Whose Child Left Behind?

Whose Child Left Behind?
By Jerry Webster, About.com Guide to Special Education
Saturday January 30, 2010
Time is soon approaching when the test prep will be over and the state high stakes state assessments will be rolled out. Ready?
I will definitely be spending some time offering suggestions to help you diffuse some of the anxiety of your students. And some sympathy for those who have to



administer an alternative assessment. Some of them are doozies (We see students from 5 states at my facility.) Those that don't qualify for the alternate test end up "snatchin' their heads bald." I've also heard the story of a local school district who tried, early on, to exceed their 3 percent in order to stack the deck in their favor. They got caught.
So, has No Child Left Behind done it's job? Are our schools better, or just our student's performance? And what about all the states that have dumbed down their state tests to increase their success rate?
I know, after working in inner city schools, that the energy that goes into improving test scores, as opposed to real instruction, is significant. In my second placement, we did not teach science until after the state test. We were not allowed to teach science until after the state test. I know lots of strategies for improving student scores, and even some good strategies to teach content in ways that support the student's performance on the test. But get out into some of the suburbs, and you find they don't need preparation. My younger son never did test prep and received outstandings from 3rd through 8th grades. Are we really closing the gap?
US News and World Report has an excellent feature on No Child Left Behind. Margaret Spelling reflects her loyalty to the failed Bush administration, of course. Randi Weingarten's loyalties are to teachers, especially to teachers in large cities where the AFT tends to dominate. Their points of view are still important. Michael Cohen and Andrew Rotherman share some really incisive observations. What's your point of view?