NO Child Left Behind should be called No Child gets ahead or better yet, "The systematic dumbing down of America". The 2006 federal education budget contained approximately $9.6 million for gifted education research grants, known as the Javits Act.4 This amount is the only federal funding allocated towards gifted education, which equates to a mere fraction of a penny of every federal dollar spent on education. Things are just as bleak at the state level. Since No Child Left Behind became law, state funds for educating our highest-achieving students have been steadily cut – Illinois eliminated its gifted education budget altogether; California cut its gifted education budget by 18 percent; in Connecticut 22 percent of districts slashed their gifted programming.5 This is in addition to the 21 states that offered no educational programs for gifted learners.6 What does this say about our nation’s commitment to ensuring that “every child learns?” Students cannot learn unless they are being taught something new. Focusing on minimum performance standards to the exclusion of everything else neglects students who learn faster than the minimum standards. Consider that: * roughly 1.5 million students need a curriculum more rigorous than the current standard * between 10 and 20 percent of all high school dropouts test in the gifted range * as many as 40 percent of all gifted students are underachievers. Make a stand for you children and a stand for the country.... Dump the minimum standard and raise the bar for ALL children!
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 04:14:06 +0000
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