Obama has proposed a new version of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law: a controversial 41-page proposal that will now circulate through the House and the Senate. The President has big plans to improve the quality of education in this country, and he wants to get started as soon as possible. His new plans include having all students get tested every year in math and English, and additional tests can be implemented in order to track progress as well, in order to see how their education is improving. Obama also plans on making these tests more difficult, as well as reshaping struggling schools, within the next 5 years. The emphasis with this new plan will be put on improvement, as opposed to the pass or fail system that we use today.
Of course there will also be plenty of money associated with this new plan. The schools that show the most improvement will receive the most money in form of a "reward", while struggling schools will be reformed. The money will not be separated equally based on state or any other region. However, states are required to classify their schools into groups, the lowest 5% of the state's schools will be forced to fire many officials and suffer other consequences. The second lowest 5% will be on a "warning" list that means they will be watched closely.
Most teachers are quite opposed to Obama's new plan and some even believe that it puts all the pressure on the teachers without giving them much ability to do anything about it. Many teachers also realize that the money being given to schools (that won't be spread out equally across the nation anyway) won't help the amount of teachers receiving pay cuts or getting laid off. With another group unhappy with Obama's new plans, it leads to the issue of Democrats losing more seats in the upcoming midterm election, since this proposal is unlikely to pass before that election.
I personally don't think this is a particularly good idea. I mean standardize tests is one of the things many people had a problem with regarding the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, well Obama's new plan would only result in more standardize testing. I also don't think the entire attempt at reform will really help those struggling schools; it doesn't seem like throwing out a bunch of teachers and the principle with totally improve the school, as much as it will just unsettle it.
If the proposal isn't passed before this midterm election, which seems likely, and Obama loses more support, which is only natural, it will be interesting to see how this new plan pans out. I'm sure Obama felt like he had to do something in terms of education, but was this really the answer? Could there have really been a better answer? All I know is that I'm sure many of us are glad we will be out of here before these new ideas are put into place.
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
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3 comments:
gah I know education is a hard issue to resolve but more tests doesn't seem like the answer. But I do like that "The emphasis with this new plan will be put on improvement, as opposed to the pass or fail system that we use today.". I know California in peticular is having issues with budget cuts in schools, hopefully this plan will bring more money in to solve some ot these problems.
Technically, No Child Left Behind was also based on schools showing improvement. Just because a school that failed to meet its progress goals was labeled as a failing school does not mean NCLB was a clear cut pass-fail system.
This has an interesting tie-in to Aragon specifically, in that our district has been labeled "Program Improvement" under NCLB. Us being PI right now doesn't affect the entire student body or faculty (because only the Students with Disabilities subgroup didn't make the program's requirements) but should we remain there next year and the year after, we'll be subject to reforms under the current law. This does feel a bit odd, to me, to think about the fact that our API score is still rising and strong, but we're also labeled as academically troubled.
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