has "no child left behind" worked?

The problem is that some children need to be left behind. The public schools are trying to educate all children at the lowest denominator amongst the kids. Totally destroying the potential of America's brightest.

No Child Left Behind has not worked in my area. Teachers and students agree that the arbitrary fixation on math and reading test scores is pointless. It doesn't inspire schools to actually spend more time (or money) to develop the skills. They spend their efforts on teaching kids how to take the tests.

The goals that have been set for coming years are also ridiculous. Schools have been doing fairly well at meeting requirements, but a series of huge jumps in requirements are coming up. In the past few years, the national average has gone up maybe 5%. The law is calling for 100% of students to pass the tests by 2017. It is NOT going to work and the schools that need funding the most are NOT going to get that funding.

No Child Left Behind isn't a true education policy, it was created to make parents (who have far more votes than students or teachers) think that something is happening without having to actually spend any money.

Its just a numbers game. Administrators who know how to play the numbers come out good. Those who sincerely try their best in difficult circumstances get slammed.

The big loophole is in the learning-disabled children. Anyone learning disabled can be removed from the statistics. Some nscrupulous administrators label every failing child as learning disabled. None of the failing students is counted in the final result so the results look better than they are. Its a great disservice to those children who are being improperly labeld.

Yes it helps because it lets students be "placed" in the next grade as opposed to flunking. When a child flunk it makes them older than other students and if you look up statistics you will see that for each year after age 18 a student is much more likely to drop out of school. From personal family experience I know this is true.

It has worked here in Georgia. We had a lot of schools that were not up to par and the children were suffering with no recourse. Well, after this program was placed in effect, the parents began to take interest more in their children's education because they had choices. A lot of parents have moved their children to better schools which, inadvertently, forced the lesser performing schools to get up to par. The teachers are working harder to help the students who are actually falling behind...something that used to be a thing of the past. Like I said, I'm pleased with it.

The only experience I have had with "no child left behind" is with my grandchild. My son-in-law came from another country when he was 7 (he is now 26) and married my daughter when my granddaughter was 4. When my granddaughter went to kindergarten we were told that because of "no child left behind" rule that if another language is spoken in the house my granddaughter must go to special English classes. My son-in-law ONLY speaks his native language when he is on the phone to his mother. My daughter is an English Major SO my granddaughter corrects my English! In other words silly rule!

No, it hasn't. Great idea. Pretty much the same as all of Bush's ideas. He has great intentions but doesn't know how to make it happen. Maybe there is no way to make it happen. But the problem is that you can't assume you can fix the problems that others don't because you really want to and you believe in your implementation. You have to come up with the correct method to fix the problem. Usually strategically and slowly, not over night.

Spend some money and open some special schools for those that need to be held back. I can think of $100+ Billion we once had that could have gone to that purpose instead of he purpose it was used for.

Any one who said that it worked is misinformed, since it was never fully funded, it is impossible. Just another political trick to blame teachers for our lack of concern for education. Teachers spend so much time now preparing kid's for tests that there is no time for teaching.

I used to work with teachers... and they didn't like it at all...

often much more work... with little reward... and the work really didn't help the students that much...

go talk to a teacher about it... I've never met one that liked it very much...

Ask a student from any Parish.