Why do you just naturally assume republicans ... or more appropriately for the bulk of people writing here - Conservatives - since the majority of Republicans are just as screwed up as the Democrats ... love No Child Left Behind? That's far closer to some utopian Hippie BS liberal program than something a true conservative would endorse. A better question for you ... is why do Liberals fear voucher programs and the natural competition and excellence that would come out of them?

I love how republicans like NCLB so that they can control schools. Funny thing is, it backfires. Top schools cannot improve and thus cannot get more funding some times.

These test are designed to evaluate the administration; not the child, so why does the administration have access to the test to begin with? A third party should be administering these test to begin with.
I realize we should be able to trust these people, but that is not the world we live in. Allowing these people to handle the tests is like giving children a take home final exam.

cornpone, cowboy, randy......

have you seen IVAN? I think he has been abducted.....he posted friday he knew why kennedy was shot and knew names. at least that's what he told butt neckid.....

where is he? well for me I think he went 'round da bend.....

now for the topic. by the time parents actually get involved in the kids education, the little darling has grad-gee-ated and can't read the diploma. home schooling by a group of parents or private schooling could solve that problem.

now that so many people are out of work and prospects are crappy, band together and figure it out folks.....that's your kid and amerikas future. enough of you could meet the requirements to home school those lil' darlin's....think about it!

NCchik:

While I agree with most of what you're saying, I believe the true problem lies in the power of teachers' unions and, subsequently, the (almost) impossibility that a teacher will be fired for poor performance.

I generally respect teachers. However, the teachers that are approaching education today are in many fundamental ways different from those that started teaching a few decades ago. Today's entering educators are, in essence, joining a welfare-like Job Corps of sorts - a Federally funded job program with high job security, relatively low wages and unnaturally low expectations for their employees.

Ultimately, relatively low wages and high job security don't encourage performance nor accountability.

"Now state senators have called for a bill that would make it a crime for educators to change answers on standardized tests." If you have to make a law that changing answers on standardized tests are illegal, aren't you missing the big picture? How about hiring staff that already believe that it is wrong to change grades? How about hiring staff that have a little, just a little character and are in the education field because they are educators? If you ask me they should fire the whole school staff. Don't tell me every single staff member did not know what was going on? And we believe the answer is to pay the teachers more $$$. I pulled my son out of public school when it became apparent that he was learning nothing and was being passed through the system. When I complained, the teacher asked "Do you want me to just give him an 'A'? Is that it, do you want me to give him an 'A'?" Of course, what I wanted was for her to hold him accountable and raise her/his expectations of what was expected. This did not end well as the school system's attorney finally had to get involved (at my insistance). This schools was nothing more than a state-run baby-sitter or holding house. No way the admin staff could help. They had the cops there every day. Here is a 24 year old teacher working (or should I say not working) 9 mos out of the year (6-7 hours a day) for $45,000. The school system is totally ruined and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Character education and high standards start in kidergarten. Segregate schools into "those that want to learn/those that want to teach" and "losers".

Since the lowest possible grade is a 50, that should be the same for the school system as well. They should get as many attempts as they desire as well. According to the logic, it will just discourage them to fail and cause serious damage to their self esteem.

What a load of hogwash all of this is.

This is just another case for homeschooling. But then again, it takes more work for a parent to homeschool their kid than to just dump them off at the goverment indoctrination center.

Sadly, There are some public schools that will never achieve a passing grade with the No Child Left Behind law. There are no options to a voucher plan if the children served by these failing schools are to gain an education. Failing public schools are in the state they are in because the "teachers" are inept. Period.

I wonder if those kids whose test scores were altered to pass have to retake the test.

This news should be shocking, but it's not to most citizens that have been paying attention.

About two years ago, during my last years of college, I was working as a substitute for one of Gwinnett County's lowest performing schools. I was considering studying to become an educator. However, after hearing what were, to my ears, "horror stories" of how various teachers were coerced into assigning passing grades to failing students, I decided to turn my college pursuits in another direction.

During the fall semester of one year I was asked to take over a class as a long-term substitute. I found the students generally undisciplined and uninterested in the subject matter. This attitude towards their studies showed in their grades and I decided not to reward sloth by passing those who failed to make a passing grade. I turned my grades in just before the start of the "Winter" break. To my surprise, upon returning to the school the next semester, I found that all students had passed the course - even those that had most decidedly failed!

Call it pressure from No Child Left Behind, call it pressure from immediate supervisors to avoid the Federal seizure of locally run schools, but however the blame is adjusted, it is the ultimate responsibility of teachers to speak out when this sort of dishonesty has occurred. Only when our education lawmakers see the widespread failing of schools straining under the weight of impossible federal policy will they "go back to the drawing board" and revise their inordinately unrealistic goals.

(Unless it the goal of the Federal Government's to slowly seize control of every state-run school, then we are solely par for the course.)

This news should be shocking, but it's not to most citizens that have been paying attention.

About two years ago, during my last years of college, I was working as a substitute for one of Gwinnett County's lowest performing schools. I was considering studying to become an educator. However, after hearing what were, to my ears, "horror stories" of how various teachers were coerced into assigning failing students passing grades, I decided to turn my college pursuits in another direction.

During the fall semester of one year I was asked to take over a class as a long-term substitute. I found the students generally undisciplined and uninterested in the subject matter. This attitude towards their studies showed in their grades and I decided not to reward sloth and inaction by passing those who failed to make a passing grade. I turned my grades in just before the start of the "Winter" break. To my surprise, upon returning to the school the next semester, I found that all students had passed the course - even those that had most decidedly failed!

Call it pressure from No Child Left Behind, call it pressure from immediate supervisors to avoid the Federal seizure of locally-run schools, but however the blame is adjusted, it is the ultimate responsibility of teachers to speak out when this sort of dishonesty has occurred. Only when our education lawmakers see the widespread failing of schools straining under the weight of impossible federal policy will they "go back to the drawing board" and revise their inordinately unrealistic goals.

(Unless it the goal of the Federal Government's to slowly seize control of every state-run school, if so, then we are solely par for the course.)

How is it that the peeps are already arrested if there is not already a law against what they did?!

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