Most students have enough willpower to turn off their electronic devices while they are in school, but others are not able to resist the temptation.
For more than 15 years, teachers have had to confiscate cell phones and other portable devices; however, social networking has found its way into the classroom in various ways.
Even schools that have installed firewalls blocking students from accessing social networking websites sometimes find that their students have been able to find loopholes.
Some school districts in the US have gone so far as to ban their students from having profiles on social networking sites. Students can circumvent this by signing up with aliases, but the problem is worsening.
Teachers have managed to get themselves into hot water by linking their profiles to their students and sharing too much personal information with their schools.
Although most social networking sites only allow users aged 13 and above to have their own profiles, children as young as 8 years old have found ways to circumvent the security measures.
There’s really nothing that can be done to keep students away from social networking, but there are ways to make it less of a burden. Several school districts have created their own profiles and invite students to join in.
This allows administrators to keep tabs on their pupils while simultaneously providing them with an outlet to make an informed decision about their preferred college major later on. Parents have also joined in on the fight, but as computers become more sophisticated, it seems that children are the first ones to gain the knowledge.
States Might Get Excused From Accountability Under ‘No Child Left Behind’ in 2009!
We go back a few years in time, but let’s take a look at the situation as it stood just over a decade ago.
In 2009, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was working on a plan that would allow some school districts to get around the No Child Left Behind Act, because schools that meet federal standards risk losing funding.
One primary requirement is that centers make all students proficient readers and writers. Students living in poor neighborhoods may not attend school often enough to pass standardized tests, while children from more stable families might skew the statistics.
After it was found that four out of five school districts might fail under the No Child Left Behind Act, Duncan had to review the ruling. When the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002, former President George W. Bush was sure that the law would be successful in 10 years.
Now that the target date was fast approaching, more schools were losing funding. Politicians had attempted to address the shortcomings in the US public school system on several occasions, but lawmakers were unable to implement any significant changes.
Fortunately, there are now online education opportunities available, such as the online GED math course designed by Onsego GED Prep, an innovative platform that the GED Testing Service has labeled as fully GED-compliant.
Arne Duncan believed that a significant overhaul was needed to the No Child Left Behind Act to provide children with quality education. While Congress and President Obama worked on balancing the budget, thousands of students did not graduate or were even illiterate and are still so.
This leaves us with the question of how some of these students can ever be in the position to earn an accredited online degree or attend a higher education institution that helps them build a strong and fulfilling career.
Teachers in Wisconsin had lost their right to bargain collectively, and educators in New York were uncertain whether they would retain their jobs the following school year. Duncan remained optimistic, though, that the nation would start to pay attention and that the necessary changes would be accomplished.