With 3 years and counting since its inception, the scope and impact of No Child Left Behind is now being felt in classrooms across the nation. Although some successes have been identified, concerns about the implementation and expectations of the legislation are emerging. As a result of the legislation's emphasis on the development of standards and assessment systems in reading, mathematics, and science, educators of other core and elective subjects are weighing the impact of being left out of the No Child Left Behind formula of testing and accountability. In an attempt to ascertain the perceptions and sentiments of social studies teachers concerning the impact of No Child Left Behind and the concomitant issue of state‐level testing and accountability policy, a tristate study was conducted. The findings of this research indicate that although elementary, middle, and high school social studies educators recognize the negative consequences of being left out of No Child Left Behind, they are not convinced that being included would be better for them, their students, or social studies education in general.
This study examined the day to day operations of home schools. The case study method was used with four families from a larger pool of families that held membership in a home school organization. Data was gathered using interviews, observations, and artifacts. Findings suggest that these families operated their home schools using traditional methods to reach progressive goals. The families operated their home schools much as a person in a restaurant would choose food from a menu. They identified instructional goals and selected methods from a variety of choices available to them including courses taught through a home school cooperative, community colleges, online courses, video instruction, and individual study. Public schooling was not an option available to them. Traditional schools can learn from this home school model as it serves as a resource that supports individual learning goals rather than as the sole distributor of knowledge in a community. (Words=149)
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