No Child Left Behind in Sports

[TigerMom 0]

This may be moved. As an educator, I thought this was funny - and we seem to need some levity on this board every now and then.

No Child Left Behind in Sports

The Federal government has announced that all high school football teams must meet "No Child Left Behind" legislation beginning next season.

1. No team will be declared a winner, as that will leave 50% of participants behind.

2. All high schools will be divided into districts with eight teams per district. Every team must finish at least 3rd place to be proficient.

3. All teams must score at least 21 points, but no defense can allow more than 7 points.

4. No tournaments will be held as this would result in ONE champion. The BCS experimented with this concept this season in college football.

5. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. In a recent experiment, the University of Nebraska football program modeled this theory.

6. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions for interest in football, desire in athletics, genetic ablilities or disabilities ..... ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFiCIENT LEVEL.

7. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction, because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes that aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability, and whose parents don't even like football.

8. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in 4th, 8th and 11th grades.

9. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.

How would you like to recruit those players?

[Tiger Al 0]

This may be moved. As an educator, I thought this was funny - and we seem to need some levity on this board evey now and then.

No Child Left Behind in Sports

The Federal governement has announced that all high school football teams must meet "No Child Left Behind" legislation beginning next season.

1. No team will be declased a winner, as that will leave 50% of participants behind.

2. All high schools will be divided into districts with eight teams per district. Every team must finish at least 3rd place to be profecient.

3. All teams must score at least 2

Good one, TigerMom. Tell you what, I'm going to guarantee that this gets moved with this question: As an educator, how do you feel about the real NCLB?

[stoic-one 1,588]

Yep, Al sealed the fate of this thread.....

[TigerMom 0]

Personally, I feel it was legislation prepared by uneducated politicians. I think it places unrealistic expectations on teachers and schools and does not place any expectations on students and their parents.

[Tiger Al 0]

"I'm sorry" or "You're welcome", whichever one applies!!!

[Erik81 0]

That would probably work well in Russia cerca de 1970

[CCTAU 3,536]

The premise is good. but actually getting a lot of the school systems to take charge and control is the hard part. Inner city schools and poor rural schools get just as much money as others, but can't get the community or the students to participate in school. Maybe it's time we don't leave them behind but begin to gear half our resources toward education and the other half toward training for a trade? Some kids could care less about learning. It has been that way for a long time. But now the job market is tight and you can't leave school and get a job for life. It takes having a trade already. We should teach them one.

[keoson7 28]

Yep I could start using my 6 yr old for a few weeks, then school would start to look alot better to him, those boxes of tile will get the message across better than any speeches about how he needs school, as opposed to totin this heavy a$$ 18 inch porcelain. Up the stairs. Enrollment in Tilesetting 101 would surely be small.

[Grumps 3,706]

Thanks TigerMom, this is awesome!

I haven't heard an educator who likes NCLB.

[SLAG-91 1,610]

I'm a HS math teacher and I am in line with Tigermom on this one for pretty much the same reasons.

I also agree 100% with CCTAU's position on finding a trade for the portion of the student population who has little use for formal education. Currently we have a college track and a McDonald's track with precious little in between.

I proctored an ACT exam a couple of weeks ago and I saw a couple of kids in there that were obviously coerced into taking it...they would work on each section for a few minutes, go to sleep and then just bubble randomly during the last 2-3 minutes. I just don't understand why someone would flush perfectly good $$$ down the toilet like that, but I'm finding that there's more and more I don't understand about some of the kids I teach.

[Tiger Al 0]

I'm a HS math teacher and I am in line with Tigermom on this one for pretty much the same reasons.

I also agree 100% with CCTAU's position on finding a trade for the portion of the student population who has little use for formal education. Currently we have a college track and a McDonald's track with precious little in between.

I proctored an ACT exam a couple of weeks ago and I saw a couple of kids in there that were obviously coerced into taking it...they would work on each section for a few minutes, go to sleep and then just bubble randomly during the last 2-3 minutes. I just don't understand why someone would flush perfectly good $$$ down the toilet like that, but I'm finding that there's more and more I don't understand about some of the kids I teach.

Is there anything that you like about NCLB? Is it a good idea that was spoiled by too many cooks or was it bad to begin with, in your opinion?

Thanks for being a teacher, by the way. You're way underpaid!

