No Child Left Behind Revisited
The No Child Left Behind Act has been quite controversial to say the least. There has been a great deal of criticism from many fronts, not the least of which has come from teachers unions. Apparently there have been some unintended consequences occurring since the law’s enactment. An editorial that appeared in the Naples Daily News (Fl) on December 29, 2010, entitled,”Poor Education now poses threat to national security “noted that a five year study had been completed of 350,000 applicants who took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) in order to enlist in the United States Army. This series of tests measures basics skills in mathematics, reading and science. The results of this study indicated that 25% of those test takers failed the tests. All of the participants were high school graduates. The study also pointed to high rate of obesity in potential enlistees.
Because of the AYP requirements for school districts under the NCLB, classroom teachers are taking an inordinate amount of critical in class time teaching to state assessments, shortchanging students in other important academic preparations. The editorial went on to indicate that this lack of preparation for the military could have national security repercussions in the near future.
It is foolish, to say the least , that a student’s performance on a single test, or an entire school for that that matter, should be a determining factor in a school districts’ success. This is an inherent flaw in NCLB. There are segments of the law that I agree with- especially the “highly qualified “provision. All teachers need to be competent in the subject(s) that they teach. We owe our children nothing less.
The Daily News editorial should be a sobering reminder that if we truly want to maintain a free and safe nation, we need to make certain that our children and all future generations of students are prepared to face the challenges that surely lie ahead.
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