Students > Numbers

Our final guest lecture series hosted parents of students in the Decorah School District.

It's amazing how a well-presented argument can really modify one's outlook or opinion on a certain subject. These parents got me to re-think my stance on No Child Left Behind.... AGAIN.

Originally, from all that I had gathered in high school, reading about the matter, and talking with teachers I knew, my opinion of "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) was not a good one. I understood it to be a poorly thought-out, bloated, sagging bureaucratic way of addressing the shortcomings in the American education system. All the emphasis was placed on ever-higher test scores, the tests that were used to gauge student achievement were not accurate, were biased against students not of the majority WASP background, and ridiculous amounts of teachers' time was wasted on the presentation of the test results.

A few weeks ago, in our Ed-Psych lecture nonetheless, administrators spoke to our class about the successes of NCLB and how putting an increased focus on teaching strategies that yielded positive results was a major benefit of NCLB. Although some older teachers would argue that "this is the lesson [they've] been teaching for 25 years," and why change it, administrators give the voice of reason is that it's not working. Some might say this is a bit heartless, but our goal in education is to have students learn, not simply for teachers to teach.

So I began to see a real value in NCLB (as evidenced by some of my previous posts). Yes, the test results might not be a perfect representation of true student achievement, but as science would suggest, no data ever really is. Now that these administrators had gotten NCLB and myself seeing eye-to-eye, the parents came along and tipped the balance again.

The parents in our class understood the purpose and supported the positives of NCLB. Yet they each had small criticisms that someone who hasn't been a parent yet, might not really have thought of. These parents pointed out the ridiculous expectations the tests held for students with exceptional learning handicaps or disabilities. The actions taken as a result of these test scores seemed to make the learning gap larger. "My child is more than just a number."

So after a few weeks of reflection, it is still hard to clearly see what exactly my own stance on NCLB is. I'm sure that as I further progress down the path of education, I'll slowly clear the shroud in my mind, only to have something make me think in a different direction. NCLB is something I will be constantly maneuvering around in my mind for a long time to come.