No Child Left Behind

In theory, "No Child Left Behind", or NCLB is a positive move toward equally educating all children. The government has decided what components are necessary in order to provide the education that every child deserves. I think I get the concept, but worry about the test scores and documentation that each district must reach in order to receive funding.

Although I'm not actually in a classroom, there are a certain factors contributing to our district's management of NCLB for which I am involved. In my opinion, the most frustrating area is in special education. APA is restricted to the most disabled student (1% of special education population) who is never in the general education setting. So therefore, most special education students who attend their home district school are therefore required to take the NJASK or HSPA.

Years ago (prior to this NCLB Act in 2002) students were not required to take certain state assessments based on their IEPs were written after certain consideration was given to their program. Although I believe that this system was misused, and many students were allowed to be excused without an alternate assessment, the expectation of a certain percentage of students to perform at a certain level is hard to grasp... especially when their classes are not only formatted around NJCCCS, but also individualized goals and objectives meant to remediate specific weaknesses (not necessarily @ grade level).