Tuesday, April 3, 2007

What is No Child Left Behind?


Surprisingly, there is a lot of ignorance--even by those, such as bloggers, who keep up with most domestic and foreign policy issues--about education policy, a subject that is so important to our nation.

No Child Left Behind will be considered one of President George Bush's most important legacies. In fact, I would consider the three most important legacies of his presidency thus far to be (1) The robust response towards terrorism with the War on Terror that moved the front from our country abroad; (2) Two solidly conservative Catholic Supreme Court justices; and (3) the landmark education reform, No Child Left Behind.

This day and age there is no excuse to rely on information from the MSM without researching it yourself.

To research the No Child Left Behind act, I would suggest printing out and studying the following in order:

"Facts and Terms Every Parent Should Know About NCLB;" "Four Pillars of NCLB;" and "Executive Summary" from the Department of Education.

"The ABCs of 'AYP': Raising Achievement for All Students."

"Do We Repair the Monument? Debating the Future of No Child Left Behind."

Finally, as a reference purchase Dr. Frederick Hess' No Child Left Behind Primer. I usually check books out of the library, but this one is definitely worth having as a reference.

So is No Child Left Behind a good law?

Well, take a look at how much liberals and socialists (including most Social Foundations of Education professors) "love" No Child Left Behind:

The math conference is backed by another "social justice" teachers' group, the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE). I attended an NYCoRE public meeting last October. About 80 public-school teachers gathered on the NYU campus to discuss approaches to social-justice teaching.
The meeting was chaired by Edwin Mayorga, a fourth-grade teacher at PS 87 on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and NYU education professor Bree Pickower. Mayorga urged his fellow teachers to "be political inside the classroom, just as we are outside the classroom. The issues we are up against as we teach for social justice are the mandates of [Mayor] Bloomberg, Klein and No Child Left Behind." (from "Math and Marxism: NYC's Wack-Job Teachers" by Sol Stern in the New York Post, March 20, 2007).

If that is not an endorsement of No Child Left Behind for those who care about American values and success, I don't know what is.

In short, No Child Left Behind is a good law with some flaws, but one that should definitely be renewed. Very few Americans actually know what is contained in No Child Left Behind, and relying on the MSM for accurate information these days is unwise. I'll have more commentary on No Child Left Behind in the future, so study up in the meantime!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Generally great programs don't need to pay the press for endorsement. How much were you paid to plug it?

Gabe said...

Anonymous- I have a Master's in Social Foundations (Education Policy), and I took a class with an excellent professor where we examined NCLB closely. I find it to be a terrific law overall. Accountability is tied to education funding, something that didn't exist before.