The article “20 States ask for Flexibility in School Law” was quite interesting. It talked about the No Child Left Behind Law, and how many schools are struggling to meet the requirements. Many want to have the tracking of students’ proficiency be based on individual students’ not whole grade levels. I think this a good idea, since the proficiency of a school can only be measured by individuals in it. Then why not look at individual progress. It is a bit ridiculous to look at a general overall proficiency per grade. Many students are improving but not quite at the level of the state standard. The states are requesting that if a student is showing improvement and can gain proficiency in a few years, they can be counted as proficient. To me this seems appropriate. Some students struggle to keep up but can eventually over time get to the point they need to be. Simply looking after one year at proficiency levels will only be deceiving. Many students can catch up after they mature or gain the right skills.
Also the article pointed out that many of the school who are failing to meet the requirement are high poverty schools. I think this just shows that these schools are never really figured into the new laws. These schools do not have the tools to keep up with the new laws. There needs to be a change that will help the schools that actually truly need it. I think these schools need some sort of extra help that gives them ability to catch up. They will never meet the standard if they are always behind in tools and budget. They are always at a disadvantage, so a new law or something needs to be put in place that makes it fairer for them to try to reach standards. We will only continue to have this problem if we continue to only look for ways to up the standards of schools.
