NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

Technology in Technological education Relates To No Child Left Behind



Technology in Technological education Relates To No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) was addressed from national, state, and regional perspectives. Under NCLB, Mele-McCiarthy said, there is a focus on stronger accountability for results of all states, with full inclusion of all students. The law emphasizes the importance of teacher quality, and Mele-McCarthy said it requires all significant technological education personnel to meet the personnel standard requirements set forth by IDEA. For students with disabilities, Mele-McCarthy said, "It is up to the IEP team to determine not if the child will participate in assessments, but how the child will participate." Rigney reviewed the three ways in which students with disabilities can participate in state assessments:

Take the standard assessment without accommodations.

Take the standard assessment with appropriate accommodations, as determined by the IEP team.

Like an alternate assessment.

"States have a lot of flexibility in determining what alternate assessments look like," Rigney said, but she explained that all alternate assessments must be aligned with state standards, yield scores in reading and mathematics, and be designed and implemented to use in meeting "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) requirements. Under NCLB, where a school fails to make AYP two years in a row, it enters into the "school improvement" phase during which parents can choose to transfer their students to higher-performing schools, Mele-McCarthy explained. The following year, students are eligible for supplemental technological educational services, with priority for students from low-income families(Wakefield, 2007).

General Budget Technology Funding

To compound the funding dilemma, many education leaders have yet to realize that technology is no longer a separate entity. Technology use is an everyday occurrence in every school in every district, at one level or another. Unfortunately, many education policy leaders have not revised their general budgets to support the proven ways technology improves the work and goals of the local education agencies (LEAs). Leaders who consider technology a "black hole" (as one administrator once told me) are burying their heads in the sand and should be made aware or trained.

"Supplemental services provide an opportunity for speech-language pathologists to use their skills and knowledge to help all students," she said. "Take advantage of this opportunity to show what you know and how highly qualified a provider you are." Members of ASHA's member" advisory group on NCLB also shared their thoughts on the law. Monica Ferguson stressed the need to support or refute assumptions about NCLB's impact on student learning, and for each clinician to "make you an active participant in the conversation.

Ellen Estomin and Barbara Moore-Brown each shared experiences they've had in their respective school districts with implementing NCLB. Estomin, who works in the School District of Pittsburgb, expressed concerns that, while the lowest-income, lowest-achieving students have the highest priority to exercise school choice, and their parents are often harder tech reach. Moore-Brown of California's El Rancho United School District expressed how disheartening it feels to meet state standards ...