tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101251402024-03-07T15:13:07.314-09:00NO NCLB.orgThis blog is dedicated to discussion of changing NCLB. If you have any ideas please join the conversation.NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.comBlogger269125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-19217307301867028392010-08-28T07:55:00.005-08:002010-08-28T07:58:48.350-08:00Sorry I have not updated this in a long time. Right now my school is finally being hit hard by this test, test, test mentality. So I am busy with that. You can visit my classroom website here: Mr. F's Class https://sites.google.com/site/mrfsclass/homeNO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-35374882063545957142007-06-07T14:33:00.000-08:002007-06-07T14:34:57.952-08:00Exit Strategies: Finding the way out of Iraq and NCLB<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">School is out. I am done with my one credit art class and I am hoping to do a lot more posting from here on out. Thanks to all of you who have been visiting and reading, even though my posting has been sporadic this last year.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The above article appears in this month </span><a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/">Rethinking Schools</a><span style="font-style: italic;">. I believe it is one of the most important articles I have run across in a long time. Read it! A quick excerpt from a very long article:</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">...speaking to an audience of teachers in New Hampshire last March, Clinton passionately bashed NCLB. "While the children are getting good at filling in all those little bubbles, what exactly are they really learning?" she asked. "How much creativity are we losing? How much of our children's passion is being killed?" She also denounced NCLB's supplemental tutoring sanctions which funnel federal funds to largely unregulated private providers, declaring, "This is Halliburton all over again ...We have these contracts going to these cronies who are chosen largely on a political basis, and we have nothing to show for it." <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tough words. But Clinton voted for the law in 2001. In fact she helped lay the groundwork for it by supporting two decades of summits and business roundtables that enshrined top-down standards and tests as the keys to school improvement. Clinton has blamed all NCLB's failures on mismanagement and underfunding from the Bush Administration, but when not on the stump, she admits she'll vote for reauthorizing it with vague allusion to unspecified "improvements." Maybe Clinton still thinks it "takes a village to raise a child," but so far she's mainly voted for giving them tests. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Similarly, Obama tells his audiences, "No Child Left Behind left the money behind." But he also talks about "the things that were good about No Child Left Behind," like high standards "because U.S. children will have to compete for jobs with students from countries with more rigorous schools." Obama has flirted with vouchers ("I am not close-minded on this issue.") and merit pay, declaring teachers have "got to get more pay, but there's also going to be more accountability...the accountability can't just be based on standardized test performance only, but that has to be part of the mix..." <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This is not to minimize the very real differences that are certain to emerge among parties and candidates over education issues including college aid, vouchers, federal funding levels, and other matters. But the overwhelming federal education issue is NCLB and the test-and-punish regime it's imposing from Washington on every school and district in the country. The heart of any "peace proposal" to end this "war on the public schools" must be an end to the federal mandate to test every student every year in every grade from 3 to 8 and once in high school. But so far the presidential candidates don't seem to get it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">NCLB's "escalation" of testing has forced schools to give some 65 million mandated tests on top of the millions they were already giving. When the law was passed in 2002, 19 states gave annual reading and math tests in grades 3 through 8. Today, under federal mandate, all 50 do. Thanks to NCLB, a large, diverse K-8 school now has 240 ways to fail every year. (The number will rise if a proposal to count the new science tests passes.[1]) <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The tests themselves have become a major obstacle to improving struggling schools. They are not providing useful data for better instruction; they are providing junk data for bad policy or telling us what we already know: that public schools are swamped by the same inequality that exists all around them. Testing every kid every year and measuring the results against benchmarks that no real schools have ever met is not an "accountability" system. It's an enabling instrument for imposing privatizing sanctions and pushing more democratic and promising school improvement strategies to the sidelines. One activist compared NCLB's out-of-control testing plague to the difference between giving a patient a blood test and draining the patient's blood. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">If the real goal was tracking the limited range of achievement progress that standardized tests can capture and spotlighting gaps among student groups, states could develop variations of the sampling techniques the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has used for years. (In fact Maryland did this until NCLB's testing requirements killed it.) Often called the "nation's report card," NAEP provides comparative data about schools and groups across states and grade levels without testing every student every year. And while there are limits and problems with NAEP, as there are with all standardized tests, the use of sampling and restrictions on using the data to impose high stakes penalties on individual students and schools suggest ways to avoid the suffocating nightmare that NCLB's adequate yearly progress system has become. (In contrast, there are those who would like to make NAEP a universal national test tied to national curriculum standards, part of what education reporter John Merrow calls a "surge strategy for NCLB" recommended by Republican candidate and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson among others.