Article!

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/wm1406.cfm

The administrative burden of NCLB

The Final Main Question

What Negative Affects have been results of the No Child Left Behind legislation at the Elementary level, since the implementation of it in February 2001 and are there any alternates that are being actively pursued in the either of the two houses?

Eureka!

So I have officially figured out the direction of my paper, following the reading of all my peers papers in accordance with my topic's flow, I have realized my paper will answer the question of What Negative Affects have been a result of the piece of legislation since the implementation of it in February 2001. There will be a focus on funding issues and a section which covers alternatives (such as A-PLUS) which are currently on the Senate floor for discussion. Also, the focus will be directed at elementary level education. This will provide the opportunity to use the research that has been obtained and my expert interview to its fullest potential.

Interviewing Capitol Hill?

This is the basic gist of the conversation held with Educational Analyst, Dan Lips of the Heritage Foundation. He was very helpful in clarifying a good bit of information based on the No Child Left Behind Legislation. The conversation was as follows:

1.)

What is your educational background (this is for clarification of you as an authority in this field)?

-Dan lips

BA from Princeton

Receiving masters from The Institute of World Politics
2.) Understanding the current use of the NCLB Act, do you believe it is a setback to our educational system and if so, why?

Look at the long trend in federal Ed. Policy, it is a great inopportunity- test scores are generally flat- Too much to ask the Federal Government to fix, Problems caused by NCLB- increased funding and amount of resources required to spent on Ed. Increased the paperwork burden by about 6.6 million hours (670 years), NCLB goal of annual testing for all students to be proficient by 2014, states have an incentive to make test easier to pass, more money spent on administration –The administrative burden of NCLB
2a.) what are your feelings on teachers teaching for a specific standardized test?

Good to teach to test to certain extent, test= good tool to see progress, danger in having too much testing and federally driven testing, some subjects are getting less attention- focus on Reading and Math, groups are having to lobby for history and other class tests under NCLB
3.) Have you had any personal encounters with NCLB, where funding for schooling was an issue?
4.) Have you had any personal encounters with NCLB overall?

Not really and not related to any teachers, visited schools
5.) What are the chances of A-PLUS successfully passing in both houses?

Very unlikely, 1999 similar law passed in the Senate- Demo probably not
6.) What nationally, is the biggest reward to using an alternate such as A- PLUS?

Decisions to improve our schools would be closer to the schools themselves, huge administrative burden would be lifted from the States and local government
7.) Are there any undisclosed draw backs to the A- PLUS alternative?

Weakness- it’s based on the assumption that there is no national solution, things prior have unintended consciencequesss, Possiblity for a number of school systems would keep getting it wrong, but an improvement
8.) Is there a model of the A-PLUS plan in action that can be viewed somewhere?

Nothing in education policy, block grant status- no great parallel can be draw anywhere
9.) Are there any other alternatives in the shadows?

Status quo group- key leaders are backing- lead by Senator Kennedy and the chair from California (George_____) Mainstream Democrats favor

Increase Federal spending on NCLB, --- proponents Obama and such

Rep. looking to modestly (Lamar Alexander) reform NCLB

2.) What are the qualifications to receive federal funds for a school? –a state has to agree to implement basic federal regulations, maintain state level testing, teacher creditials, for funding: distributed through State and local grants- Level 1 funding, must comply with fed reg.
Are funds allocated by school or school system?

-Mostly by school system (SEA) to the (LEA), exception to this
If funds are allocated by school system, how does a system compensate for a school which does NOT meet the qualifications?

-State and local district to reform/ sanctions on that school, after a few years students are allowed to transfer and receive after school tutoring (5 years or more- New school or Chater school)

Class Notes

Common issues-
1. Frustration with having to ask too many questions about the same topic
2. Finding studies that are more up to date
3. Organizing information into a 2-3 page paper (too much information and sources)
Stopped to answer questions
4. Trying to decipher between objective information and biased information
5. Some articles are really hard to understand a far as the language
6. Flow of thought
7. Running out of ideas
8. Lack of motivation
9. Lack of information within the technological avenue being sought after
Questions and possibly answers-
1. "I'm supposed to put a question on my poster?"
a. i.e.; "Is my project done?"
2. "Can I get everyone to write a response to my topic?"
a. Everyone will respond to each poster and this will be tremendously helpful in the pursuit of completion (and purpose) to this project.
3. "How can I make better connections?”

Well I'll be...

I'm presenting on the 28th of November!
Michael
Ps- Mom's birthday is today :-)

Blue's Clues, Blue's Clues!

Ladies and Gentlemen we're about to sit in our thinking chair and think, think, think
(About the 1,2,3 step process) ;-)

1- There is a lack of proper funding in education.
2- Has there always been a lack of proper funding for all proper educational systems? Should power of education be properly devolved to the states were it Constitutionally belongs? Should education as a whole be sponsored supremely by the parents? Should there be emphasis on it by parents for children to succeed at it?
3- There has always been a severe lack of funding for all proper educational systems- many times the systems that need the money are not the ones receiving the money (in a accordance with No Child Left Behind). The way in which NCLB has always worked is giving funding to the school systems who manage to rise to the whatever standard has been previously set. The power of education should be devolved back to the states because, quite frankly, the states are the only ones who can provide a proficient solution to "Cookie Cutter" standard the Federal government can give.

Where in the system does proper funding come from? Are the citizen's of the United States ready to take this step and spend to correct this issue?