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I agree with all of those that posted before me. NCLB has been extremely harmful to our students with special needs. Many students are persuaded to drop out of high school and to continue their education in 'night school' and get the GED. Again, I don't have the link for that as I have read so many articles. I do know for a fact it is happening where I teach.

I do want to mention the students that are advanced or gifted. NCLB has affected them in a detrimental way as well. When we begin to teach to a test instead of individualizing instruction as much as possible every child loses. With all of our focus on borderline students we are losing our low level learners and our high level learns as well. It is assumed that our advanced students will achieve no matter what. They simply like to learn and are fast learners so they will be fine. This could not be further from the truth. If they are not challenged and consideration is not given to their needs we will lose them too. A gifted child, when lost, worries me just as much as a special education child.

What it comes down to is that these are all children who deserve our time and attention and all the guidance and knowledge we have to offer. When we feel pressured to have every child pass or test or our school funding and our jobs are at risk, we're losing sight of the reason that we are teachers.

The simple answer to this question is NO!  It has created a situation whereby allstudents are to be placed into the same types of classes and expected the same results.  This is tremendously unrealistic as all students has different needs, especially those receiving special education services.  I currently teach in a class with 25% of the class are those receiving special education services, but not in my class, including one autistic.  This would not be problem if it weren't for the other  27 students, that's right I have 35 students in this class.  This is a direct result of NCLB and the true tradegy of the situation is that there is no governement funding to support me or the students.  I could go on and on but for my first post I will keep it short.  Government programs without governemnt funding don't work!

I feel that NCLB is not the best.  We are teaching the test and leaving so much other important things out of school and learning.  I feel that children these days are missing out on things that we got to do in school.  I also feel that this is bad for teachers, there is so much stress put on teachers with all of the testing that some only think of this and cannot enjoy teaching the children which is what they were hired to do.  I do feel that testing is good and that it is needed but I think that we all need to remember the other important things that need to be taught during school for the students.

I teach in a Texas school and I for one believe the NCLB leaves behind so many students that have problems and it punishes schools that need more money not less to bring up their test scores.  The only ones benefiting are the corporations that sell textbooks and a canned curriculum to the schools.

NCLB isn't helping anyone. Special education students are protected by laws which require teachers to go above and beyond as far as accommodating those students' needs. What is most frustrating to me is the fact that there is no legislation to protect the "smart kids." Where are the laws mandating services for exceptionally gifted students? And where is the motivation to help "average" students improve their grades and meet their potential?

As a teacher, I have no problem with standardized tests; how will you know if I'm doing my job otherwise? However, high stakes testing alone is not enough to assess a teacher's performance.

In Response to dkgarran:

The 'smart kids' as you put it, are indeed protected.  Many times the Special Education Department will be listed as "Department for Exceptional Students".  The reason for this is that it allows a wide range of students to be put under this umbrella.  In the system I am currently teaching in, the director is responsible for any instruction outside of the normal classroom instruction.  This includes the gifted children.  The teachers who are teacheing these gifted students have to have special certification to teach the class, just like special education teachers do, the students are required to receive so many hours per year in gifted instruction as well.  There is protection for the 'smart kids' as you say.  People just do not generally hear about it.

In my state, we refer to it as No Child Left Standing.  Despite a few positive aspects, such as restarting a national education dialogue, it has mainly just led to a high stakes testing atmosphere that is killing creativity and analysis in our students.  These past two years we have seen the first students come through who have taken the NCLB mandated exam since 4th grade.  They are markedly different in their motivation and drive to learn - what is the correct answer and what is the minimum I need to know for the test? becomes the driving force.  Learning for learning's sake has been thrown under the bus.

What's more, now that we are in a national recession, many states are cutting back on their statewide exam so that is cheaper and simpler to administer, removing any real value the test may have had.

Many people also don't realize a little known clause in NCLB that requires high schools to provide military recruiters with the personal information of students, including phone numbers, unless the student/parents specifically opt out.  No opt out form is provided, you have to create your own.

I'm not a fan of NCLB, to say the least.

As a middle school Reading teacher I feel the pressure of NCLB. Our Superintendent and school board have started pointing fingers at certain individuals. It seems like Reading and Math teachers are those most affected by this.

This is my third year teaching and I feel like I'm doing the best for all my students. I approached our principal with information about ability grouping based on NWEA/MCA scores. As I was preparing for the meeting I thought of questions he might ask. Differentiation came to mind. Some of my students still need help with phonics, while others are reading at a 10th/11th grade level. It's nearly impossible to differentiate without hurt feelings.

Overall state testing measures student achievement, but how many of our students are giving their best effort? Some students are dealing with problems at home and can hardly think straight in school. Should our funding be taken away when we are the schools who truly need help?

NCLB testing just reveals the levels of students.

Blaming a NCLB for a school's poor performances is like a fat guy blaming the mirror for his weight problem.

NCLB just revealed objectively what we already knew. 

I agree with many of you that NCLB isn't helping many of our students. First I'd like to say that I think NCLB has good intentions (having 100% of children proficient), but are these intentions even realistic? NCLB has all children take the exact same standardized test and groups all children together not considering differences among children and not considering how children with disabilites may perform.

Another thing I've noticed simply by observing in schools is the push towards math and reading because these are the main things tested on NCLB.  How is this beneficial to our students to mainly focus on two subjects during the day? Is this hindering many students who excel in other subjects? NCLB has seemed to cause teachers to teach towards to the test and simply focus on math and reading and I think that's really taking away from children's education.