key success word analysis

The picture itself is pretty plain. All that is shown is a key and the word success torn out of a page and ragged on the edges. This is symbolic because the key sits on top of the word success meaning that you have to unlock the door to success. It isn’t unlocked already and you must work for it. There is also a beam of light on the top key maybe meaning that you must find your lock and work to get it open. If first you don’t succeed find another lock. It wasn’t the door you were meant to open. When they say success I don’t instantly think of prosperity and wealth I think it is more than that, I think of success in life and happiness. I really like this picture, I think it is something they would have hung in the hallways of my high school.

since we dont have to post anything specific this week i am going to tell you about the madness i call my life. my parents left on sunday to go to colorado so my i have been holding down the fort and taking care of the dogs. well since they have been gone i have been drinking heavily and dirting the place up. i woke up monday afternoon and got some asprin and tried to recover from the night before. lounging in bed and feeling like hell, i left my dogs to do what they do best, destroy. i came down stairs to see that they had gotten into and they had eaten a  bottle of asprin. why, i dont know. on top of that there was a pile of vomet from you know... eating a bottle of asprin. soo i got them in the car and took them to the vet. 2 hours later she told me they would be fine and that she had basically pumped their stomach. she told me that they had to have constant supervision for the next 24 hours and if they were still getting sick that we needed to bring them back. i was supposed to work last night but i couldnt make it since i needed to watch the dogs. i also wont be in class today because im going to be here with my idiot dogs.

moral of the story, dont let me house sit your pets...

Kendall O’Neill

Exploratory Paper

After reading and re reading the Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, No Child Left Behind Act 2001, and Creativity in Schools: Every Story Needs a Picture, I have come to the conclusion that not all schools are created equally and we are leaving kids behind left and right. Depending on your socio-economic class you are either given or denied opportunities. You are either bathed in the sea of knowledge or are in a drought of simple minded education.

 The Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work was a very eye opening piece for me. Growing up, I thought we all received the same opportunities; all that mattered is what we make of them. However, that is far from true. Depending on how much money your parents make, where you live, and who you know to get you into that great school your options are very limited. There are very different levels of education, different variations of teaching methods and different attitudes towards students.

Lower income families put their children into local schools which prepare them for failure by teaching them in the simplest form possible. They teach in the form of steps and processes and do not encourage questioning that process or understanding why it is that you would follow that process. These schools are preparing the students for simple, poor income jobs, where they will follow processes. I have three problems with this. First is that in third grade when that child fails his first end of the year test, you encourage him to study harder for next year. Fourth grade comes around and while he does do better, he still fails. You tell him that in fifth grade, if he keeps the hard work up he will pass.  He gets the scores back and he has failed yet again. You realize it’s not him, but the school that is failing. Because of the NCLB Act you have the opportunity to relocate into a better school. So you take him out and relocate him to the charter school down the road. After five years of being taught to not question why something is the way it is, how is he supposed to excel in a whole new learning environment? The second issue I have is the obvious lack of free expression and creativity. Throughout the reading in the ‘Working Class Schools’ not once do they mention anything artistic the kids created. When doing a science experiment the teacher lead the discussion and experiment and at the end told the students what they should have learned. At no point did she allow the students to talk amongst themselves and determine what they took from the experiment.  My final issue I have is not giving everyone that fair shot to be the best they can be. While we all love to root for the underdog, what if we wouldn’t have to. What if we all started at the same playing field and you either worked hard to become someone or something great and you also had the right to allow yourself to fail or become nothing. While students in poorer communities struggle with learning just the bare minimum, with minimal creative expression, and rude teachers, kids in higher socio-economic classes are flourishing.

In ‘Affluent Professional Schools’ students work out problems through creativity, expressiveness, use many different medians to do this (ie. Plays, clay, murals, books, and essays). In this educational environment these kids thrive. While they are challenged mentally they are also pushed to try new things. The kids that attend these schools, in my mind are very lucky. They do things as a class that they truly enjoy and can take pride in. The created a film, one student wrote it while the others acted in it. They received help editing it and then played it for school all while learning about the ancient Egyptians. While completing a science experiment the teacher commented and said “It doesn’t matter whether it [what they find] is right or wrong. I bring them together and there is value in discussing their ideas.” I think in order for NCLB to work then students need to be taught like this all around. I think with the level of creativity, the work ethic these students have (because they are excited) and exceptional teachers that there isn’t a reason students couldn’t pass an end of the year exam. I think it is important to focus on actually learning rather than focusing on being able to do well on a test. I think a new version of NCLB should focus on the proficiency on schools teachers rather than how they students do on testing. If you a teacher is passionate and good at what they do there is no reason a student couldn’t pass an exam.

