7942            Kay E. Althouse            We've lost a lot of good people who felt inadequate to take a qualifying paraprofessional test after putting in 20+ years working with students.  It was a slap in the face after all the experience they had throughout the years.  I am still working in a paraprofessional position, but I took the test.  The pay for being a paraprofessional isn't great enough to go along with NCLB.  We are going to have a tough time filling positions with people with a BA degree and low pay.  Makes no sense to lose qualified people who had a lot of experience in helping to teach students.  Testing is NOT the answer to the adults OR the students.  They are being taught to take tests and not much else can be squeezed into a day.          

7954            Mary F. Borba                        As a recent principal at a really "good" school, an overemphasis on test scores has made school environments squeeze out important areas of study.  There isn't enough time in the day to do it all with the unrealistic NCLB expectations.            39759

7968            Elizabeth Herren            I'm a special ed teacher...special ed students are being "left behind" with the current law! They are not given what they need to become productive members of society. They are lumped in with "regular" students and asked to perform to a certain standard despite their IQ or disability. Unless someone devises a way to improve IQ, this law is unlawful and does not meet students' needs.

8015            Miguel Guhlin                        As a teacher, administrator in public schools, I have been thoroughly disappointed with the implementation of NCLB. It has had the opposite effect on enhancing student critical thinking, teacher innovation, and is an example of a profound mistake. For the sake of our children, teachers, do away with NCLB in its current implementation.            37143

8041            Nel Andrews                        Working in Baltimore City public schools, I can see that NCLB is FAILING at addressing the needs of children raised in disadvantaged communities.          

8043            Malisa Casey                        I am a teacher and agree with all the points from this petition.  I hope that you will take the time to read what is being said.            8502

8097            Cynthia Schildmeyer            I feel strongly about this as a teacher and a parent.            54963

8171            Jane A. Bockwoldt Johnson            I'm a music teacher who is seriously concerned that students are starting to show less respect for learning and an inability for higher order thinking due to the changes in education to meet the mandates of this law.            94040

8198            Elizabeth Brant            My special education students have an IEP that should be the driving force behind what tests they take or don't take. A governmental mandate does not recognize or care about their special needs, and they are being penalized.            11372

8274            Christine M. Smith            While I am all for accountability, I think there are better ways to address the concerns that brought about this legislation. As a reading specialist in a school district working hard to meet your expectations, I saw far more negative effects especially for struggling readers. I also see poor test prep instruction replacing good teaching.          

8352            Michael Elsohn Ross            As a k12 educator with more than 30 years of experience I urge the dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act. I work with many schools and have seen the extreme damage this act has inflicted on all schools and teachers!            85710

8360            Maggie Cardenas            With all the red tape that is involved, it leaves no time to teach.

8366            Beth Magidson            As a teacher and parent, I cannot think of anything that has more seriously hurt our education system. We are not teaching children creative problem solving, we are teaching them there is only one correct answer, and life is not like that!          

8369            Dawn L Cummings            As a Special Ed teacher, I view this Act as utterly ridiculous.            55122

8398            Janet Mellinger            I don't like what I have seen in education in the past years with No Child Left Behind.  The children are tested too much and teachers teach only for the test.  I think there is too much emphasis on this one test.  I think students and teachers need to be accountable but parents should be responsible as well.  I think there is too much stress today put on the students, teachers and administrators.  I think teachers should teach to mastery and follow the guidelines of the curriculum and not concentrate on one test given one week during the school year. I have been teaching for 34 years and this is not the best solution to educating our children.  It needs to be changed.            11234

8431            Michael Garraffa            I am an upcoming teacher and believe the No Child Left Behind Act his hurting the future of students.

8456            Bonnie K. Dixon            I teach special education and the bill is definitely not fair to those children. 28150

8502            Judy H. Manning            As a retired high school principal, I couldn't have said it better.            75647

8543            Jeni Heineman                        Please do the right thing: make our jobs easier instead of harder.  Thank you.          

8562            Sue Beauregard            As a lifelong educator, I know the value of the understandings in this document.                        94112

8600            kathy Blackwell            I am so happy to see this petition.....I am a national board certified teacher and through this initiative I now feel that I am an incompetent uninspired teacher....I HATE  feeling like everything I have learned in thirty years of teaching is passé and not important because of some politician's whim. I have never felt so sad for children and frustrated in all my life. I realized just yesterday when I heard a classroom of children singing with joy, the sound of happy children is so rare now......Please listen to we teachers...and help us to make childhood a happy experience again, full of learning that is appropriate. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8706            Barry E. McCann            As a special educator I am appalled at legislation that does not understand the needs of special education students.  Throughout my district, special education students and teachers are becoming the scapegoat for schools not making AYP--this is reprehensible.  Change the law, don't blame the most vulnerable students.            14607

