Every Child Left Behind

Oh sorry, the title should read No Child Left Behind. Basically, this punishes the schools if test scores aren't acceptable. Your thoughts?

[Midtowner]

The interests of the schools should be subordinate to the kids from those schools.

I see no problem with this.

[bandnerd]

I just wish there were another way to get a deeper understanding of what's going on in our schools than testing. I don't think it gives a totally accurate picture of all the good things that go on inside a lot of schools.

But how do they "punish" a school? You can't cut the funding, obviously, because that will hurt them more. Give them more money? Where's it going to come from? Oh, the schools that did well will just have to give up some money. Let's just punish them instead. That won't work, either. Do you get rid of teachers? Oh yeah, we have a shortage in our state.

I just don't see how anyone wins from this system. We have been testing kids for ages...I remember going through all the yearly testing when I was a child all the way through high school. Another big problem with NCLB is a lot of teachers get scared and start "teaching to the test" which helps no one and makes the rest of us look bad.

I'll just keep teaching my electives and do the things I do and hope for the best. I can only teach my kids good study/test skills and hope they remember enough to pass the constant barrage of tests they get from birth to graduation.