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Rolling back NCLB's testing mandates and ending the link between test scores and punitive sanctions are the minimum but mandatory exit strategies for getting out of the NCLB mess. Yet Clinton and Obama have had little specific to say about these crucial details, even though they're both on the Senate Education Committee that's handling NCLB's reauthorization. (So far neither has responded publicly to a February letter sent by ten Democratic Senators to Education Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy declaring that, "We have concluded that the testing mandates of No Child Left Behind in their current form are unsustainable and must be overhauled significantly during the reauthorization process beginning this year." (Obama signed a similar letter in 2006.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><o:p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">To be sure, other strategies will be needed to tackle the very real problems of struggling schools that NCLB has ignored or made worse. (For some specifics, see the recommendations from the <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/FEA_Home.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Forum On Educational Accountability</span></a>.) But as with Iraq, the first step toward a saner policy on NCLB is for would-be leaders to listen to the growing grassroots chorus calling on them to reverse the failing policies that helped create the mess we're in.</span></span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-16502105707410795382007-04-05T08:47:00.000-08:002007-04-05T08:59:52.087-08:00No Child Left Behind leaves School District behind<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I can't believe that it has been two weeks since I last posted! It will begin to be even less now that I am losing my student teacher soon. Anyway, here is a comment from an Alaskan </span><span style="font-style: italic;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">superintendent</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> that appeared in the </span>Anchorage Daily News<span style="font-style: italic;"> yesterday. The man makes lots of sense! Some excerpts:</span><br /><br />There is a significant argument in the halls of Congress whether the choice facing No Child Left Behind is either to "take immediate bold steps to accelerate progress in education" or "jeopardize the future of our nation's children and our competitiveness in the global economy by maintaining the status quo."<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />However, I believe these are not the only two choices. Each choice ignores what public schools are actually good at: local control, creativity, collaboration, entrepreneurship, innovation and creating global citizens.</span> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">NCLB encourages teaching to the test, teaching test-taking skills and limiting curricula to the teaching of reading, math and science at the expense of civics, history, career and technical education, music, art, physical education and health, which are essential to the success of our graduates. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">As Sandra Day O'Connor recently stated, "to survive as a nation, it is vital that our schools teach, and our children understand, our system of government."</span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">In order for this to happen, our students must be engaged in the governance of our schools and in their lives before graduation. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">The national curriculum standards are limited by the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Local districts should decide on curricula to prepare American students to be productive citizens in a global economy.</span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">One thing is clear, and that is, the federal government is an inefficient national credentialing body for the nation's teaching force. The proposed federal standards should be opposed as inappropriate, mathematically flawed and ill-advised additional unfunded mandates for the states. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span></p><p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">We must move away from coercion, sanction and punishment and move toward collaboration, authenticity and trust. </span></p>..<p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">We do need better quality assessments that can inform instruction as well as more comprehensive data systems. The growth model would replace arbitrary caps that ignore the IEP, or Individualized Education Plan, process, individual student needs and school and district characteristics. This will allow local school boards, teachers and principals to focus seriously on the individual needs of special education students and English language learners.</span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">It is clear that the Title I sanctions of choice and supplemental services are failed federal schemes. We should be focused single-mindedly on improving learning for all children but especially for those with the greatest needs. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">This requires more support, not sanctions. A mere 1 percent of eligible students have ever used the choice options. The supplemental Education Services program, while slightly more popular, has been plagued with lack of capacity, inappropriate recruiting, inadequate information, no clear method to track impact and lots of finger-pointing by everyone involved. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">Failed experiments should be discontinued, not rewarded with additional funding and support. Title I sanctions should be dropped entirely.</span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">I oppose increased federal involvement in high school assessments. It is inappropriate to take money from Career and Technical Education programs (Carl Perkins grants) to pay for additional high school assessments, and thus require high schools to do more bureaucratic paperwork without any indication it will actually help student learning. </span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">Current funding for CTE is inadequate even though these programs are effective, popular and have far more ability to prepare students for a global economy than increased testing ever could.</span></p> <p class="story_readable"><span style="font-size:85%;">In conclusion, Congress should amend NCLB to allow a more appropriate federal role in education with accurate and instructionally sensitive accountability focused on individual student learning.<br />... </span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-86689777995418509202007-03-21T13:21:00.000-08:002007-03-21T13:35:59.129-08:00In the No Child Left Behind Shuffle You Can't Tell the Players with a Program<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From Gerald <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bracey</span> come this view of some of the players in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NCLB</span> drama</span>...