8762            Dana Honea                        AMEN!!!!!!!!!!! As a National Board Certified teacher, I am appalled at what we are putting out students through, the discrimination they are facing as a result of this act and the lack of professional respect our educators are given from folks in the government who have never stepped foot in a real classroom! To provide all students with an equal opportunity for learning is one thing and very fair, but to expect ALL students at the same mastery level by a certain age is totally unrealistic! Every human develops individual and unique affinities that make them successful, not all can be measured and determined by a single test score! This act is truly UNFAIR and I expect our drop out rate and teacher shortages will soar!   High expectations are great.... but let's get real!!!  The other issue that is totally wrong is the constant cut of funds that would enable better education to occur. The kids aren't supposed to be left behind, but there is no money to bring them along!!!!!  Enough is enough!              81301

8789            Danielle Horton            Sadly, I have recently left the teaching profession because of NCLB's effects, under funding, and overcrowding in public schools.

8801            Linda Cabaness            I am a teacher's aide, Please dismantle this program.

8870            Beverly Williams            This petition says it all. As a teacher in the inner city for 32 years I can say with conviction that these children need special care that they cannot get with traditional teaching or being taught the stupid FCAT!            28078

8892            Charles Hannah            My students have learned to take a test, not to think or express themselves. This legislation is the worst thing to happen to education in my 32 years of teaching.          

8919            Bonnie Polhemus            My students are not test scores...they are human beings from diverse backgrounds!             33019

8921            Vanessa Segura            I have taught ELA Lang. Arts with great results for the past 4 years.  However, due to NCLB requirements I now can only teach Spanish.  Even though I have over 50 credits in Spanish Lit. and have been successful in a position that has proven to be hard-to-staff, I have had to step aside and leave the job to someone who was placed here.  I don't think that I, nor my students, should have to settle for less than what we really want and deserve just because of credits taken many years ago.  My qualifications should be based on HOW I TEACH not what I did before I was even a teacher! My co-worker, who is "highly qualified" has even admitted herself that she is NOT qualified to teach Lang Arts no matter what her transcripts say.   She has said that she shouldn't have been placed in a position for credits that she took "for fun"!  Teachers need to be judged by how they teach today, not what they've completed in the past.  What matters is what we can do for our students now, today!            78577

9100            Bruce Cuningham            I have taught for 20 years.  NCLB is an attempt to privatize public schools.  NCLB shows we do not trust students to learn.            6457

9106            Robert Prola              As a fifth grade teacher, I have seen, first hand, the detrimental effects of this legislation.      

9129            Ann Walker                        I am a 2nd grade teacher and totally agree with the petition!

9174            Desiree Million            This legislation is absolutely ruining schools. As a teacher I see the first hand damage that NCLB is doing to our curriculum and students. These laws leave all children behind, especially English Language Learners.

9175            Cindy Johnson                        I have left the teaching profession, in large part due to the unintended consequences of NCLB.            33803

9208            Christina Nosek            As an elementary school teacher, I can honestly say that NCLB is easily the worst thing to ever happen to public education in the United States.

9222            Cathy                                    I am a teacher and all for reform, but all this testing is not the way to go about it.  Give us the testing time to teach.

9283            April Gonzalez            I am a special education teacher who sees that NCLB is putting too much focus on a test and taking away from the student's learning            75002

9320            Jenifer Parker                        As a First Grade teacher I've only seen this act leave children behind!          

9453            Eldene Burrows            As a career educator and a parent and grandparent of public-school educated children and grandchildren, I do not object to accountability, but this legislation is not only unrealistic, unfunded, unjust and unequally applied, it undermines the public education system instead of improving and reforming it. The future of our nation, and its children, as well as our ability to provide the personalized, challenging instruction students need to become capable citizens, is at stake.  Please stop the destruction!  REPEAL NCLB!            90065

9466            Joanne Lalk                        I am a teacher who can clearly define the flaws in a system meant to be helpful.  It isn't, and it is forcing teachers who went into the field b/c they love children and teaching to focus on standardized tests, and evaluations based on meeting state based criteria...it hurts me to know I'm only 5 years in and completely disillusioned by the 'system'.

9502            Scott Vetter                        As a new teacher, I already see some negative effects from the No Child Left Behind Act.  Please reform the act.            10589

9523            Mari Porter                        I am a teacher and I see no way that this act benefits my students!

9528            Susan Titterton            I am signing this as an educator, as a parent, as a community member, and as a member of our democracy.

