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coursepedia.com: Blog http://www.coursepedia.com/index.php/blog Blog Description en-us No Child Should Be Left Behind? http://www.coursepedia.com/index.php/blog/blogdetail/bid/174 21-Apr-2009 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId" /> <meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator" /> <meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator" /> <link href="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" /> <link href="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData" /> <link href="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping" /><style type="text/css"> </style> <p class="MsoNormal">Contrary to popular opinion, some children <u>are</u> being left behind. Tenth graders cannot read nor write at the third grade level and they will be pushed on to the next grade. They have been pushed through all the grades based on their efforts, their behavior or their willingness to try. Parents may say that it is pure laziness that they cannot read but educators should know better.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Staffing is the big issue here. With the constraints of the downturned economic market, schools have had to fire or let go teaching staff to meet the lean budgets they were assessed. The first to go is usually the Educational Assistants who are the ones who work one-to-one with the very vulnerable children with autism, emotional difficulties, cystic fibrosis or other physical maladies.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The next staff members to be let go are the Special Education team members, who would normally work with the learning disabled students. These students need repetitive, easy to read lessons and books, one-to-one attention, lots of praise and positive reinforcement. If the school lets these teachers go, then the learning disadvantaged children, who might otherwise be labeled lazy or worthless, are shuffled back into the regular mainstream classrooms to try and survive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We are therefore not following the program, No Child Left Behind.<span> </span>It has its merits but schools cannot support students on promises and false hopes. The money they are granted recently goes to fund the school as a whole, not just the Special Education Department nor its staff. So once again, the program is not working. Schools were allowed to make up their own levels of success so any child was passing no matter what their reading or writing skill actually was scored by Federal testing. Accordingly, two-thirds of the children live in U.S states with very mediocre standards.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Something is not quite right!</p>