According to the Texas Education Agency, Nimitz has been deemed as a school that requires improvement. Under section 39.107 of the Texas Education Code, if a school has been identified as unacceptable for two years, the commissioners can order the reconstruction of the campus. In the past year, Nimitz missed one of the four indexes required to satisfy the No Child Left Behind Act. The school did not show the progress from 2012 to 2013 it required to pass Index 2, the yearly progress. Test scores indicated that the weighted progress of the STAAR, 15 points, did not fulfill the goal of 17 points. The yearly progress was affected greatly by only ten students, as stated by the principal, Rocci Malone. If Nimitz fails to meet the standard for yearly academic progress a second year, it will be reconstituted. However, the process of reconstitution is lengthy and complex; the school would have to find new educators and motivate them to work in an underperforming school. Reconstitution is too extreme of a solution to solve a minor problem. With Reconstitution, Nimitz …show more content…
Reconstitution is a radical attempt to change the culture of a low performing school into one that thrives by requiring that certain conditions be met. The conditions are as follows: the school must have an adequate supply of staff to take the positions in the reconstituted school; the school needs to become a magnet for highly educated and experienced teachers; the resources need to be sufficient to boost the capacities of the school and be flexible so that the educators can employ them with their priorities in mind; and lastly, schools must have sufficient time to ensure these conditions are
The city of Denver and the challenges confronting its elected leaders, are no different than any other large city, one of the most problematic of which, includes enhancing the quality of public schools for ethnic minority students from lower socio-economic neighborhoods. Katherine Boo’s, “Expectations”, provides a narrative centered on Superintendent Michael Bennett and the implementation of his ambitious strategy to raise high school graduation standards throughout the Denver public school system. Bennett’s plan to achieve this lofty goal illustrates the “four tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform: liberation management by allowing students from underperforming schools to attend any high quality public school of their choice; (2) a war on waste through the closure of Manual High School; (3) a watchful eye with computer tracking to ensure student accountability; and (4) scientific management with increased and meticulous academic standards.
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University. This model focuses the leadership's attention on the interdependence of the various aspects of their school district and how they reinforce one another to support the implementation of an improvement strategy. One of Ms. Hall's mantras was change, but not just for change sake, deep change for sustained improvement. Therefore, although Ms. Hall's predecessor was able to put the district on the right path, Ms. Hall has taken the baton and run with it; establishing her own style and path to excellence.
Today, W.J. Bryan is filled to capacity with twenty-two portables, also known as "Portable City", necessary to accommodate over 1,500 children from grades Pre-K through Fifth, who attend our facility. The Nora Brandt West Wing, added less than a year ago, was named after our previous principal, who retired in the summer of 1997. Here we find the Kindergarten and Academic Excellence classes (grades 1-5), as well as our renowned "Media Center", one of the most beautiful in the country.
The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act applied a market approach to school reform as a way of improving the school system. This new law promised an era of high standards, testing, and accountability in
Sharon Lewis, Improving School Climate: Findings from Schools Implementing Restorative Practices, (Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices, 2009).
Implementing Restorative Practices in School, explains what has to happen in a school in order to become restorative. The book is divided up into three sections. The first section explains the prospective gains of restorative practice in schools, recounting encouraging results for students and teachers. Section two studies the process of understanding and dealing with change, providing practical guidance on the emotional barricades that may be encountered along the process. To end with, sectio...
Anatole France said, “An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.” Through the No Child Left Behind program students are being tested in a manner that does not accurately measure learning. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB or The Act) Act was proposed in 2001, an addition to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to assist students who have a disadvantage or are a minority. Through this Act students were required to take standardized tests. One main reason of implementing the standardized testing as a part of NCLB was to raise schools AYP, adequate yearly progress; this measures a schools progress in reaching certain standards set by the Federal Government. The Federal Government should eradicate the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 because it is creating substantial problems, limiting learning, and has proven to be ineffective.
