NO Child Left Behind? Are You Sure?

This may be a little controversial, but...

In a final policy speech by President George W. Bush, he addressed the nation's education policies and urged his "firm" belief in the NCLB act. When I heard about this, I found myself outraged that he could honestly stand in front of a crowd of people and say that this plan was working.
OK, OK...maybe some test scores have improved. Great. I am all for anything that will truly help improve education. Do those test scores really reflect our students' actual learning though? Or are they just able to retain the information needed to pass a test?

"Bush also defended the controversial testing standards included in the program, saying:

'The key to measuring is to test. And by the way, I've heard every excuse in the book why we should not test -- oh, there's too many tests; you teach the test; testing is intrusive; testing is not the role of government. How can you possibly determine whether a child can read at grade level if you don't test? And for those who claim we're teaching the test, uh-uh. We're teaching a child to read so he or she can pass the test.'"

...what?? I can't even comment on that.

"The president also hailed No Child Left Behind's school choice options:

'By the way, school choice was only open to rich people up until No Child Left Behind. It's hard for a lot of parents to be able to afford to go to any other kind of school but their neighborhood school. Now, under this system, if your public school is failing, you'll have the option of transferring to another public school or charter school. And it's -- I view that as liberation. I view that as empowerment.'"

I view that as ridiculous.
Aren't these schools failing because they do not have the funding to retain quality teachers or obtain effective resources...and they don't have that funding because they fail the tests?

In my mind, NCLB is a very vicious cycle that actually leaves many children behind.
How sad.

I am interested to see what is yet to come for our nation...

If you'd like to read more about this speech or view the video, check out ABC News (where I got the quotes and info)