During Barack Obama's presidential election back in 2007, he addressed the issues of Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and pointed out its flaws. NCLB has gained constant criticism and also contributes to the many errors of the Bush administration era, as Obama states, "The goals sound good on paper, but the problem with NCLB is that George Bush left the money behind." he continues to criticize the act stating that it forces teachers to do everything without any sufficient resources, NCLB also labels kids as failures and then pawns them off to another school, and Obama addresses standardized testing as the wrong assessment to be made, rather we should be "teaching the whole child" to include physical education, the arts, and sciences in a child's education. Obama says that it is time to fix the failures of No Child Left Behind and he hopes to do so in the next four years as President.
Now that President Obama has been elected, what do you think about his policies to increase federal funding for resources in the classroom (like SmartBoards and ELMOs)? What are possible successes and failures of this approach to reform the education system in America?
President Obama in a speech a few days ago mentioned how he would instill merit pay, where good teachers can receive more money for their high performance. I believe that this a great concept, but I think it would be very hard to fairly install in education. I do believe that teachers who constantly produce results should receive more pay, but how do we judge who is a good teacher? If we judge by test scores, how do we know the teachers aren't playing the system and teaching strictly towards the test. I heard a peer of mine mention how her high school teacher encouraged her students to not try as hard on the first test but give their best on the second test. This was obviously done to boost improvement scores. I hope this new idea works, and i agree with the purpose, but I think it's going to bring a lot of controversy.
ReplyDeleteI believe increasing federal funding is a good idea. I think it can help pay for the resources that the students need. I feel what's more important is raising the salary for teachers. They also need to stop handing out pink slips to teachers and hire more so we can have fewer students in a classroom. I think the smartboards are nice but I feel the money needs to go to other places in the school and teachers before we buy fancy machines. It would be better to have smaller classrooms than have a smartboard in every classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think that federal funding is good but, like katie, I also think that before spending money on machines I think that the educational system needs to be remodalized. I think that before spending thousands of dollars for a machine that will help students see "better" we should worry about fixing up schools, decreasing classroom size, reinstating the arts and physical education and providing students with a "whole" education. In addition, I think that we need to first focus on the schools who are in terrfying conditions and whose students are not able to attain the education students in wallstreet are able to get. In addition, I think that money should go towards training programs for teachers who are already in the field so that they too are able to keep up with the changes that have, and continue to occur, within the school system! I hope that with president Obama this nation can come into its senses and realize the importance of providing students with a well rounded educaction!!!
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