Before ever beginning this paper, when we were still talking about the idea of the end product for the year I had already chosen my topic. I wanted to talk about charter schools. I wanted to discuss what they are exactly, were the beneficial, how the teachers felt at the end of the day (compared to regular and ib/ap schools), how are they different, should we have more of them?  I had already started mentally planning my interviews with teachers and asking them to hand out questionnaires to students.

However after doing this research and thinking more in-depth about it I think that teachers should be held more accountable for a student’s performance. We shouldn’t have to rely solely on a standardized test to determine if a student should advance to the next grade level. I believe teachers need to be evaluated yearly as well. They should have to take a written test saying what they struggled teaching, what concepts the students easily understood, did they keep the classroom creative and exciting, and comment on students falling behind and what they did to help guide them. I also think they should also have administrators sit in on classroom time and evaluate their staff. I think that if a teacher is failing to help his/her students then administrators and parents need to know sooner rather than later.

This seems much more difficult of a topic to research and find solid evidence in, however it is much more interesting to me. Thinking back, I have had personal experience with several teachers in high school and middle school that had become bitter and nasty because they are tired of teaching and dealing with kids for a living. Because of this they are half the teacher they were or hoped to be. It makes me wonder, if I had different teachers or attended a different school, would I be where I am today? Would I be further behind or would I soaring in the university of my choice? Teachers should be passionate, excited, helpful, and motivating. Without those qualities they are no more helpful than a computer spitting facts at us. Students need to be treated as individuals and not as numbers or statistics. Students need to be able to relate schooling to real life situations, they need to be able to fully communicate, be able to transfer problem solving skills into their everyday lives, and they need to be creative and innovative. Looking on a global scale, the Unites States is starting to sink lower on the worlds standing as far as the educational rank goes. According to the Huffington post, Korea holds the highest ranked education. The Unites States falls far behind that with a measly 17^th place with Canada beating us at 10^th place.  If school is not teaching us those basic skills we need to compete globally in these changing times then why are tax payers paying hundreds of million dollars to help the education system?

Kendall O’Neill

Exploratory Paper

After reading and re reading the Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, No Child Left Behind Act 2001, and Creativity in Schools: Every Story Needs a Picture, I have come to the conclusion that not all schools are created equally and we are leaving kids behind left and right. Depending on your socio-economic class you are either given or denied opportunities. You are either bathed in the sea of knowledge or are in a drought of simple minded education.

 The Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work was a very eye opening piece for me. Growing up, I thought we all received the same opportunities; all that mattered is what we make of them. However, that is far from true. Depending on how much money your parents make, where you live, and who you know to get you into that great school your options are very limited. There are very different levels of education, different variations of teaching methods and different attitudes towards students.

Lower income families put their children into local schools which prepare them for failure by teaching them in the simplest form possible. They teach in the form of steps and processes and do not encourage questioning that process or understanding why it is that you would follow that process. These schools are preparing the students for simple, poor income jobs, where they will follow processes. I have three problems with this. First is that in third grade when that child fails his first end of the year test, you encourage him to study harder for next year. Fourth grade comes around and while he does do better, he still fails. You tell him that in fifth grade, if he keeps the hard work up he will pass.  He gets the scores back and he has failed yet again. You realize it’s not him, but the school that is failing. Because of the NCLB Act you have the opportunity to relocate into a better school. So you take him out and relocate him to the charter school down the road. After five years of being taught to not question why something is the way it is, how is he supposed to excel in a whole new learning environment? The second issue I have is the obvious lack of free expression and creativity. Throughout the reading in the ‘Working Class Schools’ not once do they mention anything artistic the kids created. When doing a science experiment the teacher lead the discussion and experiment and at the end told the students what they should have learned. At no point did she allow the students to talk amongst themselves and determine what they took from the experiment.  My final issue I have is not giving everyone that fair shot to be the best they can be. While we all love to root for the underdog, what if we wouldn’t have to. What if we all started at the same playing field and you either worked hard to become someone or something great and you also had the right to allow yourself to fail or become nothing. While students in poorer communities struggle with learning just the bare minimum, with minimal creative expression, and rude teachers, kids in higher socio-economic classes are flourishing.

