may be putting their children at a disadvantage.
Without question, the majority of what a young child learns will take place in school, but there is also much more that children will learn, and must learn, outside the classroom. It is my opinion that some of the most important lessons a child will learn are taught in the home. This means that parents have a responsibility to be active in their child’s education.
Two important questions follow from this statement. First, why should parents be an active participant in their child’s education and second, what can they do to help their children be successful in school? Two very important considerations, yet many parents fail to recognize the importance of being involved in their child’s education.
To answer the first question as to why parents should be involved in their child’s education, simply look at the numbers. One classroom teacher and twenty-five to thirty young minds to fill with knowledge can be a very difficult feat to accomplish. The ratio of teachers to students is just too high and although difficult to acknowledge, some students simply will fall between the cracks in the system. Parents are the safety net for their children yet too many of them fail to realize this important fact. The greatest resource any classroom teacher can utilize is the parents.
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6 Ways to Improve Special Education For All Children With Special Needs!
Are you the parent of a child with autism or another disability that is frustrated by the special education system? More than 6 million students with disabilities receive special education services in federally funded special education programs. This is about 9% of the country’s school age population. This is a lot of children who depend on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to help them get the services that they need to live a fulfilled life. As any parent of a child with a disability knows much improvement needs to be made to the special education system. This article will discuss 6 ways to improve the special education system.
Needed to improve the special education system:
- More available parent training and more resources to pay for the training! Parent trainings are available but in most cases do cost, which prevents some parents from attending. Parents must understand their rights under IDEA in order to be effective advocates for their child.
- More effective enforcement of IDEA, to include the withholding of funds from states and school districts, who are continually non compliant! The enforcement of IDEA basically does not exist. It is the federal governments responsibility to enforce IDEA to the states, and it is the states responsibility to enforce IDEA of local school districts. Neither one does very much in this area. Enforcement without withholding of funds will not work. In my experience it will not take many states losing their IDEA funding, before major positive changes will occur.
- Improved diagnosis of disabilities and an easier eligibility process! Many children with disabilities throughout the US are told that they do not have a disability, therefore are not eligible for special education services. This reality hurts children with disabilities and may forever ruin their lives! Parents often do not even know that they can disagree with the schools opinion! The eligibility process needs to be made more child friendly!
- Special education personnel must set realistic high expectations for all children with disabilities! Congress has said from the beginning that school districts expectations of children with disabilities are too low. School personnel and parents must believe that children can be successful in their education and lives, if given an appropriate education, and keep expectations high.
- Focus on outcomes of special education so that all children will be ready for post school learning and independent living! For the year 2005-2006 55% of children with disabilities graduated from high school, in comparison to a little over 70% of children without disabilities graduated from high school. This will limit the children’s ability to go to college or get a job, which will affect the rest of their lives!
- Improve the federal funding of IDEA! The current estimates are that the federal government only pays about 17% of per pupil costs for special education. The federal government needs to put their money where there mouth is, and fund IDEA fully!
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