I know there are several posts about this already, but I thought I'd add in my two cents. The things I've seen in my school district since the passing of this mandate aren't at all to my liking. Luckily I was able to get through most of my high school career before the real restrictions hit. I think partially this is my state's fault, too; the state government is pushing for a new curriculum to set students on a "college bound path" but I don't think it's going to work. My poor brother is a really smart kid; he could be enrolled in all honors courses if the school was able to offer them.
For instance, my freshman schedule inluded Honors Science, which combined both the regular freshman science and the sophomore science into one year. My brother was unable to take this; freshman science is now what sophomore science used to be. This doesn't hold any of the challenge that cramming two years of science into one did, and he's bored.
Sophomore year I was able to test out of the required English 10 class, and instead enrolled in a higher level English class that enabled me to take AP English both my Junior and Senior year. The class I took sophomore year focused solely on writing. They aren't offering the option of testing out of English 10 now, and so my brother will be taking English 10, English 11, and English 12, as required. None of these are writing classes, and I don't believe he will be prepared for writing college papers.
Also sophomore year I was able to take Honors Government, a more indepth class than the regular Government class. They don't offer this anymore, either. They don't even offer a full year of government -- it's half a year of government, half a year of economics. My teacher for that class (who I also had for AP US Gov and AP Comparative Gov) isn't happy; she doesn't believe students can get a grasp on our government in just a semester, and I have to agree with her. There isn't going to be any time to teach anything but the bare basics, and little time to instill an interest in government in these students so that they might take an AP class in later years.
Math remains the only thing left untouched, except now it's required for four years rather than three. It's miraculous that they're letting freshmen test out of Algebra (in our system, sixth graders are able to take a test at the end of the year and that determines whether they go into regular math in seventh grade or into pre-Algebra, then Algebra eighth grade, then on the higher track in high school) rather than keep everyone on the same page. That's all they're doing. Maybe no one is getting left behind, but no one is able to get ahead either. My poor brother is bored out of his mind, isn't doing his homework until the very last minute, and is still getting 100% in all his classes because they're too easy for him. We need to do away with this stupid law!
I would just like to let you know that not all honors programs are like yours. I went to a high school that provided well-thought out honors programs and did actually help prepare me for college. Perhaps instead of getting rid of the classes, you could suggest to your administration to upgrade the honors courses to a more challenging level.
I know they're not. I thought I was clear in specifying that I was talking about my school district and how the law was affecting us, but I guess not? Anyway, that has been suggested multiple times but it seems they aren't able to revert back to what we had between the NCLBA and our state's new curriculum requirements.
No Child Left Behind has nothing to do with highschool. The law is directed at grade school kids. President Bush wants it expanded to high school but it has not happened.
I think your beef would make more sense if it were directed at IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). That part of our educational law requires schools to make huge expenditires on mentally challenged kids (gotta love PC Speak). These expenditures are a huge unfunded mandate where the Feds make the rule but the locals have to pay. Lots of these IDEA kids have no capability for real learning and the money is largely wasted.
A good friend of mine is a teacher in one of these IDEA programs. She says she can spend all day teaching a kid something like 2 + 2 = 4. By the end of the day it is clear that the student seems to get it and their is lots of excitement and exuberance. And the next day it is like it never happened and all that comprehension is lost and she starts over with 2 + 2 and then again the next day and the next.
Rather than wasting massive sums on kids that are never going to learn, I think we should accept the fact that grocery baggers really don't need to add 2 + 2 and that these challenged kids would not be capable of being grocery bagger if that were a job requirement. The same money wouid be far better spent and society better served if it were directed towards are brightest kids that have massive potential to change our country and our world dramatically for the better. We would get a lot bigger bang for our educational buck.
Instead they are left to languish in mediocrity while we teach 2 + 2 over and over again day in day out to people who will never really comprehend that which they are not learning.
The problem with the 2+2 thing is that it's not learning, it's memorizing. Learning involves teaching concepts that can be applied to a wide variety of situations. This only reflects that the person doesn't have a good memory, not that he or she can't learn.
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In 7th grade, I was set in the honors courses path.
I was in a higher math, science, English, reading, and languages classes than my best friend counterpart.
By tenth grade, she had a better GPA than I, due to easier classes, and we had ended up in the SAME exact classes, regardless of the path we'd taken to get there.
Honors classes didn't do anything for me.
I don't really think they accomplish too much, either. I think they can prepare kids for college in some cases, but my experiences as a college instructor tell me otherwise.
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my brother in sixth grade had to do some retarded bloc schedule which made him all confused. he had some classes some days and others another, it was kind of random. he wouldnt do homework thinking he wouldnt have that class the next day, and then he'd randomly have that class the next day and get screwed...this is kind of off topic.
If this confused him, what will he do when he gets in college? The classes aren't the same everyday. It sounds like this is a good preparatory approach to me.
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Honors classes made high school so much better for me. I was able to be in classes with people that actually cared about their grades, wanted to do well, and we progressed at a muchhh faster rate. Actually, they helped my GPA too, because our honors classes were weighted, and AP classes were double weighted. Helloooo grade boost =]
I agree with like, everything you said; kudos, haha.
I can't stand to be regular classes. I absolutely loathe gym because all of the kids in there do not care at all. i want a good grade so it doesn't hurt my average. I used to be regular math before I switched to AP Statistics. I was bored and it was filled with kids who wouldn't do anything and disrupted the class the entire time. If I was stuck in regular classes all the time I would die of boredom.
Some students aren't regular, why should they be forced to match pace with all the slower students and be bored. Schools should be up to meeting the challenges of both the average, advanced and slower learner. No one should be bored or failing.
I agree that they need to get rid of laws that limit people's potential- I think that anyone can be smart if they actually tried!