I am a paraprofessional at this time in my career. I am working on getting my teaching degree. Believe me we teachers work very hard every day of the 180 days out of the school year. When this NCLB law passed, personally I think it is a lot of politicians who come up with a ridiculous law. It is always the politicians who come up with laws that make no common sense. I don't think most of these politicians have stepped foot in a classroom before deciding on a law for the common people. I can assure you teachers do uphold their degrees and work their hardest to teach our children. I appreciate all what the teachers do for our children@@@@@

Just as an example of how of the wall NCLB law is; a school in Boston filled with MIT, Harvard, and Boston College faculty's kids. They scored something like 97% proficient the first year of the law. The next year they dropped to 95% proficient and were put on the watch list because they dropped.
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In 99% of Janesville, Milton etc classrooms, you can succeed if you want. But you can't make a kid do his/her work, you can't make a kid care. I had a student who showed up everyday, sat and did nothing. 20+ emails, 14 phone calls, and 5 meetings later, I was given a letter from the mom that said basically, "My kid doesn't care, I don't expect his teacher to try to get him to care."
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How much time did trying to get this kid to care did I have to take away from the other 27 kids in the classroom? That is the question no one every thinks of when they write these laws (or blogs).

shermd: I can only speak from my personal experience. I do not claim to know the laws and I was not bashing teachers at all - there are a lot of wonderful teachers. Teachers can only do so much, as much as they are aloud to do. I was only responding to the article about the No Child Left Behind Act. In my experience it does not work. It is aweful that teachers do pay out of their pocket for many things. My sister spends a few hundred a month just to buy the supplies she needs to do her job. I have always worked with my son and do not expect other people to parent him. Currently he has had almost straight A's all school year. I have worked very hard to get to this point. Two years ago he could not even spell simple 3 letter words. I would be glad to have anyone visit a day in our life also and and see us as individuals and not lumped into a group as well. Getting back on subject - It is just sad that the acts that are put forth are by people that have no clue what goes on in the daily life of teachers or the students and these are the same people that dictate how much money every school will be given every year. There will never be a test that will represent a large school fairly.

shermd, I am with you (teacher too!) In the beginning of the year I made and sent home specific homework for a child that struggled with reading. None of it was returned. I still don't think the parent does anything with him. So we can bust our tails as much as we can to meet these standards (which, for 2014 is ridiculous). But like Obama said (one of the only things I agree with him on), parents need to be responsible for teaching their children too- turn off the TV and the video games and I add on teach your kids values and morals as we spend way too much time working on that when we could be teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic.
My school is not on the list either.

I am tired of those on these blogs saying how poor Janesville Schools are!! Come to any of the elementary, middle, or high schools and see!! I think any teacher would welcome you to their classroom. I think you would see how hard 99.9% of those in Janesville and around Wisconsin work. I think you would see what some of the students we work with have to deal with each day, or how we may be the most stable, consistent, and positive part of some of their days. I know you would see how much the students have the opportunities to learn, grow, mature, experience new things, meet new people, and how the vast majority earn the grades they receive. No school or business or anything is perfect. Do some kids not make it for a variety of reasons? Yes. Unfortunately, that shows that schools need to keep making improvements. But NOT every student that fails, drops out, gets expelled, or has a bad experience is the school's fault!! I doubt ANY of you on these blogs are perfect at your job, or as a parent, or in life! I am not a perfect teacher or parent. But it's not for lack of trying or bad intentions. So, instead of putting down the schools for poor teaching or poor teachers, come in and see what we do with kids, for kids, and because we want each kid to at least make academic, emotional, and social progress towards being a productive adult in society.

So many experts about the NCLB law, how poor schools are, the fact that teachers allegedly DON'T teach certain children to read in school (phonics). REALLY? What a crock!! So, it's my job as a teacher to be the only person (or the main person) to teach a student with SLD (it's NOT LD anymore, it's a specific learning disability for the expert in the group!) It's apparently NOT the responsibility of the PARENT to teach and/or supplement what the school is teaching back when he/she was in kindergarten or first grade? See, that's the problem. We not only teach them, but we are expected to shoulder the burden when there is little or NO supplementary instruction/support at home!! We feed many 2 meals a day, I pay out of pocket hundreds of dollars for lunches for students, snacks for students, and supplies for students, and now I am expected to parent them as well? Yeah, it goes with the job, but that's the problem. My own children will be taught at school by others, but I will support them in their studies at home or whenever they need it. And the school is ALWAYS (99.9% of the time) right!! I don't care what you say, but I do NOT have time to look for trouble with a student or a parent by not doing my job.