In ‘Affluent Professional Schools’ students work out problems through creativity, expressiveness, use many different medians to do this (ie. Plays, clay, murals, books, and essays). In this educational environment these kids thrive. While they are challenged mentally they are also pushed to try new things. The kids that attend these schools, in my mind are very lucky. They do things as a class that they truly enjoy and can take pride in. The created a film, one student wrote it while the others acted in it. They received help editing it and then played it for school all while learning about the ancient Egyptians. While completing a science experiment the teacher commented and said “It doesn’t matter whether it [what they find] is right or wrong. I bring them together and there is value in discussing their ideas.” I think in order for NCLB to work then students need to be taught like this all around. I think with the level of creativity, the work ethic these students have (because they are excited) and exceptional teachers that there isn’t a reason students couldn’t pass an end of the year exam. I think it is important to focus on actually learning rather than focusing on being able to do well on a test. I think a new version of NCLB should focus on the proficiency on schools teachers rather than how they students do on testing. If you a teacher is passionate and good at what they do there is no reason a student couldn’t pass an exam.

Before ever beginning this paper, when we were still talking about the idea of the end product for the year I had already chosen my topic. I wanted to talk about charter schools. I wanted to discuss what they are exactly, were the beneficial, how the teachers felt at the end of the day (compared to regular and ib/ap schools), how are they different, should we have more of them?  I had already started mentally planning my interviews with teachers and asking them to hand out questionnaires to students.

However after doing this research and thinking more in-depth about it I think that teachers should be held more accountable for a student’s performance. We shouldn’t have to rely solely on a standardized test to determine if a student should advance to the next grade level. I believe teachers need to be evaluated yearly as well. They should have to take a written test saying what they struggled teaching, what concepts the students easily understood, did they keep the classroom creative and exciting, and comment on students falling behind and what they did to help guide them. I also think they should also have administrators sit in on classroom time and evaluate their staff. I think that if a teacher is failing to help his/her students then administrators and parents need to know sooner rather than later.

This seems much more difficult of a topic to research and find solid evidence in, however it is much more interesting to me. Thinking back, I have had personal experience with several teachers in high school and middle school that had become bitter and nasty because they are tired of teaching and dealing with kids for a living. Because of this they are half the teacher they were or hoped to be. It makes me wonder, if I had different teachers or attended a different school, would I be where I am today? Would I be further behind or would I soaring in the university of my choice? Teachers should be passionate, excited, helpful, and motivating. Without those qualities they are no more helpful than a computer spitting facts at us. Students need to be treated as individuals and not as numbers or statistics. Students need to be able to relate schooling to real life situations, they need to be able to fully communicate, be able to transfer problem solving skills into their everyday lives, and they need to be creative and innovative. Looking on a global scale, the Unites States is starting to sink lower on the worlds standing as far as the educational rank goes. According to the Huffington post, Korea holds the highest ranked education. The Unites States falls far behind that with a measly 17^th place with Canada beating us at 10^th place.  If school is not teaching us those basic skills we need to compete globally in these changing times then why are tax payers paying hundreds of million dollars to help the education system?

Kendall O’Neill

Exploratory Paper

After reading and re reading the Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, No Child Left Behind Act 2001, and Creativity in Schools: Every Story Needs a Picture, I have come to the conclusion that not all schools are created equally and we are leaving kids behind left and right. Depending on your socio-economic class you are either given or denied opportunities. You are either bathed in the sea of knowledge or are in a drought of simple minded education.

 The Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work was a very eye opening piece for me. Growing up, I thought we all received the same opportunities; all that mattered is what we make of them. However, that is far from true. Depending on how much money your parents make, where you live, and who you know to get you into that great school your options are very limited. There are very different levels of education, different variations of teaching methods and different attitudes towards students.

