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By Hannah Tomlin In Illinois last year, 896 public schools failed to meet the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. This Act was passed in January of 2002 as a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was initially passed in 1965. This is the first incidence in which the number of failing schools increased since the Act was instituted. There have been provisions made to the Act which allow states to tweak the math and reading exams as well lessen the strictness of the standards for passing. Without this condition, many more schools would have failed. Under No Child Left Behind, states are required to test students in math and in reading every year from when they are in third grade until eighth grade, and once in high school. No Child Left Behind requires the state to raise the standards that need to be met in order to be considered a passing school. It will increase by 7.5 percent each year. Gary M. Klass, politics and government professor, said the most ridiculous part of the Act is, “By 2014, every student has to pass.” Klass said the law will change before we get there. Schools have had the most trouble with preparing their special education students for these exams. Two-hundred ninety-seven of the failing schools did not meet the mark due to the difficulties faced by special education students. “For a school’s special education population to be considered, the school needs to have at least 50 special education students,” Klass said. However, unless severely disabled, they are required by law to take the math and reading exam set for their grade level; 13 percent of all school children are disabled. Children who do not speak English as a first language are required to take the same exam as well. Chris King, learning disabilities resource teacher at Normal Community West High School said that they have been experiencing difficulties with meeting the standards set by No Child Left Behind. When asked if they have set up any special tutoring programs for students who are struggling to pass the exams, King said, “Yes. There are all kinds of measures in place for special education students.” King said they are constantly reinforcing study skills, organization, test preparation skills and time management. Three of the measures King explained that they have set up specifically to assist special education students are the Boys Town Model to increase reading comprehension, a stronger emphasis on the writing process in English/Composition and American Literature classes (specifically tailored to the writing portion of the ACT), and they have integrated vocabulary development lessons into World History and other various classes in which there is a lot of reading and writing. “We are not teaching to the test, we are just naturally putting things into the curriculum that should be taught,” King said. King also noted that all departments at Normal Community West High School have been trying to address the Illinois learning standards. Klass mentioned that people commonly hold the misconception that schools which are labeled “failing” by the No Child Left Behind will lose federal funding. He pointed out that actually, “They are eligible for more federal aid, at least the students are.” “When they fail the first year, students can switch to better schools. The school might lose money because they lose students,” Klass said. However, Klass said this can sometimes be difficult for students to accomplish because the poorer schools tend to be next to each other, farther away from the better schools. He said another reason for less students transferring to other schools is because very often school districts will say there is not enough room. “They do everything they can to make it difficult to transfer,” said Klass. Students are offered to switch to any other public school they would like, but according to Klass the other school districts often do not tell the parents when their students have an opportunity to transfer. “If they stay where they are, they’re eligible for after school tutoring,” said Klass. “What they should do, especially for the special education kids, they should look at the fifth graders and see how much their scores improve in sixth grade. They don’t measure the progress of the individual student. If he improved one grade level, then that’s seen as improvement even if it’s below the grade,” Klass said. Klass believes the No Child Left Behind Act is more successful than people think it is. “You know where the schools are that kids aren’t learning anything. That’s the critical first step in bettering the school system,” said Klass. |
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