[SLAG-91 1,610]

Al, there are parts of it that are good ideas in theory and there are other parts of it that are just flat-out misguided.

The goal of getting a certified teacher in every classroom is an admirable one, but in many rural areas this is going to be extremely difficult to accomplish. Rural districts don't pay very well and it's hard for them to attract and retain teachers of any caliber, much less certified ones.

The "underfunded mandate" part of it is a problem, too. Given all of the hoops that you have to jump through to implement everything that's being asked, it's no surprise that some states are balking at NCLB.

The part that involves retaining students who don't meet the standards sounds good also, but what do you do with a 15-year-old 4th grader who can't pass the tests? I realize that's extreme, but it is what the act would call for. There is no way it'll happen.

I see and hear a lot of talk about holding teachers accountable...that sort of talk gives the impression that we do nothing but eat bon-bons all day. No one ever asks if the students themselves could do more. Case in point: I had a class one grading period that had 9 of 26 fail. Since that was over a 30% failure rate, the principal asked me "What measures could I have taken to ensure that the student success rate is higher." I responded by providing attendance reports, failure to turn in assignments and discipline records for the students in question. Most of the students that didn't pass didn't do what they were supposed to do. Period. End of discussion.

What I do have a problem with is the unchecked proliferation of standardized testing starting in grade 3 here in Texas...maybe it's the hard-bitten cynic in me, but I think there are a select group of people making a hell of a lot of money developing all of these tests.

Teaching school here has been reduced to getting the kids to pass the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) and everything else be damned. That ostensible fact combined with the general rudeness I see on a daily basis makes me want to drive a truck for a living every now and then.

An ugly truth about the standardized tests is that, fairly or not, they are used to compare teachers...at least they are in our district. My problem with that is two-fold: One, the tests are designed to assess what the student knows. Two, the AP/Honors teacher has a completely different type of student than the ones that populate the lower levels. The honors teacher is naturally going to have a higher % of students pass. This is not like football where the coaches get to pre-screen players and hold tryouts to see who makes the team and who doesn't...we have to take whoever walks in our room and go from there.

Sorry for the ramble...

[Tiger Al 0]

No apology necessary, Slag. I'm interested in how these things work from an insiders perspective because I'm neither a teacher nor are my children in school yet, so in many ways I feel a disconnect when it comes to understanding how NCLB works in practice.

Some of the teachers I've talked to feel like the testing (TAKS) overemphasizes certain subjects (math, english) to the detriment of others like social studies and history. Is that what you've found as the consensus opinion of teachers or is it varied?

Also, because of the underfunding, they say that the less affluent schools are having to cut important extracurricular activities such as band and chorus just to keep up with the new financial burdens of NCLB. Have you seen this or is it just some teachers tilting at windmills?

When I was in school, we took the California Achievement Test. Are the standardized tests you're giving like that one or are they dramatically different?

[SLAG-91 1,610]

Al, some districts are going to "pay to play" for extracurriculars, but it is by no means prevalent. Texas was the working model for all of this stuff that the rest of the country has to implement, though. I'm sure other states have been affected much more.

As far as the subject emphasis of the testing, the TAKS tests (this is specific to Texas, mind you) now include science, social studies, math and English/Language Arts. The predecessor to TAKS, which was called TAAS, only tested math, reading and writing.

Believe me when I tell you that the science and social studies teachers were happy to NOT be included...now that their subjects are being assessed, they are feeling the pain of having to basically teach the kids how to pass these tests. The math and English teachers have been doing this for years and the pressure on us from our higher-ups is tremendous.

As far as the difficulty level of the tests, they are pretty rigorous, much more so than the California Achievement Tests we took as kids. We took a HS graduation exam in 1986 and it was a complete joke.

[CCTAU 3,536]

Al, some districts are going to "pay to play" for extracurriculars, but it is by no means prevalent. Texas was the working model for all of this stuff that the rest of the country has to implement, though. I'm sure other states have been affected much more.

What about Al's welfare buddies. We know they can't pay. So how do they get to play???

Or are we back to discriminating against the rich?

[AU Tailgating Rules 0]

Enough with political correctness: if there are no winners and losers, then by definition it is not a sport.

If there are no winners and losers it is only an activity.

Participating in sports instills work ethic, fair play, and integrity in those that play.

Sports can teach individuals how to lose with dignity and how to work harder not to lose in the future.