Can anyone explain how "No Child Left Behind" works?

A few college students studying to be educators and a few teachers I know have told me that 鈥淣o Child Left Behind鈥?means that all tested students must study answers (not actually learn material about each subject) to make sure that school has a high percentage students that pass. Children deemed unlikely to pass these tests are removed from class testing and labeled as not able to graduate.

Schools that do not meet this requirement have three chances then they will loose federal funding and need to be bought by a private industry.

A few questions:

1) Isn鈥檛 this backwards? If an area has difficulty retaining good teachers and students struggle, don鈥檛 they need our support more than those that have high functioning students?
2) Isn鈥檛 this the equivalent to taking tax funds away from those who need it so that tax money can be given to wealthy school systems for the elite so wealthy people need not pay for elite education because the average tax payer will support this for them? (Like robbing the poor to give to the rich?)
3) Isn鈥檛 education supposed to be free and offered to all?
4) Isn鈥檛 this how our healthcare crisis began? Some bright progressive senators changed the law so that not-for-profit hospitals could be bought and become for profit with the agreement that they would have to make a profit or not be paid, and no federal tax dollars would go to these hospitals; then the next generation of politicians wanted more votes and promised to allow tax dollars be given to 鈥榝or-profit hospitals in need鈥?if elected. All hospitals easily became 鈥榠n-need鈥?simply be paying the (often non-medical) top level executives million dollar salaries with large tax free bonus鈥?and incredibly greedy benefits- short staff nurses and they look like they are in a crisis. SO now a politician will use this format in the future using our children as the hostages for more taxes?


If I am looking at this incorrectly, please clarify how 鈥淣o Child Left Behind鈥?works- I hope I am wrong, this would take a load off my mind!

I am a parent of 4 boys who go to NCLB Title 1 schools.A nclb school is a school that has 40% of the students receiving free lunch.Nclb Title 1 money is used to hire additonal qualified teachers,desk,books,school/parent representatives,security personal.If a school has been failing( not academic warning) for more than 4 years the department of education will close the school.A child will have the opprotunity to transfer to another school that is meeting the state guidlines in reading and math but only if there is a space available and if excepted the school may or may not provide transportation.The school will no longer except in coming students and will be phased out gradually.As far as the testing goes it depends on the school.There are some schools out there that actually tell kids to not come the school to take the test.My sons has a practice book that they are tested on 3 times a year.What they are being tested on is the curriculum they are already learning.Most kids who fail in reading and math will be held back in the 3rd,6th and 8th and this has been the school policy even when I went to school.Our schools in chicago that receive federal nclb funding MUST have a parent advisory board and the board recieves 1 to 5% of this money to train parents through ESL,workshops,conferences to educate themselves to help their children suceed in school.This board along with the local school council(in every school) decide how the school budget will be spent and will participate in the school improvement plan.We have 100 nclb schools that are audited at random every year to see if that federal money is being spent properly.If it isn't they will get their money back from the next years budget.Also included with title 1 money could be title 2(reduction of class size) title 3 bilingual,4 D.A.R.E and title 5 is called back door money because no one is exaclty sure where it goes and this money could be spent on anything.Schools will retain good teachers by helping them relate to the students and the neighboorhood they live in.In our schools the PAC and Local school council are involved in the hiring and firing of the teachers.

I too am not sure how it works I do know the more kids who fail the less money school districts get.

So if your child cant do the 3rd grade work and is struggling they do not want you to hold them back. They would rather have them struggle even harder the next year, get frustrated and hate school.

No I am sure they really dont want that but the whole thing is stupid.

Personally, I think it is stupid. Every child takes a state test. I think they start in 3rd grade and take them through 8th grade. At some schools these state testings are all the teachers focus on all year long.

First of all, i didn't read the whole details thing in your answers.

no child left behind stops students from progressing faster than other students so the other kids who don't learn fast won't get left behind. High and low scoring students could be sent to the same school either good or bad schools.

it also makes students use certain textbooks and go at a specifis pace

im not sure, but like every student has to go to school and pass? all i know is that many teachers HATE it

It means they want every child to be caught up with the other children. That includes kids with handicaps, and kids who don't speak the same language as we do. I remember it got my parents ticked off. So basicly they want children to be cught up.

It is called accountability. In an environment with tenure and a history of failing students something needed to change. You asked about giving money to the school that needs it most. We have been doing it for years and it has not worked. The inner city schools have gotten a large some of local, state, and federal money for 35 years with little or no improvement. So when a group of people ask that the schools who fail will not be getting a free ride anymore the people liked the idea.

The students then get a voucher for the cost of the privet school. It is not like they are getting left out in the cold they have a better chance with a school that has graded higher.

I like the idea as usual but I do not like what I am hearing from the teachers. I see that the teachers are not happy about it. Yet I am not happy with the biggest corrupt union in our country.