9623            Pamela Laird                         I am a dance teacher and see all primary grade levels, and it seems we are teaching to the lowest denominator, with constant disruptions from special needs kids who have no business in a regular classroom.  As a parent I would love to give my child his own personal aide.             29928

9639            Shannon Harriman            I am a mother and an educator.  I see the beauty and love of those in education every single day.  This Act is a crime against the humanity that SHOULD be in education!!            35222

9733            Michele Bull                        I have been in education for nearly ten years, this plan does not work.            95209

9780            Elena Howard                        As a recently retired long time teacher, parent, grandmother and community member I totally agree and support this petition.            57266

9800            Susan Ford                        I am leaving my job of 28 years because of the travesty of NCLB.  It is clearly a manipulation by our president to get his agenda in under the radar.  He wants vouchers and private schools.  We will soon see the destruction on the middle class!

9864            Penny Myers Dubin            As a teacher for 35 yrs, I totally agree with the complaints against NCLB Act.

9920            Dorothy Train-Marsh            I am an elementary school teacher with 4 years of experience in Title I schools and 2 years of experience in an affluent "Blue Ribbon" school. I see first-hand the negative impact that NCLB has on the morale and education of students who live below the poverty line. I challenge George W. Bush to apply the same unrealistic goals he sets for public educators to his poorly led efforts in Iraq. (I am also the proud spouse of an Army Infantryman.) 10954

9944            Marsha Fraser                        While I admire the sentiment of "No Child Left Behind" from years of experience as a special education teacher I am in a unique position to know that doing so requires appropriate methods and instructional goals for each child.  Innate ability, previous experience and previous education all come into play when making decisions about each child.  This is true of all children; it is not unique to those who receive special education services.  Expecting children to all perform the same way at a certain age or grade will require more teachers, smaller classrooms and unique evaluations methods.            80112

9945            S. E. Church                        As an educator.....ABOUT TIME!            92620

10017            Ariana Vodra                        I work with emotionally disturbed children and have experienced firsthand how detrimental the No Child Left Behind Act is to their academic achievement as well as their overall success within the school community.  It is necessary for this act to be dismantled for the sake of our childrens' futures.

10130            Kraig A. Brownell            Any law MUST include total funding!            34683

10170            Irene Salter                        I am a middle school science teacher who entered education after earning a PhD in neurobiology. I chose not to teach in a public school because the NCLB requirements for a "highly qualified teacher" would have required 2 additional years of schooling in addition to the 6 that I spent in science graduate work already.

10225            Dan Flerlage                        I am a teacher. NCLBA has not reduced the achievement gap in the last 4 years. It has increased the drop out rate and has proven incredibly disruptive to otherwise effective teaching. If may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it has proven detrimental to our children regardless of race or ethnicity.            45056

10266            Kathleen Dorn                        I am a social studies teacher in Hilo Hawaii and I think NCLB is having a very destructive effect on education.            96749

10271            Janet Kay Nyberg            This is the worst national idea I have seen in 35 years of teaching.            95111

10281            Jake Zent                        As a teacher, I support this.

10292            John S. McCutcheon            I am a teacher of 22 yrs and NCLB is unfairly penalizing good schools that have a small subgroup of mentally handicapped students who will never pass a test!          

10322            Andree Daigre                        As an educator, I feel this legislature has caused havoc in the education systems in this country.  What it demands of us as educators is impossible.  It has made our jobs impossible.  It is so broad and unrealistic that it can not possibly be carried out.  Our brightest students get the least attention and too much time is spent on trying to make geniuses out of students who simply do not have the ability to learn the more complex, higher order skills required in the testing.  We are setting unrealistic goals for many of our children.  It has put a terrible financial strain on many of out poorer states.  The federal government makes big demands, but it doesn't fund the programs they demand.            37879

10359            Karen Niemeier            I am a teacher. I have seen the lack of support that the federal government is providing to fund this mandate. I work daily with the children that are being left behind by this act.              96720

10402            Cheryl Materne            I am a Special Education Teacher who agrees wholeheartedly with the contents of this petition            95073

10403            Eileen Driscoll            I feel very strongly about this and I am a teacher.            28613

10456            Sandra Willmore            As an educator and parent I have viewed first hand how this act does indeed LEAVE children behind.  PLEASE dismantle it NOW!            32907

10639            Florence M. Gregory            As an educator, I am quite aware of the problems with this act            53217

10729            Aleksandra V. Bashkatova            I am an NCLB-compliant educator who knows the Act is flawed.  NCLB discriminates against our special ed kids, and the testing takes away instructional time so desperately needed.            97408

10749            Lauren Hutuk                        I am a special education teacher and completely agree with this.            94025

10765            Robert Croonquist            NCLB made teaching impossible for me, 22 yr vet, Stanford graduate, so instead of being a valuable resource for the schools, I retired early.  NCLB is a horrible, mind-numbing, tragic mistake.

