Module 6

7430 Thais Trail
Wilmington, NC 28411
24 February 2009


Dear Mr/Mrs._______________________,


My name is Crystal Striffler, I am a junior at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and in the middle grades mathematics education program. I was contacting you concerning the NCLB act. I feel that in my opinion a few things need to change to make it a more effective program. The children are under a lot of pressure by taking these End-of-Grade tests at the end of the school year. It all starts at such a young age as well. For example, is it necessary for the state to test them on their writing? They are taking the writing test starting in the forth grade. I believe it is the educators who need to make sure that the students are up to par on their writing skills. If not, I believe that after school programs would be a great way to help a child like this succeed. I also feel that there is more than enough pressure on the schools themselves. Is it necessary for the school to fall into the category of “needs improvement” if it is not the schools fault? The school is supposed to have highly qualified teachers and experts to help students who need extra help. The teachers should know their field of study better than anyone. Why is it a problem? I feel that it is a problem that the children are spilt into groups and that is how the testing coordinators find out if a particular group is failing and the school is penalized for it. It just shows that the staff may be lacking in helping other students than those who really need the help. The school should not make those who are exceeding have the opportunity to go to a successful school if they are already excelling. I feel that those students are keeping the school alive and having faith that they are doing a good job.
The last problem I see with the NCLB act is that I think that it is not properly funded. If about $1.9 to $5.3 billion dollars are being spent towards making new tests, then why are we having students still fail? Obviously the problem is not coming from the school; it is coming from the local and state governments looking for an “easy way out.” It is easier to put paper and pencil in front of every student than to test the students in their profound learning style. Not everyone tests well because not everyone is a visual learner. I feel that if the governments would look further into testing students in their learning style that every student would be successful. It would not hurt to try this out and fund this particular method, just to see if it makes a difference. We already know that when a new version of a test comes out for the EOGs the students do not do well the first year. The scores rise until they come out with a new version. It would not hurt to see how things change for a few years. It would take a lot of dedication, hard work and qualified professionals, but I believe that this may be the key to making every child not actually left behind.

Sincerely,



Crystal Striffler