ha ha ha no child left behind

during my interview with teach for america, they asked me how the organization
and its mission fit into my professional goals. i replied that i was always interested in policy, especially related to education, but i felt the need to experience education policy in action before i could fix what was broken. in my two years in the corps, i experienced a lot of broken things. i saw classrooms that were under resourced , thousands of dollars spend on standardized test study guides geared toward my high school students who were barely reading at a seventh grade level, private companies overtaking schools with promises of change, but really concentrating on how to make a profit. i saw first hand how no child left behind really meant not leaving *certain* children behind. my students in the inner city,
were left behind every year, despite my best intentions otherwise.

so i get excited when other people, far more eloquent than me, join in
this discussion of the broken
education system . i completely agree when ravitch mentions
that state and cities know their schools better and know what methods
and practices are effective in achieving success. i find it problematic
when policies are written to the lowest common denominator (failing
schools) and don't take into consideration the locality of these
failing schools or assume what works in one district surely must work
in the next.

i'm not saying that each case is radically different or that there aren't similarities shared among failing schools. issues like acquiring and retaining quality teachers, funding, finding ways to challenge and inspire students are common, but as policymakers, we have to appreciate the nuances that surround each district. as i found in simply teaching on both the east and west coast, the method in which education plays out in the community is dramatically different.

no child left behind is analogous to buying one type of cream and applying it to all your ailments: a broken foot, the common cold, menstrual cramps, chylamidia, the flu, allergies and cancer. no child left behind isn't the wonder drug that is going to cure this country's broken public education system, if anything, it continues to exacerbate it.