10772            Lyn C. Howell                        As a parent, teacher, and professor, I have seen children and teachers discouraged and de-motivated by this act. There are better ways to ensure a good education for all children.            94131

10788            Mary Jo McFadden            I believe that No Child Left Behind is a simplistic "fix" for public education.  The cost of all the testing has got to be astronomical, spending money which could be put into curriculum and teachers for at risk schools.  The amount of time it takes to administrator the tests wastes the talents of valuable personnel, such as counselors.  However, the very worst part is what it is doing to special education.  The expectation that the majority of students with lower abilities, severe learning disabilities, and emotional or other health impairments is unrealistic and demoralizing.  It sets teachers and students up to do the impossible and thus, fail.  As a special educator I always have the highest expectations for each student, but these students are all individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses.  That is why we write goals and objectives for each child.  NCLB flies in the face of teaching each identified student to reach the appropriate goals and adopts a "cookie cutter" approach -a one size fits all.                        45056

10799            Lynn Asente                        I am a retired English teacher who doesn't want to leave any child behind but believe that this act is not the way to accomplish that goal.          

10836            Stephanie Dillard            I work in special education, the assessments are inappropriate for many of our students and set the bar at such a level that they can never achieve it.          

10851            Maureen                        As an educator, I think this law has done exactly opposite of what it intended to do.

10896            Karen L. Lammey            In 21 years of teaching nothing has done more damage to children, schools and teachers as this act.          

10918            JUDITH G. RUBIN            AS A VETERAN SPECIAL EDUCATION EDUCATOR  - LEAVE THE EDUCATING OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE, OUR CHILDREN TO THE EXPERTS WHO WORK DAILY IN THE FIELD AND NOT TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO DIRECT CONTACT WITH THEM.            53213

10927            Cathy Gould-Harrison                        We have spent 9 years developing a highly effective research-based literacy intervention in upper grades, only to watch our hard work, dedication to students, and perseverance be thrown to the curb.  All the "new" grant money that is pouring in has done nothing, but undermine our profession as we sit by and watch "publishers" and government tell us what kids need in order to perform.  NCLB asks for teachers to be puppets, not professionals.            70663

11084            Stephanie Bernhardt            Leave teaching to the professionals and let us make the judgment of what needs to be taught.  As a special educator making an extremely low functioning student take a standardized test is totally ridiculous.  Student who can not read and write should not have to take a zero.  They are incapable of taking a test like this.            97210

11109            Laurie Vierra                        I am a social science teacher with a masters in education that asks you to seriously consider this petition.            6026

11188            Barbara L. Fogg            I am a NO Child left behind teacher.                        94598

11202            Anna M. Ragghanti-Crowe            The students I have the honor of teaching this semester are so complex -- and delightful in their complexity.  What is delightful about the art of teaching is working with students and encouraging the whole learning community to use the imagination to create, recreate the self and the community of learners.  Teaching is the art of empowering young people from within.  One cannot base a whole child/young person -- dire I say it -- human being -- on such a bill.  NCLB disenfranchises students, teachers, school systems, and on.  Students end up with such a narrow view of the possibilities of this wonderful life.  NCLB does not offer opportunity; rather, the student is relegated to a single number, single tasks, and tasks with rules without a living context.  John Dewey said education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.  NCLB doesn't prepare young people for life, and certainly, education has become so far removed from life itself, discouraging imagination and promoting education as drudgery.            10467

11218            Jeff Comstock                        The NCLB is not adequately being implemented plus despite it supposed to be strictly qualified and certified staff, they are still using non-certified personnel.  I have 14 years of experience and certification and highly qualified.  I have to travel 50 miles one way and want to find something closer to home only to see that many of the school systems locally are using non certifieds and THAT is in the category of Special Education.  I would like some help with trying to secure a more localized position and dealing with principals and school systems using them and not at least interviewing me.  If I tell them I know they have non certifieds, that will not help me.          

11259            Janet Butts                        I am a retired teacher who has kept in touch with NCLB and how it has affected students in my city.  I know what is really happening; therefore, I am signing this petition to help the children in NM get the help they need!            78557

1297            Patricia Tooombs            As a veteran educator, 15 as a classroom teacher and 15 as a principal, I have witnessed FIRST  H1AND the devastating impact when NCLB is imposed.            11942

11356            Dan Lammey                        I'm a teacher with 18 years of experience.  Doing what I think is best for students is my professional focus.          

11365            Joan Wink, Ph. D.             This mandate is the worst I have seen in my 40 years of teaching.            89143

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