I am a parent of three children who have or do go to public schools in the county in which we live. I homeschooled all of them for several years, also, each for a differing amount of time. And I am now a substitute teacher and have taught at all three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. My children are currently labeled as gifted, but it is not only their welfare that concerns me. It is my belief that the No Child Left Behind rules are causing more suffering than help.
In class the other day, I was talking with a collaborative special education teacher of 25 years, who was telling me her experience firsthand at how the system is underserving children at all levels. Under the "old" system, children with special needs on the lower end were grouped into their own classes, which allowed for teachers to get to know the students on a more personal basis and thus cater more effectively to their needs. Usually, classes were smaller, which is a huge factor in a teacher's ability to communicate more to each student.
Now, with children of all levels lumped together, the teachers must go more slowly and work harder to accomodate the learning of the slower children, while also maintianing a challenging pace to accomodate smarter students. For all of its theoretical goodness, this approach usually does not work, and in my mind is not effective for either slower or faster students. It causes the smarter kids to get bored at the pace, and does not give them enough challenge to accomodate their higher abilities to process information. It quells their curiosity and causes behavior problems. At the same time, the slower kids are struggling to keep up at the "moderate pace" and are being lost in the process. Even collaborative teaching doesn't help. It is inefficient.
What the slower kids need is a teacher who knows them and has the time to spend individually to help them work up to a higher potential, instead of just squeaking by. The smarter kids need not to be hampered by slow, thin, repetitive lessons that leave them just as behind for their ability levles as the slower kids are for theirs. Regular classroom teachers need not to be dealing with a classroom of mixed abilities: gifted, slow, behavior disorder, etc. But instead, teachers need to specialize in these skills and build their classes around their teaching strengths. Students of like abilities will learn better in a classroom organized around their levels, drawing from the natural support and competition of others like them.
It is my belief that NCLB is actually doing the opposite of what was intended, and that it is imperative that we quickly assess and re-organize our current methods, or all our children will suffer. In fact, they already are.
April Keating
115 Shawnee Dr.
Buckhannon, WV 26201