In effort to maintain high education standards and being labeled a “Distinguished School”, the educators decided the best plan of action would be to change the student’s answers, due to the fact the students were not preforming to the level needed to pass to the next grade. The No Child Left behind Act of 2001 set measurable goals to improve education. Sadly in this case the standards set by government did not help the students it did a horrible disservice to the students. The educators did not teach or tutor the students when they fell behind. Changing the scores of students whom did not grasp the information and just passing them on sets them up for epic failure.
In order to determine whether or not the No Child Left Behind Act is doing its job successfully and efficiently, one must first understand exactly what is involved in the act. This act is the most recent renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Similar to laws in the past, this particular act has been revised and added to numerous times to make sure it encompasses everything necessary for the education system and the students. The No Child Left B...
At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ...
“Making the Grade,” which was published in the Salt Lake Tribune in September of this year, is an article arguing the negative sides of the No Child Left Behind Act. Through this article, a majority of the discussion regarded the budgeting involved with NCLB. This article calls No Child Left Behind a “one-size-fits-all formula for improving education in America” (Making the Grade). According to President Bush, the NCLB Act is “’the cornerstone’ of his administration” (Salt Lake Tribune). Like with any legislation, however, come both positive and negative sides.
In conclusion, the initial intentions of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) were to close the achievement gap between low achieving students and schools and their counterparts; but have fallen short in many important aspects along the way. Teachers have become de-sensitized to the reasons they initially desired to be educators and have lost their vision of how to implement instruction due to standards of NCLB and the consequences for not meeting those mandated goals. Likewise, students must perform, many times, above their level in order to be labeled “adequate” by the federal government and their schools. In some cases, there is a disproportionate burden placed on schools, teachers, and students, all for the sake of what is federally deemed as average achievement.
The biggest accomplishment made by the No Child Left Behind Act was putting a spotlight on the schools who are failing their students and demanding the improve. The Act has embarrassed many of the top schools by illuminating the low rate of success of their minority students. The No Child Left Behind Act is also responsible for the slow but steady progress toward closing the achievement gap between rich and poor and black and white. The law has also worked to increase recruitment efforts in low income areas that have previously experienced inexperienced and untrained teacher walking in and out with its requirement of teachers needing to be fully qualified. The law recognizes for the first time that teachers are inequitably distributed and has done something to fix it. But with these great accomplishments comes a numerous amount of complaints from the students, teachers, and states. Since the creation of the act schools are relentlessly focused on increasing their student’s scores on the yearly assessments to reach its AYP that they are having to narrow their vision of education and are losing subjects. The assessments only hold the schools accountable in the subjects of reading and math and thus those are the two subjects schools put their focus on. Across the nation schools are no longer teaching science as a standalone subject, instead of doing
Year after year students put themselves through large amounts of stress, attempts to prepare themselves mentally, and spend majority of their waking hours studying for standardized testing required through the No child left behind act (NCLB). An act put in place by the Bush Administration in hopes and efforts for student around the country to excel in education. However, the No Child Left behind Act is hindering a student’s ability to perform in the classroom rather than the student to excel as planned. Amongst other countries around the world, the United States performs significantly lower in education. Overall, the act had good intentions, but does it really raise achievement and close the achievement gap? Improving education has always been a top priority in the white house. Many laws have been passed but how many have succeed? NCLB is one of the biggest social engineering projects of our time, but shows very little progress in our children’s education. The No Child Left behind Act causes more of a negative outcome by being ineffective at achieving academic improvement, closing the education gap, limiting the teaching material for instructors, and causes a harmful repercussion on children and adolescents mentally and emotionally.
When all stakeholders share similar core values and agree on the aims of education, reform efforts stand a better chance for success. Knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and citizenship are core values found at the heart of my beliefs for education. I also believe it is the aim of education to prepare students as contributing members of society. In schools where core values and education aims are revisited due to reform implementation, strategies are identified along with a plan for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The federal government, state, districts, school leadership, teachers, students and parents all have significant responsibilities to make reform efforts a success.