Sunday, July 13, 2008
NCLB and Urban Schools
Are children in Urban Schools being left behind? Year after year, the question remains the same. We may not find out if NCLB's affect on urban school are benefiting children until it's too late. The government has put in place many laws, mandates, and acts that are suppose to improve teaching and learning. However, standardized test scores suggests that much more improvement is needed, particularly in urban schools. Where do we go to from here? Should parents be included in these accountabilities place upon educators?
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5 comments:
Teachers in urban schools encounter many challenges that others do not. The curriculum is very demanding and having students one grade level or more behind, especially in Reading, does not help make things easier. The question at hand is, "Does students in Urban schools get left behind?" My answer to this question is "no" and "yes".
"No"
I have to say no because many teachers in the Urban schools work very hard to meet the needs of these students and challenge them to excel academically. Accountability is a big factor to track student progress. As a teacher in an Urban school, I know first hand the work that goes into research to find the latest and best strategies to help students. The challenge is great to reach parents so that reinforcement can be done at home.
"Yes"
Children in Urban Schools are left behind for various reasons.
1. Lack of interest to learn
2. No Parental Support
3. An Uncaring teacher
4. Accountability not enforced
5. A Teacher who is not
willingto go the extra mile
When considering if No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is working it would depend of who one asks. Looking at the US Department of Education’s web site (www.ed.gov) it would seem that NCLB was the greatest thing since in invention of the ditto machine! If you speak to others whose job is tied to it often have very positive responses to it as well. Some parents like to read the easy to understand school report cards and a number of students enjoy leaving poorly performing schools for other options.
Clearly not a scientific survey but I have discussed NCLB with a number of educators and they are universally opposed to it. Many champion the notion of one-size-fits-all test does not work for many of our students resulting in frustration and higher dropout rates.
Many in my region have complained about the unfairness of making decisions about individuals or schools based just on test scores. Some school districts that reach twice the state indicators can have the same grade as schools that are clearly not as strong. This inadequacy leads to the good schools feeling as if they are underachieving when in fact the system is flawed. I have seen more than a few students not graduate do to falling one point short on a standard test. Another concern is the danger of teachers simply teaching to the test. Although President Bush claims to support and fund NCLB is clearly under funded.
To be in the field of education does require a special group of people. To be in the field of education working in urban school settings require special people who are unique. Deifinitely students in urban settings offer challenges unlike students in other settings. Urban students often are faced with issues that many of adults never have faced or perhaps faced later in life. But yet, when it boils down to it, they are students just like those in any other school: they are capable of learning. Surely, it may take some creativity to tap into those channels which best support their learning styles,,,sometimes it takes going in a completely new direction to reach these students, but yet, they are capable of learning. With NCLB, there are some challenges that need to be accomplished. Teachers can only do so much so therefore parental involvement would be beneficial. But in many cases, parental involvement is minimal as some paretns have to take on two or three jobs to try to make ends meet. In some families, sports override academics. Thus, if you excel at a sport, that can be your ticket to success. So despite teachers doing all they can within their ability to reach these kids, yes some parental invovlement would help make the road a little easier to travel.
This spring I met fourteen female principals from inner city Chicago schools. Let's just say these women have experienced some very interesting things. During the 2007-08 school year twenty students had been shoot and killed.
Student achievement and parental involvement was of major concern. How as NCLB affected them? In many ways there have been many advantages to the emphasis on student achievement. Teachers are now required to teach. Only highly qualified teachers can be employed in low performing schools.Those type things have been helpful to low performing schools. Each of these principals would agree that their mission is to make sure all students succeed. Having 95% of your population on free and reduce lunch and asking them is urban schools are being left behind the question would be answered with mixed emotion.
The typical issues that most schools face urban schools face in triplet. Now that the spot light has been shined on schools with NCLB people are more aware of the issues facing urban schools.
Jacquetta,
I teach in an urban school system. We failed to make AYP this year for the first time in 4 years. I think that parents are direclty accountable for the students learning, as much as the teachers. Parental involvement is a key component of a child's success in school and sadly in urban schools parental involvement is non-existant. Too many student's have only a single parent at home or no parent and often that parent is too overwhelmed with making a living to be involved in school. Also, attitudes about education and the value of education are different in the urban school setting. Too many students and parents have the idea that education will not profit them so they see no value in getting an education. Very sad, and a difficult attitude to overcome.
Just my thoughts.
Tim
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