<br /><br />n the surface, the No Child Left Behind law reflected an orgy of bi-partisanship, passing Congress 487-48. In January, 2002, President Bush eschewed the usual Rose Garden fanfare and flew to Hamilton High School, Hamilton, Ohio where he signed the bill flanked by George Miller (D-Ca.), Teddie Kennedy (D-Ma.), Judd Gregg (R-Vt.), and John <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Boehner</span> (R-Oh.) (Hamilton is in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Boehner's</span> district; in addition, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Boehner</span> had tried on six separate occasions to get vouchers back into the bill).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">At this ceremony, less than three months after 9/11, the applause Bush received was described as "deafening." Later in the day, Bush went with Kennedy and Gregg to related celebrations in Massachusetts and Vermont. </span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Fissures in the unanimity <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">façade</span> soon appeared. The bill was not two weeks old when Democrats attacked it as underfunded. "It's really a 'left no money behind for education budget'" groused Miller. Kennedy said Bush had betrayed him. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Now, with the law up for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">reauthorization</span>, the cracks that were there all along have widened as various posses ride off in all directions, including some surprising ones. Miller, who, I am told, is a real <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">hardass</span> on school accountability, wants to reauthorize the bill with little or no change. Bush and Ed. Secretary Spellings have forcefully argued for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">reauthorization</span> although it is not clear how strong their voices will be when push comes to shove. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Other players include the Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress whose unholy alliance was discussed in my blog "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/the-center-for-american-p_b_42609.html">The Center for American Progress: Progressively Regressive</a>?" At the Center, education is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">honchoed</span> by Cindy Brown, a steering committee member on the Chapter 1 Commission that reported out in 1992. That report essentially described <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">NCLB</span> without all the punitive specifics. But it was all there--adequate yearly progress, results-based accountability, choice, closing or restructuring low-performing schools, etc. It just sat there waiting for Bush adviser Sandy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Kress</span> and Spellings with the help of Education Trust head, Kati Haycock, to put the nasty touches on it (In a recent interview with <em>Education Next</em>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Kress</span> thanked the Trust for being such a courageous ally). Haycock was also on the steering committee of the Chapter 1 Commission. While 9 of the 28 members filed minority dissents, Haycock and Brown were not among them. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">On a path that might be either tangential, parallel or orthogonal to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">NCLB</span>, is a bill by Chris <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Dodd</span> and Vernon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Ehlers</span> that would establish national standards in reading, math and science and then require the National Assessment Governing Board, a gang that has never shot straight on standards in the past, to develop tests to measure the standards. These tests would replace the state-developed tests now in use. Everything would be "voluntary," of course. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">On February 15, 2007, ten Democratic Senators, led by Russ <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Feingold</span> of Wisconsin, wrote to Kennedy and other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee that while they support school accountability, "We have concluded that the testing mandates of No Child Left Behind in their current form are unsustainable and must be overhauled significantly during the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">reauthorization</span> period beginning this year." They offered a series of changes to make the law more "sensible." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The most surprising development--certainly to Bush--is the revolt by 57 members of the House and Senate. Peter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Hoekstra</span> (R-Mich.), a longtime opponent introduced a bill that would let states opt out of many of the testing provisions, something that on the surface would appear to render the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Dodd</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Ehlers</span> bill moot. "So many people are frustrated with the shackles of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">NCLB</span>," said Senator Jim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">DeMint</span> (R-S.C). House Minority Whip, Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who voted for the law first time around now opposes it because, he said, it shifted "control of public schools to the federal government more dramatically than he ever imagined." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">No doubt with a twinkle in his eye, the <em>Washington Post</em>'s <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Amit</span> Paley wrote "In an unusual show of bipartisan cooperation, Democrats and the White House attacked the GOP critics' legislation." Paley quoted Miller, "Rather than work with us in a constructive way to improve this law, this group of Republican lawmakers is trying to dismantle it." California scores at or near the bottom on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">NAEP</span> tests. Does Miller truly believe <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">NCLB</span> will do something about that? </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Fordham</span> Foundation's Mike <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Petrilli</span>, at the Department of Education when the law was first enacted said "Republicans voted for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">NCLB</span> holding their noses. But now with the president so politically weak, conservatives can vote their conscience." (How Bush must envy Putin these days; in their race to see who will be the 21st century's tsar, it's no contest). </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Hoekstra's</span> bill sent <em>Washington Post</em> editors howling: "The proposal would let the states choose whether to meet federal testing mandates--and, incredibly, allow them to tap into millions of dollars of federal education money without ever having to show any results" (hey, just like the Supplemental Educational Services providers do now). That the New York Times didn't emit a similar squeal can only mean that Brent Staples is on vacation. </span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;">Fasten your seat belts.