Out with NCLB and In with NCSFS (No Child Should Feel Stupid)

It's been over a week since my high school reunion but I've still got it on my mind. One thing that happened on the tour of Los Alamos High School (LAHS) has been churning and eating away at me...

We were standing in the A wing hallway, and the new superintendent of Los Alamos Public Schools, Kurt Steinhaus, talked about successes of the high school. He boasted that they had more National Merit semi-finalists than APS and Las Cruces schools combined. And I thought, Big woo.

I wanted to ask what the schools were doing to ensure that the needs of struggling students are met but didn't. It wasn't the time or place.

LAHS, actually Los Alamos in general, is the perfect example of how No Child Left Behind (NCLB) works when it works "well". It's all about the data. How can they raise test scores? How can they get their graduation rate up?

I hear nothing about how they can serve the kids in their community. The only people I ever heard from in that town were disenfranchised students and their parents, and this is what I heard:

• Teachers and counselors at the high school tell students who struggle to get good grades that they will not make it in college and they should just get their GED (as if that's a bad thing). WHO DOES THAT?
• The parents of these kids think they have failed their kids somehow because this is a smart town, dammit, full of scientists and people who care about EDUCATION!  Unfortunately, many Los Alamos parents are more concerned with their reputation than whether their kid is learning in school. Most, though, truly want their kids to succeed and be happy; they feel like they could've done something more to help their kids. Our program at UNM-Los Alamos worked to build their self esteem as well as their kids'. 
• It's not just about the kid but also the parents and ultimately the whole community.

I propose a new act called the No Child Should Feel Stupid (NCSFS) Act. (I wanted to call it No Child Should Leave School Feeling Stupid Act but that was a little much for an acronym.) 

If LAHS started looking at learning instead of education, if they worked hard to ensure that no child left school at the end of the day feeling inadequate, and if they involved students in their own learning, more students would graduate. They might even like school. I truly believe that. But you wouldn't know that, LAHS, because you just aren't interested in students who don't make the data look good. 

I say it's time to quit worrying so much about how many students were National Merit semifinalists and how much better you are than other schools in the state. Start taking a closer look at those kids who struggle, who suffer perhaps even more than struggling students in other parts of NM because of the importance the community places on winning. They are stigmatized by the community because they literally aren't making the grade. That's all that matters to Los Alamos as a whole -- the grade. I'm talking about a community that needs to practice a little humility and serve its residents better. 

Whew! I feel so much better! I think I can put my high school reunion behind me now. Turns out it wasn't about the reunion anyway. I just needed to vent. 

So go out today and vent a little. You'll feel better. Just make it about something that truly matters to you, and maybe offer up an idea or two to solve the issue. Constructive venting. 

Happy Monday!