Who benefited from the No Child Left Behind?

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by epchick

I think if you have to place the blame somewhere, I would think that low graduation rates are a community's fault. A community (whether it be the local city, the state, etc) should try and implement more programs to assist those who are on the verge of dropping out. I'm not saying that, they HAVE to do it, but it would be nice. You can blame it on the parents, but you'll get nowhere trying to get them on board w/ education. A lot of parents here see HS education as a waste of time, they rather their son go get a job and help provide for the family, and their daughters to help take care of the house. So the kids feel a lot of pressure to drop out (some want to stay in school, some are glad to drop out). It's one of those "i'm poor, and i'm gonna stay poor, so why waste my time getting a diploma" mentality. Then of course you have the girls who get pregnant and decide just to drop out because they don't want to deal with a kid and school. It doesn't matter that the school districts here have "School Age Parent Centers" where the mothers can get an education and have a daycare for their kid(s). Most of the time those parent centers are utilized while the girls are pregnant, and the girls will stay only if they have the type of parents that really care about the girl's education. By around 8th grade,though, a kid here knows if they are gonna finish school or not.

Kids don't drop out because of a poor teacher. But to NCLB it doesn't really matter. Graduation rate affects the AYP. My HS, for example, has met all the AYP standards for the different subjects, but not for graduation rates. So they got put on the 5 year plan. If the school doesn't bring up it's graduation rate in 5 years, then the school will get taken over by the government and restructured. It has NOTHING to do with the teachers ability, but if the school gets restructured, those HS teachers will most likely lose their job and be replaced by more "effective" teachers.

How are they the community's fault? They can't control a parent who doesn't care about their child's schooling. And live we've all seen, many times when a parent doesn't care, the kid isn't going to care.

Originally Posted by Kevin

As far as transportation goes, my wife teaches at a charter school and many of the kids ride the city bus system to school and many do so while either being emancipated and paying their own bills, living with a grandparent or living with a state-appointed guardian. It's really a pleasure for me to have the contact with those kids that I do get to have... and in very many of their cases, the parents are either hostile to the kids' wishes to get educated or just outright ambivalent. Just this morning, my wife was telling me about one of her kids who will be applying to Howard. The kid lives with her grandmother who tells her school is a waste of time, she's too dumb, too ugly, etc. to be anything or anybody, etc.

I'm sure that situation is very common. It's a good thing this kid's in a charter school where there exist a culture which tells her that it doesn't matter what the grandmother says and that she can persevere despite all the things going against her.

I do think that ultimately, parents OR schools can save these kids... any attempt to engineer society though, I think, short of doing good things with individuals and letting them succeed is doomed to fail.

As for KIPP schools, new ones are opening all the time. It's an excellent model and the reorganization of failed public schools will open the door to many more KIPP schools down the line.

That's awesome that your wife's school district is near a city bus stop. I'm sure parents in our area would LOVE for their child to walk half a mile from the bus stop to the school, especially with child molesters out there, and then with the snow and rain. Great idea.

PLEASE stop thinking that everyone and everything is so privileged like your family apparently is.