After a number of years of being put on the back burner, students at California schools will now have arts education included in their curriculum. Drama, music, and visual arts were once dismissed as being mere fluff, but now they are considered a tool to helping improve overall student performance.
Students at California Schools Need to Have a Well-Rounded Education
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.
The standards of California schools, once regarded as some of the best in the country have begun to slip in nationwide rankings, not just in comparison to past levels but also in comparison to other states in the country. To understand the reason for this decline in California schools, it’s necessary to cast an eye on what makes the golden state the richly diverse melting pot it is – it’s legions of immigrant populations.
California School Districts have a racially and ethnically diverse population; more so than in any other state and the numbers of immigrants keeps growing. This diversity is reflected in California schools. Many of the California schools have large student populations that originate from linguistic minorities, or from families that are still in the process of learning English. This fact has led to California schools being high on the national list of schools with limited fluency in the English language. Add cultural and social differences to the linguistic problem, and it isn’t surprising to find that California schools are beginning to slide down the scale.