Welcome to www.NCLBgrassroots.org , a website to monitor how communities across the nation are meeting the challenges of the No Child Left Behind Act, our country's far-reaching federal law on K-12 education.

On January 8, 2002 , President George Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, expanding the federal government's role in education with mandates that every public school be assessed by uniform testing standards. While the law's goals of improved student achievement and school accountability have been embraced by many, there is growing concern that NCLB's implementation and its emphasis on labeling schools as failures undermine children's learning and weaken local control of schools.

Our goal at www.NCLBgrassroots.org is to capture the sentiments of the growing concern by tracking news articles from every state on how their communities are faring under the No Child Left Behind Act. We will also highlight articles on some of the law's key controversial issues, including the Federal role in Education Policy, the Narrowing of Curriculum, Teacher Flexibility, Class Size, Funding Burden, and Standardized Tests.

No Child Left Behind ignores needs of special ed students
Richard Denesha, Buffalo News, 9/17/2004

LINK

Many parents were distressed to learn from The News that a significant number of our local schools "did not make the grade" under the No Child Left Behind Act. The News reported that the source of the failing grades was a cluster of special education or economically disadvantaged children who failed to meet the performance standard set by the NCLB Act.
Unlike the Americans with Disabilities Education and Individuals with Disabilities Education Acts that were passed to enhance the educational opportunities for our least advantaged children, the NCLB Act is an inadequately funded piece of legislation that sets arbitrary standards that do not address the education needs of special ed students.

Furthermore, it cynically focuses attention on these students as the cause of a school district's failing grade, while failing to give proper recognition to all the wonderful initiatives our local school districts have done to meet the unique education needs of special education and other disadvantaged students.

Richard Denesha
Amherst

Why does the article state that NCLB makes special education students culprits in the warning 'failing schools'? Aren't the 'many parents distressed to learn' in the above article, white, middle-class people who do not want their schools "hurt" from helping out special ed kids, and holding the SCHOOL accountable for not listing the kids on the school roster, not giving them their mandated services, etc?
parentadvocates.org

More Wisconsin students to receive standardized testing
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 6, 2004
Associated Press

The number of Wisconsin students taking statewide standardized tests will grow by about 80 percent next year, as the state tries to meet the requirements by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The law requires the state to have a system in the 2005-'06 school year to test every student in third through eighth grades and in 10th grade in reading and math.

The change will increase the number of students taking statewide standardized tests each year from 250,000 to 450,000.

Under the current system, Wisconsin third-graders are tested in reading, and fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders are tested in reading, math, language arts, social studies and science.

But under the new plan, fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders will continue to be tested in those five subjects, with the other grades doing the reading and math tests required by federal law.

It's a change that Department of Public Instruction leaders are implementing only under pressure from the federal law.

"We're now in the brave new world of No Child Left Behind and multiple tests at every grade level," said Tony Evers, deputy state superintendent of schools. "In order to figure out if we're leaving kids behind, that means we test them till the cows come home."

The state's largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, doesn't like the new system, either.

"This is one of those federal mandates, the 'one size fits all' approach to education," said Stan Johnson, state president.

But President Bush cites No Child Left Behind as one of the main achievements of his administration. He suggested in his speech at the Republic National Convention last week that if re-elected, he likely would propose federally required high school graduation tests.

A a parent-led movement in Wisconsin several years ago had stopped a statewide high school graduation test from being launched, after it was put into law with strong support from former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.

Wisconsin has not had trouble meeting the goals for student performance set by the law. But schools are under increasing pressure as the required levels of statewide performance keep going up.

Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com

Aren't standardized testing good for baseline data and policy planning? Aren't portfolios and other forms of data collection too subjective to be useful in determining national or local educational needs? parentadvocates.org