Chapter five of Meiers- written by Alfie Kohn book really gets into ripping the no child left behind act apart. Meier is obviously a big advocate against the NCLB act and for reasons that I have never noticed seemingly good reasons.
This chapter devotes itself to explain some parts of the act especially when it comes to turning public schools into privately run organizations. From what I understand this can benefit schools, which is a topic that Meiers glosses over, but it can also harm schools and students.
Personally I would like to note that I have seem good aspects to come out of the NCLB act, a school in a neighboring area of where I live was closed and completely restructured because of its terrible performance rates, after the restructuring many things changed for the school and it was really turned around. This may just be a euphoric look at the school and the program.
Having many teachers as friends I can not even begin to count the amount of time I have heard complaint after complaint about the immense pressure put on testing and how they really do not get to teach what they think is useful and are just “ teaching to the test” which is something Kohn mentions very often in this chapter.
I see the hesitation with privatizing schools, I just don’t know why it’s something that would be so terrible to try and since it does work in some areas maybe it could be helpful with others?