Lower income families put their children into local schools which prepare them for failure by teaching them in the simplest form possible. They teach in the form of steps and processes and do not encourage questioning that process or understanding why it is that you would follow that process. These schools are preparing the students for simple, poor income jobs, where they will follow processes. I have three problems with this. First is that in third grade when that child fails his first end of the year test, you encourage him to study harder for next year. Fourth grade comes around and while he does do better, he still fails. You tell him that in fifth grade, if he keeps the hard work up he will pass.  He gets the scores back and he has failed yet again. You realize it’s not him, but the school that is failing. Because of the NCLB Act you have the opportunity to relocate into a better school. So you take him out and relocate him to the charter school down the road. After five years of being taught to not question why something is the way it is, how is he supposed to excel in a whole new learning environment? The second issue I have is the obvious lack of free expression and creativity. Throughout the reading in the ‘Working Class Schools’ not once do they mention anything artistic the kids created. When doing a science experiment the teacher lead the discussion and experiment and at the end told the students what they should have learned. At no point did she allow the students to talk amongst themselves and determine what they took from the experiment.  My final issue I have is not giving everyone that fair shot to be the best they can be. While we all love to root for the underdog, what if we wouldn’t have to. What if we all started at the same playing field and you either worked hard to become someone or something great and you also had the right to allow yourself to fail or become nothing. While students in poorer communities struggle with learning just the bare minimum, with minimal creative expression, and rude teachers, kids in higher socio-economic classes are flourishing.

In ‘Affluent Professional Schools’ students work out problems through creativity, expressiveness, use many different medians to do this (ie. Plays, clay, murals, books, and essays). In this educational environment these kids thrive. While they are challenged mentally they are also pushed to try new things. The kids that attend these schools, in my mind are very lucky. They do things as a class that they truly enjoy and can take pride in. The created a film, one student wrote it while the others acted in it. They received help editing it and then played it for school all while learning about the ancient Egyptians. While completing a science experiment the teacher commented and said “It doesn’t matter whether it [what they find] is right or wrong. I bring them together and there is value in discussing their ideas.” I think in order for NCLB to work then students need to be taught like this all around. I think with the level of creativity, the work ethic these students have (because they are excited) and exceptional teachers that there isn’t a reason students couldn’t pass an end of the year exam. I think it is important to focus on actually learning rather than focusing on being able to do well on a test. I think a new version of NCLB should focus on the proficiency on schools teachers rather than how they students do on testing. If you a teacher is passionate and good at what they do there is no reason a student couldn’t pass an exam.

Before ever beginning this paper, when we were still talking about the idea of the end product for the year I had already chosen my topic. I wanted to talk about charter schools. I wanted to discuss what they are exactly, were the beneficial, how the teachers felt at the end of the day (compared to regular and ib/ap schools), how are they different, should we have more of them?  I had already started mentally planning my interviews with teachers and asking them to hand out questionnaires to students.

However after doing this research and thinking more in-depth about it I think that teachers should be held more accountable for a student’s performance. We shouldn’t have to rely solely on a standardized test to determine if a student should advance to the next grade level. I believe teachers need to be evaluated yearly as well. They should have to take a written test saying what they struggled teaching, what concepts the students easily understood, did they keep the classroom creative and exciting, and comment on students falling behind and what they did to help guide them. I also think they should also have administrators sit in on classroom time and evaluate their staff. I think that if a teacher is failing to help his/her students then administrators and parents need to know sooner rather than later.

This seems much more difficult of a topic to research and find solid evidence in, however it is much more interesting to me. Thinking back, I have had personal experience with several teachers in high school and middle school that had become bitter and nasty because they are tired of teaching and dealing with kids for a living. Because of this they are half the teacher they were or hoped to be. It makes me wonder, if I had different teachers or attended a different school, would I be where I am today? Would I be further behind or would I soaring in the university of my choice? Teachers should be passionate, excited, helpful, and motivating. Without those qualities they are no more helpful than a computer spitting facts at us. Students need to be treated as individuals and not as numbers or statistics. Students need to be able to relate schooling to real life situations, they need to be able to fully communicate, be able to transfer problem solving skills into their everyday lives, and they need to be creative and innovative. Looking on a global scale, the Unites States is starting to sink lower on the worlds standing as far as the educational rank goes. According to the Huffington post, Korea holds the highest ranked education. The Unites States falls far behind that with a measly 17^th place with Canada beating us at 10^th place.  If school is not teaching us those basic skills we need to compete globally in these changing times then why are tax payers paying hundreds of million dollars to help the education system?