<br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-66013744479002032922007-03-20T13:37:00.000-08:002007-03-20T13:46:51.365-08:00Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a little old but it is important, especially since both the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/21/28nclb.h26.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NEA</span> and AFT have signed up</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> for it. Personally I would still just like to get rid of it or as the <a href="http://nonclb.blogspot.com/2007/03/dozens-in-gop-turn-against-bushs-prized.html">some republicans said </a>the other day, just allow states to opt out, (but without the choice provisions...</span><br /><br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The undersigned education, civil rights, children's, disability, and citizens' organizations are committed to the No Child Left Behind Act's objectives of strong academic achievement for all children and closing the achievement gap. We believe that the federal government has a critical role to play in attaining these goals. We endorse the use of an accountability system that helps ensure all children, including children of color, from low-income families, with disabilities, and of limited English proficiency, are prepared to be successful, participating members of our democracy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">While we all have different positions on various aspects of the law, based on concerns raised during the implementation of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NCLB</span>, we believe the following significant, constructive corrections are among those necessary to make the Act fair and effective. Among these concerns are: over-emphasizing standardized testing, narrowing curriculum and instruction to focus on test preparation rather than richer academic learning; over-identifying schools in need of improvement; using sanctions that do not help improve schools; inappropriately excluding low-scoring children in order to boost test results; and inadequate funding. Overall, the law's emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.</span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;">Recommended Changes in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">NCLB</span></span> <h4><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Progress Measurement</i></span></h4> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">1. Replace the law's arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success actually achieved by the most effective public schools.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">2. Allow states to measure progress by using students' growth in achievement as well as their performance in relation to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">pre</span>-determined levels of academic proficiency.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">3. Ensure that states and school districts regularly report to the government and the public their progress in implementing systemic changes to enhance educator, family, and community capacity to improve student learning.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">4. Provide a comprehensive picture of students' and schools' performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these tests.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">5. Fund research and development of more effective accountability systems that better meet the goal of high academic achievement for all children.</span></p> <h4><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Assessments</i></span></h4> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">6. Help states develop assessment systems that include district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely information about student learning.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">7. Strengthen enforcement of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">NCLB</span> provisions requiring that assessments must:</span></p> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Be aligned with state content and achievement standards;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Be used for purposes for which they are valid and reliable; </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Be consistent with nationally recognized professional and technical standards; </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Be of adequate technical quality for each purpose required under the Act;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Provide multiple, up-to-date measures of student performance including measures that assess higher order thinking skills and understanding; and </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"> Provide useful diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning. </span></li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">8. Decrease the testing burden on states, schools and districts by allowing states to assess students annually in selected grades in elementary, middle schools, and high schools.</span></p> <h4><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Building Capacity</i></span></h4> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">9. Ensure changes in teacher and administrator preparation and continuing professional development that research evidence and experience indicate improve educational quality and student achievement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">10. Enhance state and local capacity to effectively implement the comprehensive changes required to increase the knowledge and skills of administrators, teachers, families, and communities to support high student achievement.</span></p> <h4><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Sanctions</i></span></h4> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">11. Ensure that improvement plans are allowed sufficient time to take hold before applying sanctions; sanctions should not be applied if they undermine existing effective reform efforts.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">12. Replace sanctions that do not have a consistent record of success with interventions that enable schools to make changes that result in improved student achievement.