NCLB slights the gifted?
Monday, November 26th by carla‘No Child’ Law May Slight The Gifted, Experts Say
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 25, 2007; Page C01
Some scholars are joining parent advocates in questioning whether the education law No Child Left Behind, with its goal of universal academic proficiency, has had the unintended consequence of diverting resources and attention from the gifted.
Proponents of gifted education have forever complained of institutional neglect. Public schools, they say, pitch lessons to the broad middle group of students at the expense of those working beyond their assigned grade. Now, under the federal mandate, schools are trained on an even narrower group: students on the “bubble” between success and failure on statewide tests.
Teachers struggling to meet the law’s annual proficiency goals have little incentive, critics say, to teach students who will meet those goals however they are taught.
“Because it’s all about bringing people up to that minimum level of performance, we’ve ignored those high-ability learners,” said Nancy Green, executive director of the District-based National Association for Gifted Children. “We don’t even have a test that measures their abilities.”
A study published last month by two University of Chicago economists, analyzing fifth-grade test scores in the Chicago public schools before and after enactment of the law in 2002, found that performance rose consistently for all but the most and least advanced students.
“We don’t find any evidence that the gifted kids are harmed,” said Chicago economist Derek A. Neal. “But they are certainly right, the gifted advocates, if they claim there is no evidence that No Child Left Behind is helping the gifted.”
Read the entire article here. What do you think about this?
November 27th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
In my opinion, no one benefits from NCLB. If the “gifted” kids think they’ve got a raw deal, try having a child with special needs, especially if that need is not a mobility-impariment. Our daughter has autism. In Texas, the funds for our kids and the “gifted” all get thrown into one pot. We watch the “gifted” go on exclusive field trips, get the latest equipment, etc., etc., while our special needs kids struggle for the scraps. As I like to say (well, maybe not “like”), NCLB is fine if by “not behind” you mean being dragged down the tracks by a train…
November 28th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I retired from teaching English in CA schools just as all the regs for NCLB were kicking in, and from listening to my friends who are still teaching in CA, as well as to teachers here in TX, the whole thing seems to require too much lock-step teaching, shuts out quite a bit of creativity on teachers’ parts, and testing-testing-testing always comes first. [And I can’t even imagine what kind of support staff (credentialed and clerical) it takes to keep such a testing program within the laws (security, training, proctoring, accountability, shipping, etc.).]
In Virginia, my older grandson was in the gifted program in Loudoun County schools, and he was really benefiting from having both that program and the regular classroom program. He could handle both, even though he spent every Thursday off campus at the gifted program’s venue. In TX, I don’t even see any gifted programs around. There’s Pre-AP, AP, and IB for the middle and high schoolers. There’s nothing special for the elementary school kids.
On the other hand, I know that my grandchildren (in this particular district in TX) are getting a really good education. Their teachers are tough and demanding, for the most part, which I value (even if the kids don’t!), and there are art and music programs at all levels. When I hear the teachers talking among themselves, though — that’s when I realize what an incredible burden all this NCLB stuff is putting on them. Lord help them if they have ESL kids in their classes, too!
November 28th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I should also add that, when my son-in-law had gotten a job in Houston and moving the family was imminent, my daughter researched lots of districts in the Houston area. I had taught her how to read test results as posted online, so she knew the differences among raw numbers, percentages, percentiles, quartiles, etc. They confined their house-hunting to houses for sale in this particular high school’s attendance area. None of their kids was in high school yet, but since that’s the end-mark of public education, that’s the one to shoot for. It worked.
December 27th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
NCLB is leaving children behind by the droves. It is possibly th most regressive of all the ‘reforms’ I have lived through in my 30 years of teaching. It erodes what little self-esteem our most fragile children have. They know their scores, know they are failing and feel they can’t achieve. Any progress they make is belittled by their below basic status. What have we come to?