Can anyone else see a correlation for the Capital of DWIs and drinking and that of inferior schools?

This surprises me none. The rights of teachers have been squashed so much, that there is no way that kids are fulfilling their full potential. They just whimper a little bit about this or that and are coddled.... The federal Government had better take a look at how they limit the control schools have over their students. I am thinking they should go straight to the mirror in that oval office and point the finger.

If you think Janesville is bad send your kid to Milwaukee. 51 of the 79 schools on the "more serious" list are Milwaukee schools. Good gracious

"Saving a buck" and the Wisconsin public school system are mutually exclusive. Wisconsin schools are in the top quartile of expenditures per pupil in the country (in marked contrast to its income per person) and the top 1% in the world.

I, as a parent, want my child to succeed - not just slide through the system. There is nothing that has hindered his ability to learn at current level, except for the system that has failed him. I don't care if a child is in the special education system or not, they should always be pushed to their limit. My sister is fully blind, and we never let her say that she 'could not' do something. She now has her masters and is a public middle school teacher teaching sewing and cooking. (outside Janesville system) So, I do get upset that the system is letting my son slide through year after year. And as the years go by, he catches on to the way the system is played. Now it is a never ending circle.

NO special ed students are not required to test to grade level. Do you really think they do not take that into consideration. Come On..

is this why the spelling police have a field day in here???? Cause of these test scores? altough i havn't seen them in this artical (((((yet))))....LOL everyone STAY SAFE!!!!

sorry - play fair....

marie26 - I agree 100% But it not going to change until everyone plays far. Or until the Common Sense books have been re-distributed.

The press release concerning this topic can be found at http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpi2009_60.pdf...
You can look up a specific district, and then the specific school for details at: http://www2.dpi.state.wi.us/sifi/default...
Until the NCLB system is changed to support individual needs of the students that attend schools in the public education system in America, we will continue to have FAILING schools. Anyone who knows anything about learning and growing knows that not all individuals learn at the same time, and on pace with others seated in the classes next to them.

snazzy - here is the list...
http://www2.dpi.state.wi.us/sifi/WSIFI_m...

My son is part of that special education group - but he is part of the EBD group. There is no reason why he should not be at his current level. Most of the past years the teachers have asked me to keep him at home during testing - saying he would not be able to 'handle' taking the long tests. The school tried to tell me that he was LD so I had them test him. They were wrong and it only proved that he was not taught basic phonics properly.

The "No Child Left Behind Act" has some pretty riduculous mandates. For example: ALL students take the same test and if too many student groups fail the test then the whole school fails. This means that mentally challenged group has to take the same test. The "English as a 2nd language" group has to take the same test. It's pretty obvious that these groups will not perform as well, but their performance is still factored in just like the advanced placement group.
Furthermore, because no principal wants to have his/her school fail to meet the standards, teachers usually drop their usual curriculum and try to "teach the test". Real nice system we have!

Also - by 2014 ALL schools will be failing. As the article says "The law requires every student to read and do math at grade level by 2014." So if one kid decides to screw around on the test, the school fails. It also means all special education students must test to grade level. Good luck with that.

So why would my son have a 4th grade reading level when he was in 8th grade? He was never held back and I was refused when I requested it. No child left behind is working so well that it has made the staff smart enough to work around the system. (in Janesville School District)

Rexkramer - These are FEDERAL standards, not state, and the consequences are from the federal government, not the state. WEAC and the Gov. don't have much to say or do with anything, here.

No worries, with WEAC having Diamond Jim in their back pocket there will never be any real consequences. He'll just impose more regulations to make all the other schools just as bad as these schools so they don't stand out. Must be nice to have a voice in the governor's office.