Branciforte's approach to No Child Left Behind

In the Santa Cruz Sentinel on 4-22-07 the article called Reading 'Riting and Recipes: Santa Cruz school takes novel approach to teaching No Child Left Behind poses a very positive way to improve the tests scores of English learners without taking away vital classes that enhance creative expression. I think it's ridiculous that, because schools don't meet certain scores, or do not improve by a certain percentage, schools and students should suffer either by funding cuts or supplementing art and other electives for intense 4-5 hour basic English and math classes. If students are doing poorly on test, due to the fact that they don't speak any English and/or come from immigrant families with little or no education, among other struggles, they need more direct personal help, not punishment. This form of reward and punishment by the sate is merely an example of New Racism in our supposedly "color blind society".

Instead Branciforte Elementary is combining elective courses with reading, writing, and math as well as integrating English learner students into classrooms, instead of separating and isolating them, allowing for a hopeful improvement along with creating tolerance among the students. They, therefore, must work together to improve, whereas many schools put all the English learners together in distinct classrooms overtly expressing differences in the student population, which could be problematic in the future, and at the same time learn the basic math and English that they need.