No Child Left Behind

I believe the program No Child Left Behind has good intentions behind it, but it is a flawed system. I do think we need to give attention to students who require extra assistance such as students from poorer economic backgrounds or immigrants, but not at the expense of holding other students back that need to be challenged at a higher level. We need to find a way to get students that are behind caught up to an acceptable level without retarding the development of the more advanced students. Testing is one way to measure aptitude, but is not the end all when it comes to measuring a person's level of intelligence."You can prep kids for a certain kind of test, get a bump in scores, yet not be providing a very good education. Poor kids get an education of skills and routine, a low tier education, while students in more affluent districts get a robust course of study." While learning by a routine can be useful a lot of the knowledge we acquire in school does not stay with us for a very long time. A lot of the information is just retained long enough to help us score well on a test. After taking the test the information is forgotten instantly. It's just a matter of remembering through repetition. The true definition of being educated means gaining and possessing cognitive knowledge that you can refer back to at a moment's notice. It's something that stays with you. It is the job of the teacher and parents to work together to see what area the child is lacking in and to provide the neccessary tools available to help the child to become proficient in it.