Other families are less fortunate, unable to home school or even to hire tutors, see their children failing in schools. Some of these students need only a little help that is unavailable in crowded classrooms. Those students unable to keep up, give up. Low grades, low test scores, lead many of these students to just simply exit the schoolhouse all together. The drop out rate increases not just in urban schools there was an increase in the drop out rate in the rural area. Children willing to forgo higher learning and go it along in the new high tech world. Government decided to intervene, seeing not children failing, but schools failing to produce students prepared to lead its country. The No Child Left behind Act wanted to do something about the lack of academic achievement of students in these schools.
It would offer federal oversight for parents and demand accountability from schools. Those school committed to teaching would be rewarded, those teachers who failed to educate the students who showed up would see their schools closed. The teachers were required to teach no matter the students.
Tutoring program would be available to offer assistance to students who want to compete, but the resources they need are either in short supply or unavailable. Parents who want to be engaged in their child learning, can utilize tutoring program online. ATS is one such program:
ATS Project Success is an on-line tutoring program for math and reading.
We send our computer to your home and provide dial-up access to our program. Students work on our program in the comfort and safety of their own homes, any time of day, any day of the week. To be eligible for our program, you must have a land telephone line in your home and your child must attend a NCLB qualifying school.
The computer is very easy to set up and technical assistance is available if needed. Parents are sent reports weekly about their student’s progress and are also called weekly to discuss progress.
Parents love what ATS Project Success does to help their children improve their grades and test scores in math and reading! They love the way their child’s attitude improves toward school and their increased self-esteem.
If a child attends a qualifying school, there is no cost at all to the parents. The school pays for the tutoring. We charge the school $40 per hour. Each school district determines how much money the student is allocated. Most students are eligible for 25 - 35 hours of tutoring, based on the school district's per student allocation. Students keep the computer until they have finished their tutoring hours. Then we have UPS pick it up at no charge to them.
Our website is www.projectsuccessworks.com.
The need for educational reforms has prompt others to remove accountability from the federal level back to the state. On the fifth year anniversary of NCLB new legislature is in the works to end No Child Left Behind mandate to fund certain program. Today, Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act of 2007 has been introduced by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Academy. According to Senator Cornyn website:
A-PLUS would give states flexibility to consolidate federal education programs and funding and redirect these resources to state education reform initiatives. Currently, the U.S. Department of Education forces states to use federal education funds on specific programs, an approach that has shown little success. In exchange for the flexibility A-PLUS provides, states would be required to be transparent about academic results.
Under the A-PLUS Act:
All states would have the option of establishing a 5-year Performance Agreement with the Secretary of Education., according to the website.
States could consolidate funds from a few or all of the federal education programs and redirect them to innovative programs created at the state level.
In exchange for this flexibility, participating states would be required to meet their state performance objectives for improving student academic achievement and demonstrate a narrowing of achievement gaps.
If a state fails to improve academic achievement, its Performance Agreement would be revoked and it would revert back to the NCLB system.
Accountability and student achievement would remain a high priority with A-PLUS, but unlike NCLB, A-PLUS allows states to use a variety of innovative accountability programs.
Transparency would be ensured by requiring states to submit annual reports on student progress to parents and taxpayers.
Cornyn suggest that if state really believe in preventing brain drain, improve their schools. And to get the federal government out the business of oversight of local schools, based on the belief that the state should know what works best for their students. But parents are still protected by the new legislature, because if the state fails to do what it is in the business of doing, meaning improving academic achievement for all of its students, the state will go back into oversight by the federal government.
Locally we are concerned with renovating our school buildings, at the national levels the concern is a quality education for all of its students. Something that every parents wants for his or her child.
