No Child Left Behind?

I read a couple of the Second Years' blogs about the No Child Left Behind Act, but I didn't really think about applying it to a specific situation until I had an interview with the Principal and Assistant Principal in my school district. The Assistant Principal asked me what I thought of the NCLBA, and put me right on the hot seat. I figured that by the tone of her voice and her overall attitude that she wanted me to say that it is a worthless piece of legislation that is just another way for the proverbial "man" to keep poor people down. I told her that I wasn't very familiar with the act, in fact, the only real things that I knew were what I had read on the blogs and focus papers. I told the Assistant Principal basically two things that I gathered from the focus papers.

First of all, I told her that instead of punishing the under-performing districts by cutting access to federal funds, there should be a support system for the schools. It seems like the NCLBA is trying to scare schools into raising their levels of achievement instead of encouraging them to do so the right way. In a way, cutting the funding perpetuates the cycle. In my school district, local tax money is sparse to begin with and it would be unreasonable to ask the citizens to pick up the slack if government funds were cut off. This seemed to please Ms. Assistant Principal...then I opened my mouth again.

The second thing I told her was that despite it's flaws, the NCLBA was a necessary evil of the government. I think that schools should be held accountable for the educational welfare of it's students. I also think that administrators, especially given the salaries that many of them bring home, are ultimately the ones responsible for maintaining an environment conducive to learning. When a sports team struggles to meet expectations, rarely, if ever, are the players the ones who take the fall. Almost always it is the coach, the symbolic leader, who gets the can. I feel the same metaphor can be used for school districts. The administrators are more literally the leaders of the school districts and need to ultimately be held accountable. Teachers need to follow a plan set forth by the administration and the powers that be in a school district need to ensure that the teachers are following the plan. It is up to them.

Despite it's flaws, the NCLBA is what the government has given us to assess the effectiveness of our teachers and school districts. The way it works may not be the most efficient method, but for now, it is all we have and we need to make do.

After I finished my mini-diatribe I don't think that Ms. Assistant Principal was as happy as she was when I finished explaining my first thought on the NCLBA.