The children have gone home and the classrooms are empty. Many teachers have packed their rooms and are moving to new classrooms or schools this summer. In our district there are schools closing and consolidating. In other districts around the country there will be more new principals and new teachers in place when children return.

The Legacy of No Child Left Behind
There is less stability and certainty in schools these days, especially in schools with limited resources in communities with many needs. This is the continuing legacy of No Child Left Behind, the law designed to hold schools accountable and improve student achievement, the law that has yet to deliver the funding to schools that would make these goals realistically attainable.

In this year when so many families are living through serious natural disasters and household budgets are stretched as never before, with rising fuel and food prices, summer feels more stressful for parents of school children and for teachers, too. School administrators in struggling schools look at their budgets and their AYP goals and ponder how to lead with reason and integrity.

Emailing with educational colleagues around the country who have dedicated decades of their lives to working in classrooms and schools, I was struck by our common agreement that teacher, parent, and political voices need to be joined to take back our schools. We agreed that what children need most are more good teachers, given adequate resources and support.

Seeing the Real Issues
As one colleague wrote, “I have been teaching in a rural community where the poverty rate is hovering around 70%, the teachers and children can’t drink the water in the school building, there is still lead paint in some of the older classrooms, there is toxic mold and chilling cold all winter.”

“The teachers in that building work harder and give more heart and soul to that community than any other teachers I’ve met, yet there have been 5 principals in 7 years. Every year they are asked to go back to the community and do more with less, to fix the ‘broken’ child, achieve GLEs, be HQTs and on and on . . . and then be labeled as an ‘identified school.’ For NCLB not only points out the inequalities in our school communities, it takes a narrow look at the challenges of our communities living in poverty.”

“How are families supposed to cope? They are so concerned with heating their homes and finding work that education is on their back burner. What will it take for our political parties to engage in this conversation authentically?”

Our Students Are Not Broken!
Another colleague wrote, “ I have yet to come across one educator who entered teaching with the strict desire to find what is broken with children, and yet one of the overarching effects of NCLB in preK – 12 education (Head Start is included now too!!!) is a culture of fear and a continual focus on what is not working as defined by the use of assessment tools that assess very limited educational practices.

“NCLB and its sweeping and powerful aftershocks continues to point many toward who needs to be fixed in our classrooms. Who the heck decided our students were broken? Broken hearted maybe, but broken and in need of repair: no. Hopeful for us to sit with them and listen to their wisdom, their connections, the multiple and brilliant ways they make connections in what they are learning and their lives, you betcha.”

“Start there and see what happens with our successes in the classroom, our parent communities and our conversations beyond. What I’ve learned from my work with young people is that our students just want us to show up in their lives like we do in our own.”

We Must Not Leave Childhood Behind
If we do not want to see childhood itself left behind, let us make sure our presidential candidates and our senators know what we think about No Child Left Behind.

Learn more about how we can best take chare of children’s lives and their learning at The Whole Child website.