Each state has federal laws in place to regulate tests, curriculum, how much funding each school receives, to scholarship, and grants. What is wrong with this is that there is a conflict between federal, state , and school boards about what agendas are important; a student can be a C average in one state or school and move to another where they are on the honor role, I know of this first hand. Another problem is that federal and state government prevents poorer schools from receiving the funding they need to help their students improve academically. Because of the lack of funding for much needed improvements and resources, the poorer schools also have the worst performance ratings. Creating this bigger gap in funding only hinders a school from achieving academic excellence and eventually causes teachers to lose jobs and schools to shut down.
Teachers and administrators recognize, of course, that children bring a plethora of issues with them to the classroom these days...drugs, gangs, violence, family dissolution and stress, financial hardship, and social discrepancy. There are other factors which place children at-risk as well. The number of minority and limited-English-proficiency children in schools is on the rise. We have to do all we can to help these new students, but some teachers feel very ill-prepared to do that. Schools get labeled as failing when they can get all students to the level that the state says they need to be.
Over 60% of students had cheated in the past month, which is fairly recent, and a staggering 83% had cheated in the past quarter. This showed us that cheating is an on going problem that almost certainly happens daily in Perry Hall High. To sum up our survey we asked students to tell us how big of a problem they though cheating was in our school on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the most serious. 41% responded a 3 with the rest of the figure split evenly between 1,2,4, and 5. We concluded from this that students don’t really care about the subject or are indifferent about it.
An eighteen page checklist is not the answer. Most examples of “standing up” is not institutionally okay anymore. Post Columbine High, schools seem to be terrified of any specter of violence. If a student beats up his tormentors, or even if he loses, he or she is automatically suspended or expelled from school under the zero tolerance policies. If he or she hurts the bully badly enough, he or she can be tried in a juvenile court.
Education in America has always been a touchy political subject. The most recent major federal law is called the No Child Left Behind Act, which was enacted in 2001. This law, most commonly referred to as NCLB, enacts theories of standards-based education, formerly known as outcome-based education. This type of educational reform is based on the belief that high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all students. NCLB is comprised of a few federal programs that focus on improving the performance of the United States’ primary and secondary schools by increasing the accountability for states, school districts and schools.
“Millions of American children struggle in school daily because of serious learning problems” (PBS.ORG, 2002). It is unfortunate that millions of American children are faced with serious learning problems because of a physical disability, mental disability, or a learning disability. Schools are very preoccupied with their yearly State of California Testing and they fail to meet the needs of those children that struggle with simple daily school work. It is said that out of 150 children 1 in born with Autism. That means that out of a school of a thousand students, around 10 or nine students are on the Autism Spectrum Disorder; but that doesn’t include those other children with other different disabilities.
This can have a negative effect on the children and cause them to ‘hate’ school and as soon as they are able to they will ‘drop out’. According to Deborah White who wrote the guide in about.com, she stated, “These supporters also believes that NCLB initiative will further democratize U.S. education, by setting standards and providing resources to schools, regardless of wealth, ethnicity, disabilities or language spoken” (2011). Since the NCLB’s 2002 inception, the act hasn’t been effective in improving education in public education; this is evident in the high schools mixed results in the standardized tests. In January 2007, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings published "Building on Results: A Blue print for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act," in which the Bush Administration: • Asserts that the Act "is challenging our students to succeed and our schools to improve." • Claims that "90% of teachers have met NCLB's highly qualified teacher requirements... At-risk students are getting help earlier... children with disabilities are receiving more classroom time and attention...
Students have to take standardized tests, in which all the students have to meet a certain standard. What makes No Child Left Behind complicated are schools not being able to meet the needs of the Adequate Yearly Progress year after year, which forces schools to go on school improvement. For every year that a school is on school improvement, there are a lot of criteria that must be met. One reason that schools fail to succeed to meet the needs of Adequate Yearly Progress are the subpopulations: minority children, children with disabilities, children with limited English proficiency, and children from low-income families. Although they are taught to the test, these students have no special modifications while taking the test, which causes numbers to drop on the Adequate Yearly Progress report.
High school students nationwide are expected to take the widely despised SAT. The SAT is supposed to show the value of a student’s knowledge, but they fail miserably. A solid GPA says a lot more than one test. Something should be done. The SAT has caused much stress through the years, and for a useless purpose.
To find the answer and to fix the problem, one must look at all of the elements: the students themselves, their parents, their teachers, the school curriculum, the textbooks, and the community. Many students simply do not study enough. (Two-thirds of high school seniors do an hour or less of homework per night.) American teenagers are often distracted by part-time jobs, sports and other school activities, TV, and socializing. Some do not keep up with their schoolwork because of emotional problems, use of illegal drugs, or simply lack of motivation.