</span></p> <h4><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Funding</i></span></h4> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">13. Raise authorized levels of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NCLB</span> funding to cover a substantial percentage of the costs that states and districts will incur to carry out these recommendations, and fully fund the law at those levels without reducing expenditures for other education programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">14. Fully fund Title I to ensure that 100 percent of eligible children are served.</span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">We, the undersigned, will work for the adoption of these recommendations as central structural changes needed to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">NCLB</span> at the same time that we advance our individual organization's proposals.</span></p> <ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Advancement Project </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Association of School Administrators</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Association of School Librarians (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">AASL</span>), a division of the American Library Association (ALA)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Association of University Women</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Baptist Women's Ministries</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Counseling Association </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a set="yes" href="http://www.adta.org/">American Dance Therapy Association</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Federation of School Administrators (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">AFSA</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">AFSCME</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Humanist Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">American Speech-Language-Hearing Association </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Americans for the Arts</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Annenberg</span> Institute for School Reform</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">ASPIRA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Association of Education Publishers </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Association of School Business Officials International (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">ASBO</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Big Picture Company</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Center for Community Change</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.centerforparentleadership.org/">Center for Parent Leadership</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Children's Aid Society</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Children's Defense Fund</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Church Women United</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Coalition for Community Schools</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.citizenseffectiveschools.org/">Citizens for Effective Schools</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Coalition of Essential Schools </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Communities for Quality Education</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.ccbd.net/">Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Council for Exceptional Children</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Council for Hispanic Ministries of the United Church of Christ</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Council for Learning Disabilities </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Disciples Home Missions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ) </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">DLD</span>/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">CEC</span>) </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Education Action!</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Episcopal Church </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Every Child Matters</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.fairtest.org/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">FairTest</span>: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Forum for Education and Democracy</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Hmong National Development</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Institute for Language and Education Policy</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">International Reading Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">International Technology Education Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Japanese American Citizens League</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a set="yes" href="http://www.ldanatl.org/">Learning Disabilities Association of America</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">League of United Latin American Citizens (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">LULAC</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic justice of the United Church or Christ</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">LDF</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Alliance of Black School Educators</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">NAAPAE</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association for Bilingual Education (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">NABE</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">NAFEA</span>) </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">NAEAACLD</span>) </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association of Pupil Service Administrators</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association of School Psychologists</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Association of Social Workers</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Baptist Convention, USA (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">NBCUSA</span>) </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">NCPIE</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Conference of Black Mayors</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">NCCEP</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Council for the Social Studies</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Council of Churches</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Council of Jewish Women </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Council of Teachers of English</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Education Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Federation of Filipino American Associations </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Indian Education Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Indian School