Poll: Are you HAPPY with your public school?

I agree with Marvilene. While many of us bemoan the NCLB testing it was necessary to ensure or at the very least attempt education equity. At our school in Oakland CA, Caucasian and Asian children scored 200 or more points higher on standardized tests that African American and Latino students.

At the time we even had a principal who stated and believed that there were biological differences to account for the differences. When our school was held accountable for the learning and scores for all children, we implemented several new programs and the "gap" narrowed within 2 years to just over 50 points. Without NCLB we would have continued our pattern of teaching and the gap would have remained the same or grown as it had done the two consecutive years before implementing the changes.

What I am frustrated with in NCLB is that some schools, the first year of the changes our school was one, who will not teach beyond the standards to the gifted and talented students, thereby creating a "false closure of the gap." We corrected that problem last year and were still able to maintain our reduction of gap learning.

Until all students are taught to the highest level they are capable of learning - and that may mean that they are able to be taught 3 or 4 grade levels above their age, we will not have education equity.

My belief is that every child deserves to learn something new every day.

Dear Simone and a Mom of 2 boys,

Please understand I'm a democrat but a big supporter of President Bush's No Child Left Behind. Contrary to the media the work he supported is exemplary in nature. That some states and publishing companies grumbled was expected given the tendency in education to let anyone teach anything anyway.

But over 40 years of scientific research has shown children need to be taught skills and concepts systematically from simple to complex. For example phonics is necessary, but to learn phonics children must be able to hear the individual sounds in words (phoneme awareness), learn to identify and write upper and lower case letters, and match letters with the sounds. The educators and publishers who fought NCLB do not believe phonics is necessary (Or they believe in fuzzy phonics.)

That's why they say no child learns the same way. Well, the facts are they do need to learn the same skills and content. Some children simply require more practice time than other children. It has been shown, given the right instruction, 95% of all first graders should be reading on grade level at the end of the school year. That’s the basic reason for NCLB. At the time of its inception no schools were even close.

NCLB was about making schools accountable for all children no matter their social status, racial background, learning difficulties, or primary language. It was about using programs that work, using assessment to determine students' strengths and weaknesses, helping teachers become more effective, holding administrators accountable, and encouraging administrators to be supportive of teacher and student needs.

If you'd like to learn more about what schools need to do to become exemplary, visit the following web sites:

www.calread.net/assurances/index.html
www.cde.ca.gov/CI/cr/cf/documents/rlafw.pdf

As a mother of a 6 year old boy that attends a public school in the bronx. I am disgusted by all the violence, bullies and harrassments in public schools. I do plan on pulling my child hopefully by next year. My husband and i are not happy, and neither is my son.

No I am not happy, I am angry, sad, let down, and frustrated, dont move to Savannah Georgia, unless you can afford private school, or live in a great school district, my son will be starting high school tomarrow, and it is a well known failing school, they changed the name, and tried to "pretty it up" but, its the same school, they havent met average yearly progress in years, it is a shame and a disgrace, that we as American citizens dont have school choice in public schools, Im going to try and make the best of a bad situation, but I am seriously considering home schooling if this year does not go well. then when my youngest reaches high school age, we will have moved out of the city.