Ditching the Cycle

It seems ridiculous to do something over and over and expect a different result. However, This is the very thing that the NCLB act advocates. According to NCLB, teachers are to use the same teaching methods as before the act was passed. The difference? Under NCLB, when students fail to learn (as seems to be the growing trend), the schools are put on to the “Need Of Improvement” list and funding sanctions are imposed. In essence, the bill admits that the current educational system is flawed, demands that teachers continue to use said system, and then punishes students and teachers alike when the system fails. Perhaps this is a vicious cycle? Yes. 

According to James Mike Royer Ph.D. and director of the Laboratory for the Assessment and training of Academic Skills, “Students with learning disabilities can receive certain special accommodations such as extra time, but only 1% of total students may take an alternative test for special education students, even if the student population of special education students is 5%, 10%, 15% or more....Today 28% of the nation's public schools - about 26,000 of 91,000 public schools - have been found to have not made "adequate yearly progress" and have landed on the dreaded Schools In Need Of Improvement list... Sanctions are imposed on schools that remain on the Schools In Need Of Improvement list. Such schools must inform parents that they can transfer their children to other schools in the district, and the schools face additional loss of autonomy. No school or staff wants to remain on the Schools In Need Of Improvement list.” Posted on the Reading Success Lab web-sight, exemplary steps taken by schools to improve their test scores include, “Standardizing curriculum around the testing schedule and content”, “Reduced instruction in civics, history, geography, science, and writing in order to focus more on reading and math”, “Reduction of Talented & Gifted programs”, and “Pre-testing in earlier grades, which can include 4 hour tests for first graders.” The implementation or such policies goes beyond stupidity, reaches into the realm of shear dull-witted ignorance, and shows just how pathetic the present educational system has become. 

What then is the answer? I’m glad you asked. The answer to our educational systems problems is quite simple. Abolish the current system. Take the present educational budget, liquify it, and give an equal education voucher to each student. These vouchers would, in turn, pay for the free and private education of America’s future. Also, provide standardized testing as a ranking system. These tests would have no control over the schools, but rather would serve merely as an opportunity to evaluate student progress and performance. If needed, multiple types of testing could be instated to insure that no children would become victims to a possible slant in the standard. In such a system, schools that better equip students would naturally draw more students (with perhaps the help of heir parents) to enroll. Thus, these schools would have more money, which translates into more programs, better pay for staff, better equipment, etc. On the other hand, if a school is deemed by parents to be failing, then the obvious parent reaction would be the pulling of students (who could be enrolled, for the same voucher, into a better school) and, therefore, the lose of money to the school. 

The Benefits of such a system are obvious. Bureaucracy would decrease, teachers would compete for students and in continuance become better at their craft, students would have a better chance at learning, the state would waste no more money (since the budget would come from the freed funds of the current, to be abolished, system), and parents would finally have the freedom to chose the best education for their children. Everyone wins. It's called capitalism and it happens to be the ideal that has made this country prosper.