    
fringe
Citizen
Username: Fringe
Post Number: 283
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 8:36 am: |     |
The editorial below appeared in the New York Times on 27 January 2004. The opinion illustrates the the concern of the National Teachers Association (NEA) which in an internal memo stated the following about the NCLB legislation that the teachers' union (not necessarily its members) vigorously opposes: “Once our opponents have an opportunity to provide voters with their descriptions of the content of the law, swaying them becomes increasingly difficult.”
Leaving Some Children Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act is potentially the most important school initiative to come along since the country embraced compulsory education in the early 20th century. But the goal of providing all children with qualified teachers and high-quality schooling may slip away unless Congress provides the money needed to do the job and holds the line against groups that are working to undermine the law.
Those interest groups are especially peeved by a provision that requires the states to raise achievement levels for all categories of students, including children with disabilities, who have usually been shunted into separate classes and excluded from state achievement tests. A hard-core faction of school administrators and legislators argues that the six million children who receive special education services under federal law will never catch up and should be exempted from higher standards.
Congress has thus far rejected this argument and must continue to do so. The percentage of children with cognitive disorders, like retardation, that make it impossible for them to learn is relatively small. No Child Left Behind has already established flexible procedures for states that wish to exempt these children from the requirements of the law.
But many of the children who have been dumped into special education classes are not disabled. They are teachable children who have fallen behind or who present disciplinary problems. Among those with disabilities, perhaps as many as 70 percent are teachable children who suffer from learning or language-related disorders.
These children tend to flower when provided with teachers who know how to teach them — but such teachers are rare in public schools. According to federal estimates, only about a quarter of all teachers know how to teach reading to the 4 in 10 children who do not catch on automatically. Critics of No Child Left Behind want to abandon disabled children by counting them out of the push for higher standards. The better solution is for well-trained teachers to help them succeed.
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