Teachers in California Schools Say No to No Child Left Behind
NCLB Does Not Benefit, say California Schools
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has been mired in controversy ever since it was introduced by president Bush five years ago. Its proponents insist the bill is the only solution to improve the education system in the country. Opponents argue that it’s a one size fits all option that attempts to micromanage schools with out taking into consideration other factors that are a measure of a school’s success.
California school districts have been vociferous in their opposition to NCLB, and now teachers in the state’s schools are demanding that the state’s politicians do their bit to help block NCLB. Authorities in California schools have appealed to Congress to block the reauthorization plans for NCLB that have been brought forward by two of the state’s most prominent politicians -Democratic senator George Miller of Solano, Chairman of the House Labor Relations and Education Committee, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from San Francisco. California schools say Miller and Pelosi’s proposed reauthorization continues to focus on school scores on standardized tests as a measure of the school’s ranking and does not take into consideration other factors like attendance rates in California schools and the difficulty of the curriculum. They also propose that NCLB should take into consideration the numbers of students graduating from California schools, and the numbers of students taking part in honors or advanced placement courses in deciding school rankings.