NCLB on www.ed.gov

After reviewing the www.ed.gov website, I found a lot of information pertaining to education. I paid particular attention to the NCLB articles, and the reauthorization of the act in an April 2007 newsletter. The reauthorization proposal is called Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act. In order to come up with this proposal the government worked closely with the school officers, parents, teachers, and policymakers across the country. They want the new plans to provide additional tools for teachers to use so that the reading and math scores of students go up by the year 2014. The Building on Results Policy has a few new priorities that are supposed to help the NCLB act. The policies are as follows: 1. Strengthen efforts to close the achievement gap through high standards, accountability, and more information for parents; 2. Give States flexibility to better measure individual student progress, target resources to students most in need, and improve assessments for students with disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP); 3. Prepare high school students for success by promoting rigorous and advanced coursework and providing new resources for schools serving low-income students; 4. Provide greater resources for teachers to further close the achievement gap through improved math and science instruction, intensive aid for struggling students, continuation of Reading First, and rewards for teachers in high-need schools; 5. Offer additional tools to help local educators turn around chronically under-performing schools and empower parents with information and options.
I personally still think that they are focusing too much on math and reading skills rather than other aspects. Many students do not do so well in math or reading but they may be brilliant in science or computer science. There are many other ways in which students can prove to be “proficient”. The fact that they are still using proficiency tests doesn’t show me that there are going to be great changes.