Board Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">NAKASEC</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Mental Health Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Reading Conference</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Rural Education Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National School Boards Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National School Supply and Equipment Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Superintendents <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Roundtable</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">National Urban League</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Native Hawaiian Education Association</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Network of Spiritual Progressives</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">People for the American Way</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Presbyterian Church (USA)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Progressive National Baptist Convention</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Protestants for the Common Good </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Rural School and Community Trust</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Service Employees International Union</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.sswaa.org/">School Social Work Association of America</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Social Action Committee of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">SEARAC</span>)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Stand for Children</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">United Black Christians of the United Church of Christ </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a set="yes" href="http://www.ucc.org/justice/education/">United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">USAction</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Women of Reform Judaism</span></li></ol>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-50339558154424578902007-03-19T11:56:00.000-08:002007-03-19T12:06:55.062-08:00The Center May Not Hold for NCLB<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From </span>US New and World<span style="font-style: italic;"> report comes this is good news, at least I think it's good news</span>...<br /><br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Five years ago, after then House Majority Whip Tom DeLay entered his first vote for President Bush's No Child Left Behind bill, he went on Rush Limbaugh's radio program and apologized.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">"I'm ashamed to say it was just blatant politics," he said. "I can't even remember another time I've actually voted against my principles." (He eventually voted against the final bill.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Today, Bush's signature education law is up for renewal, but Republican loyalty like DeLay's will be harder to come by. Rep. Roy Blunt, the new No. 2 Republican in the House, yesterday joined a group of 57 GOP lawmakers in a revolt. Sens. Mel Martinez and Jon Kyl, the chairs of the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference, also signed on. Like DeLay, both Blunt and Kyl had supported the law in 2001.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">What's changed?</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">"Bush had a lot of political capital then," says Joel Packer, a lobbyist for the National Education Association. "Now, I think [these Republicans] are all feeling–I'd use the word liberated."<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...<br /></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">But the mutiny is against more than Bush. It is also against the law itself. In just five years, the law has transformed public education, giving the federal government more say over what and how children learn than perhaps ever before. To maintain federal funding, all levels have had to change practice: States have had to develop detailed math and reading standards for third through eighth grade, teachers have had to devote weeks of their school year to testing those standards, and schools have had to live by the tests' consequences, facing sticks like forced restructuring or mandatory after-school tutoring if their students don't perform.<br />...<br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Worse yet for Bush, Democrats, the new majority party on Capitol Hill, are also skeptical.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Sending a letter pleading for more flexibility to his Democratic colleagues, Sen. Russ Feingold cited his state of Wisconsin.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">"There is growing frustration around the country about NCLB," he said. "It is our responsibility to ensure that those voices are heard."</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Yesterday's concessions have become today's stubborn demands for reform. Some Republicans, like Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, want to hand control of education back to the states and add in private-school vouchers, opportunities to send kids in low-performing public schools to private school on the federal government's dime. Should Congress continue with NCLB, Hoekstra said yesterday in introducing new legislation, "we will soon have federal government schools."</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Democrats, meanwhile, have focused their complaints once again on funding and testing. Sen. Christopher Dodd, with the strong support of the National Education Association, is now working on a bill that would inject significant flexibility into the law, probably at the cost of the strict accountability definitions the Bush administration and the Senate's Democratic leadership support. Nine Democratic senators joined Feingold in his letter last month, outlining concerns about insufficient funding and excessive mandates...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">One can only continue to hope.</span><br /></span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-49586152778403245722007-03-15T10:57:00.000-08:002007-03-15T11:08:41.154-08:00Oversight Is Set for Beleaguered U.S. Reading Program<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">In the, we can only hope that something good will come from this department, come this from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NYT</span>...</span><br /><br />WASHINGTON, March 14 — Under attack for improprieties uncovered in its showcase literacy program for low-income children, the Department of Education will convene an outside advisory committee to oversee the program, known as Reading First, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One can only wonder what that will look like..</span>.<br />...