Improve Schools? Repeal NCLB!!

“Schools, like all organizational systems, are known for their tendencies to resist any change, particularly significant change, in the ways they operate.” (Parsons and Spradlin, 2010)

Unfortunately, the truths behind that statement coupled with the reluctance of teachers and administrators to become advocates for change I imagine our current school system will basically remain the same for the foreseeable future. In terms of change within our schools I’ve really only noticed two from the time I began as a student in the public school system to present day. The first of which is from my own time in elementary, middle, and high school and the once taboo practice of having students actively engaged in class discussion and working together seems to be a thing of the past. Not very long ago the teachers with the quietest rooms were thought to be the best at their profession. The other change I’ve noticed, though they are still far from sufficient, is with the textbooks used in class. I agree with the authors that indeed textbooks have come a long way, but there is also a ways to go in terms of making the texts more relevant to and encompassing of our growing multicultural needs.

What I would like to see occur in our public schools and what will actually happen are regrettably two different things. I would like to see our public school systems in North Carolina refuse to acknowledge the No Child Left Behind laws and forfeit federal funding. Though this would spell disaster for many schools already severely underfunded, the lost money could be pulled together through private and even corporate donations at this point. Many will argue that public schools taking money from corporations, like for example Shell Oil Company, would create problems, because the company would be in a position to indoctrinate students. While there is probably some truth to that, I think it would still better serve our students than the education crippling No Child Left Behind law that has pinned down public schools and educator’s creativity by basically saying to America’s youth, “You do things the federal government way, or we take away all your funding.” In essence our government is telling our students attending already underfunded schools that they better learn, or we’re (the federal government) going to cut off what little funding you have which will leave you in an even worse situation. How does this law benefit anyone? For me it is like cutting off a man’s arm, throwing him in the ocean, and telling him he better kill a hungry great white shark all while not drowning. If the man fails to kill the shark within a certain timeframe his other arm is cut off, thus putting him in an even worse predicament. Is this analogy really so far fetched when you actually breakdown the demands of the No Child Left Behind law? I don’t think so. Rather than helping American public schools, it is destroying student’s confidence with high stakes testing, and causing the nation’s best educators to leave the profession.