Self-Assessment Reflection

 

1. My goal for this paper was to make the best connection between the readings possible. I didn't want to focus on sumerizing the articles but rather to find things to relate them to eachother. I feel as if i accomplished my goal to the best of my ability even though at some points i do feel like i am just rambling
2. I wasn't great at managing my time. I spent a lot of time reading the articles and doing some outside research before i began the paper. However when it came down to writing i didnt know where to start. Eventually the weekend before the due date i locked myself in my room and began to write. Once i started getting words onto paper the rest of it flowed pretty easily.
3. When i reread the comments everyone made on my paper i was able to sit down and really understand what they meant. Because of the comments abbey and pricilla made i practically changed the entire last page of my paper for the better. i think as a group we all worked well together.
4. Other than the people in my group, i had no outside help on this paper.
5. As a writer i learned that no one sees my writing as i do. I felt like i rambled and wasnt making much sense but my group collectivley told me that they didnt see it that way. I learned that editing it a few times yourself before turning something in is very benifical. I probably would have changed a few more things and i think others probably would have to.
6. the hardest part of this paper was beggining it. Once i put paper to pen it wasnt as dificult but i twiddled my thumbs for a few hours before hand trying to decide where to start. The easiest part was going and reviewing  and annotating that articles from class. while i had notes in my daybook is was a good refresher to sit down and start them over from the beggining. i took risks with the new ending to my paper. i took my more basic ending and i tried to revamp it. I'm not sure if i succeeded but i tried.
7. im proudest of my opening paragraph. I think it is a nice intro to what the paper is about and its something that usually wouldnt write. " You are either bathed in the sea of knowledge or are in a drought of simple minded education. "
8. The last part of my paper needed the most improvment. It had run on sentences and other parts didnt have whole ideas. I went through and completely changed the direction of it and tried to avoid any gramatical errors.
9. for me the writing process has had its up and downs. like i said earlier it was hard for me to start but once i did it poured out of me. I struggled a little bit with the peer editing. I wish i could have had some more input but i also felt like maybe i was a little mean when i was writing on their papers while reading them in class. the final edits were good for me. I struggles with where to begin but once i decided to completely redo the last page, it ended up working out.

 

I think everyone in my group gave me helpful tips and suggestions,

Abbey suggested that i should go further indepth with one of my sentences. It was a little to broad and should be explained better in my later paragraphs. She also pointed out a few gramitcial and puncuational errors for me to correct. She was also very nice and out smiley faces by good paragraphs and good points

Pricilla focused on very specific things i needed to work on which is very helpful. I mentioned that i thought the government needed to have some control and regualtions for the educational system but i was too broad with my ideas and my thoughts on changing NCLB

Andrew was quite through my becuase I was short a copy but he assured that i didnt ramble too much in my paper which i was concerened about before i read it.

The most helpful piece of advice i received was to not be so broad and go into more depth about my ideas.

while it is nice to hear, i though the least helpful advice i got was "good work" i was hoping everyone would be a little more critical. While no one wants to hear or say this needs to be changed, this doesnt flow very well here or whatever, i thought i could have handeled more constructive critisim.

For my final draft i really want to work on getting more in depth. I want to try and expland on my ideas without rambling and making no sense. I really want to focus on editing one specific paragraph where i talked about how kids in failing schools struggle in new ones after being taught with such simple ideas.

exploratory proposal

Kendall O’Neill

Exploratory Paper

After reading and re reading the Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, No Child Left Behind Act 2001, and Creativity in Schools: Every Story Needs a Picture, I have come to the conclusion that not all schools are created equally and we are leaving kids behind left and right. Depending on your socio-economic class you are either given or denied opportunities. You are either bathed in the sea of knowledge or are in a drought of simple minded education.

 The Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work was a very eye opening piece for me. Growing up, I thought we all received the same opportunities; all that mattered is what we make of them. However, that is far from true. Depending on how much money your parents make, where you live, and who you know to get you into that great school your options are very limited. There are very different levels of education, different variations of teaching methods and different attitudes towards students.