<br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">After Ms. Spellings left the hearing, Robert <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Slavin</span> of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/j/johns_hopkins_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Johns Hopkins University">Johns Hopkins University</a>, whose Success for All reading program was shut out of many states under Reading First, said he did not think the secretary’s promises went far enough. “I haven’t seen the slightest glimmer of even intention to change,” Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Slavin</span> said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Because schools had already chosen their <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">readng</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">curriculums</span>, promises to clean up Reading First now meant little, he said. He compared them to finding eight innings into a baseball game with a score of 23 to 0 that the opposing team had been playing with cork bats.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">“Then they say, ‘From now on, we’re using honest bats.’ ” Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Slavin</span> said. “I’m sorry, it’s 23 to nothing. You can’t just say, ‘From now on.’ ”</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">With only two Education Department employees in charge of the vast program, the administration relied largely on private contractors to advise states on their applications for grants, screen products for scientific validity and weigh applications. The inspector general found that several of these contractors wrote reading programs and testing instruments that were competing for money, and that they gave preference to products to which they had ties.</span></p><p style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms. Spellings has maintained, and said again under questioning Wednesday, that the problems with Reading First occurred before she became education secretary.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">She denied accusations from a former political appointee at the department, Michael <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Petrilli</span>, who said she had essentially run Reading First from her post as domestic policy adviser at the White House...</span></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">We will wait and see...</span><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-6098886668378144972007-03-15T10:42:00.000-08:002007-03-15T11:09:15.117-08:00Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush's Prized 'No Child' Act<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >From <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">WaPo</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates...<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >But read further to find the real motivation</span><span style="font-size:85%;">...<br />...<br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Under </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" style="font-size:85%;">Hoekstra's</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> bill, any state could essentially opt out of No Child Left Behind after one of two actions. A state could hold a referendum, or two of three elected entities -- the governor, the legislature and the state's highest elected education official -- could decide that the state would no longer abide by the strict rules on testing and the curriculum.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Senate bill is slightly less permissive, but it would allow a state to negotiate a "charter" with the federal government to get away from the law's mandates.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">In both cases, the states that opt out would still be eligible for federal funding, but strictures...</span></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Did you catch that, they would opt out and under the senate bill they could "negotiate a 'charter,'" sounds like a sneaky way to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">privitization</span>? And what exactly does, "those states could exempt any education program but special education from No Child Left Behind" mean</span><span style="font-size:85%;">? But there is more...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"So many people are frustrated with the shackles of No Child Left Behind," </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" style="font-size:85%;">DeMint</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> said. "I don't think anyone argues with measuring what we're doing, but the fact is, even the education community . . . sees us just testing, testing, testing, and reshaping the curriculum so we look good."</span></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >We certainly agree with that!</span></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Republican lawmakers involved in crafting the new legislation say Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and other administration officials have moved in recent days to tamp down dissent within the GOP. Since January, Spellings has met or spoken with about 40 Republican lawmakers on the issue, said Katherine </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" style="font-size:85%;">McLane</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, the Education Department's press secretary.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"We've made a lot of progress in the past five years in serving the children who have traditionally been </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" style="font-size:85%;">underserved</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> in our education system," </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" style="font-size:85%;">McLane</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> said. "Now is not the time to roll back the clock on those children."</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">But so far, the administration's efforts have borne little fruit, Republican critics said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"Republicans voted for No Child Left Behind holding their noses," said Michael J. </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" style="font-size:85%;">Petrilli</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, an Education Department official during Bush's first term who is now a critic of the law. "But now with the president so politically weak, conservatives can vote their conscience."</span></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >It all gets curiouser and curiouser.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-58334046949303536652007-03-15T09:11:00.000-08:002007-03-15T11:10:13.475-08:00Guatemalan Teachers: No Privatization<span class="normaltext4" style="font-size:85%;"><p><span style="font-style: italic;">What will happen in the US when this happens here? I wonder...