Dear Editor,

Nicole Gaouette’s article, “A juggling act on No Child Left Behind” (10/30/07) exemplifies why the flaws in the No Child Left Behind Act must be fixed now and the juggling act stopped! School boards welcome and support the continued discussion of amendments to NCLB, but we want to see results for our student’s achievement. After four years of implementing NCLB there are many requirements that remain unrealistic. Demands such as the 100 percent proficiency requirements and the 95 percent participation rate set up successful schools to be labeled as failures. NCLB provides strong sanctions and interventions on schools, based solely on performance in English/language arts and math. Because of these aggressive sanctions, many elementary schools have all but abandoned arts, science, history/social science and physical education programs in an effort to avoid being identified for sanctions. NCLB is undermining a rich, balanced curriculum for all students and will continue to do so unless lawmakers stop the circus acts and get to work for our students.

Sincerely,

Scott P. Plotkin
Executive Director
California School Boards Association
3100 Beacon Blvd
West Sacramento, CA 95691
(800) 266-3382
www.csba.org