Lower income families put their children into local schools which prepare them for failure by teaching them in the simplest form possible. They teach in the form of steps and processes and do not encourage questioning that process or understanding why it is that you would follow that process. These schools are preparing the students for simple, poor income jobs, where they will follow processes. I have three problems with this. First is that in third grade when that child fails his first end of the year test, you encourage him to study harder for next year. Fourth grade comes around and while he does do better, he still fails. You tell him that in fifth grade, if he keeps the hard work up he will pass.  He gets the scores back and he has failed yet again. You realize it’s not him, but the school that is failing. Because of the NCLB Act you have the opportunity to relocate into a better school. So you take him out and relocate him to the charter school down the road. After five years of being taught to not question why something is the way it is, how is he supposed to excel in a whole new learning environment? The second issue I have is the obvious lack of free expression and creativity. Throughout the reading in the ‘Working Class Schools’ not once do they mention anything artistic the kids created. When doing a science experiment the teacher lead the discussion and experiment and at the end told the students what they should have learned. At no point did she allow the students to talk amongst themselves and determine what they took from the experiment.  My final issue I have it is not giving everyone that fair shot to be the best they can be. While we all love to root for the underdog, what if we wouldn’t have to. What if we all started at the same playing field and you either worked hard to become someone or something great and you also had the right to allow yourself to fail or become nothing. While students in poorer communities struggle with learning just the bare minimum, with minimal creative expression, and rude teachers, kids in higher socio-economic classes are flourishing.

In ‘Affluent Professional Schools’ students work out problems through creativity, expressiveness, use many different medians to do this (ie. Plays, clay, murals, books, and essays). In this educational environment these kids thrive. While they are challenged mentally they are also pushed to try new things. The kids that attend these schools, in my mind are very lucky. They do things as a class that they truly enjoy and can take pride in. The created a film, one student wrote it while the others acted in it. They received help editing it and then played it for school all while learning about the ancient Egyptians. While completing a science experiment the teacher commented and said “It doesn’t matter whether it [what they find] is right or wrong. I bring them together and there is value in discussing their ideas.” I think in order for NCLB to work then students need to be taught like this all around. I think with the level of creativity, the work ethic these students have (because they are excited) and exceptional teachers that there isn’t a reason students couldn’t pass an end of the year exam. I think it is important to focus on actually learning rather than focusing on being able to do well on a test. I think a new version of NCLB should focus on the proficiency on schools teachers rather than how they students do on testing. If you a teacher is passionate and good at what they do there is no reason a student couldn’t pass an exam.

Before ever beginning this paper, when we were still talking about the idea of the end product for the year I had already chosen my topic. I wanted to talk about charter schools. I wanted to discuss what they are exactly, were the beneficial, how the teachers felt at the end of the day (compared to regular and ib/ap schools), how are they different, should we have more of them?  I had already started mentally planning my interviews with teachers and asking them to hand out questionnaires to students.

However after doing this research and thinking more in-depth about it I think that teachers should be held more accountable for a student’s performance and not have to rely on a test to tell you if a student has learned what the student should have to be able to advance to the next grade. While in this sense NCLB is beneficial because everyone is graded on the same level, as I’ve stated before we aren’t taught at the same level, so who is to say it is fair we are tested the same way. This seems much more difficult of a topic to research and find solid evidence in, however it is much more interesting to me. Thinking back, I have had personal experience of several teachers in high school and middle school that had become bitter and nasty because they are tired of teaching and dealing with kids for a living. Because of this they are half the teacher they were or hoped to be. Teachers should be passionate, excited, helpful, and motivating. Without those qualities they are no more helpful than a computer spitting facts at us. I think there needs to be government control over the educational process but I don’t believe that NCLB is satisfying those needs. Students need to be treated as individuals and not as numbers or statistics. We need to be able to relate schooling to real life situations, we need to be able to fully communicate and be able to transfer problem solving skills into our everyday lives. Looking on a global scale, the Unites States is starting to sink lower on the worlds standing as fae as an education level goes. According to the Huffington post Korea holds the highest ranking education. The Unites States falls far behind that with a meesly 17^th place and Canada beating us at 10^th place.  If school is not teaching us those basic skills we need to compete globally in these changing times then why are tax payers paying hundreds of million dollars to help the education system?

There are a couple questions that I’m think of doing additional research in, is it worth it for a family to go out and find a way to pay for private school in hope that they will excel and create something for themselves, could a student find a way out on the poor education cycle, what other real options does NCLB give to students in failing environments and schools.