Meet with S.C. Dept. of Ed to discuss 'No Child Left Behind' (Update: meeting report and opportunity to comment)

photo by flickr user stgermh

Update, 1/19/12:  Last night's meeting had record attendance and a draft proposal from the South Carolina Department of Education to its federal counterpart was presented.

You can see the specifics of the proposal on the SC DOE website here.  Attendees of the meeting were welcomed to share their comments.  If you were unable to attend, online comments are being accepted here until January 23, 2012, next Monday.  You can also see a full write-up of the meeting in this report from WPDE.

There was some good conversation about it on the Sun News Facebook feed, this morning.  Two teachers spoke out against the No Child Left Behind Act.

...as a former teacher, it made things incredibly difficult and unfair to the rest of the class at times.

and

As a retired teacher I think the expectations are unrealistic.  Name one profession that expects 100% success.  The student who does not attend school, the student who does not speak English all must pass the same test for a teacher to be successful.

One Facebook user had this to say in opposite to the flexibility being requested in South Carolina: 

A national test to measure success is a must.  it is a joke that each state can decide the difficulty of the test.  SC has one of the hardest test in the nation. 


First report:  On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, Horry County residents are invited to interact with staff members from the South Carolina Department of Education regarding the state's request for flexibility within the No Child Left Behind provisions.  The meeting will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and is being held at Conway High School.

No Child Left Behind has been widely criticized, hence the reason for several states to ask for wiggle room in its interpretation and requirements.  If you're interested in attending, here is a little light reading as homework to get prepared:

With South Carolina schools continually ranking among the lowest in the nation, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to chat with those responsible for creating state education policy.  To view data about our schools' performance, check out the National Center for Education Statistics' South Carolina page by clicking on their map.

For more information about the meeting and a draft proposal of changes by the S.C. Department of Education, read this press release that was featured on WBTW.