How the south was lost.The No Child Left Behind act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), commonly known as NCLB (IPA: /ˈnɪkəlbiː/), is a United States federal law that was passed in the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001 is taking another hit. This time, an education watchdog group has issued a report saying the federal law is forcing Southeastern states to lower the bar for teacher qualifications. Although No Child Left Behind mandates that teachers meet standards to be deemed "highly qualified," it neglects teacher quality, says the report Unfulfilled Promise: Ensuring High Quality Teachers for Our Nation's Students from the Southeast Center for Teacher Quality. In Texas and Georgia, for example, districts are meeting the bare minimum requirements of NCLB NCLB No Child Left Behind (US education initiative) by only requiring bachelor of arts degrees and state certification to be considered highly qualified, says Eric Hirsch, an author of the report. This is at the expense of classroom preparation to show educators on how to teach. Rene Islas, special assistant to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige Roderick Raynor "Rod" Paige (born June 17, 1933), served as the 7th United States Secretary of Education from 2001 to 2005. Paige, who grew up in Mississippi, built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from college dean and school superintendent to be , refuted the report, saying a goal of the law is to balance the heavy emphasis many states place on pedagogy with subject knowledge. If states are using alternative teacher certification programs that are less rigorous "then they are actually out of compliance with the law," Islas adds. The Southeast Center for Teacher Quality study examined 24 schools in 12 districts in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. and Tennessee. Its key findings are: * Under NCLB, teachers are considered "highly qualified" if they have a bachelor's degree, have state licenses or certification to teach and prove they know their subjects. But NCLB doesn't address the need to hire "high quality" teachers who can impart their knowledge to students. * Even with federal funding, urban and rural districts struggle to compete in the teacher labor market labor market A place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience . "In recruiting teachers," the report says, "few schools moved beyond signing bonuses A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee by a company as an incentive to join that company. These are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive to the employee e.g. if the annual salary is lower than they desire. to more comprehensive approaches," such as better working conditions. www.teachingquality.org RECOMMENDATIONS * The federal government should amend No Child Left Behind to require teachers be prepaid pre·pay tr.v. pre·paid, pre·pay·ing, pre·pays To pay or pay for beforehand. pre·pay  ment n. and their performance assessed before
deeming them qualified.
* The federal government should ensure that small rural districts have enough money to recruit and retain qualified teachers. * States should use federal guidelines for highly qualified teachers as a starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting point terminus a quo commencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the for assessing teacher quality. * States should invest in incentives to retain teachers where staffing is difficult. * Districts should better analyze how federal. state and local money to boost teacher quality is spent. |
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