</span><br /></p><p>Guatemala, Mar 14 (Prensa Latina) Teachers took to the streets of Guatemala City on Wednesday to demand socioeconomic improvements and protest government plans to privatize education.</p> <p> At least 10,000 teachers took part in the largest demonstration of the year, staged from the Ministry of Education to the Congress of the Republic.</p> <p> Union leader Hugo Efrain <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bareda</span> described a government-promoted Education Reform bill currently under discussion in Congress as a violation of the Constitution.</p> <p> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Romualdo</span> Maldonado, from the teachers union in western <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Quetzaltenango</span>, said the education reform is part of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">neoliberal</span> measures to curb the State s role.</p> <p> Guatemala has about 90,000 state teachers in the 17,000 public schools countrywide.</p> <p> State teachers have declared themselves in permanent assembly and threatened new steps if the government fails to back down from its <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">neoliberal</span>, privatizing program.</p></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-23626088087875479252007-03-14T15:11:00.000-08:002007-03-14T15:19:18.614-08:00'No Child' target is called out of reach<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From</span> MSNBC:<br /><br />"There is a zero percent chance that we will ever reach a 100 percent target," said Robert L. Linn, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA. "But because the title of the law is so rhetorically brilliant, politicians are afraid to change this completely unrealistic standard. They don't want to be accused of leaving some children behind."<br />...<br />...critics face an uphill challenge because of the rhetorical power of the argument for a universal proficiency target and a deadline. Anything less, advocates say, will hurt children, especially society's most vulnerable: poor and minority students.</span><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>...</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;">President Bush is pushing this year for reauthorization of one of his top domestic programs. In a joint House-Senate hearing yesterday, senior Democrats and Republicans said they would work toward renewal of the law. But in interviews in the days before the hearing, some key lawmakers said that universal proficiency is all but impossible to meet.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>"The idea of 100 percent is, in any legislation, not achievable," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate education committee. "There isn't a member of Congress or a parent or a student that doesn't understand that."</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>Kennedy added that the law's universal proficiency standard served to inspire students and teachers. But "it's too early in the process to predict whether we'll consider changes" to the 2014 deadline, he said.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. education secretary and supporter of the law, said Americans don't want politicians to lower standards.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>"Are we going to rewrite the Declaration of Independence and say only 85 percent of men are created equal?" Alexander asked. "Most of our politics in America is about the disappointment of not meeting the high goals we set for ourselves."</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;">...testing experts say there are vast academic differences among children of the same racial or socioeconomic background. Countries with far less racial diversity than the United States still find wide variations in student performance. Even in relatively homogenous Singapore, for example, a world leader in science and math tests, a quarter of the students tested are not proficient in math, and 49 percent fall short in science.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>"Most people are afraid that once you acknowledge this variation, then you have to tolerate major inequities between black and white students," said Daniel Koretz, a Harvard University education professor. "That's not necessarily true, but that's why the political world does not really address the issue."</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>Although no major school system is known to have reached 100 percent proficiency, Education Department officials pointed to individual schools across the country that have reached the standard as evidence that it is possible. In Virginia, schools have achieved universal proficiency on reading and math tests 45 times since 2002, officials said.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>The only school they cited in the Washington region as having met that mark was the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, a regional school with selective admissions. Principal Evan M. Glazer said his school, which has an elite reputation, was hardly a representative example. On whether the nation can replicate that success, Glazer said: "I don't think it's very realistic."</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span>Fairfax County School Superintendent Jack D. Dale said it was "absurd" to expect total proficiency, especially when federal officials require immigrant children who have been in U.S. schools for little more than a year to meet the standard. His 164,000-student system, the largest in the Washington region, is sparring with the Education Department over the immigrant testing rule.</span></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span></span></p><script></script><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="byLine"></span><b><strong></strong></b></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-59152460239034396882007-03-13T10:12:00.000-08:002007-03-13T10:19:57.831-08:00Education at Risk<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:small;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a long and important <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">article</span> from </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Edutopia</span><span style="font-style: italic;">. Please read the whole thing but here are my excerpts...</span><br /><br />Nearly a quarter century ago, "A Nation at Risk" hit our schools like a brick dropped from a penthouse window. One problem: The landmark document that still shapes our national debate on education was misquoted, misinterpreted, and often dead wrong...<br />...</span><br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> In short, it's never really a choice between supporting or rejecting school reform. It is, or should be, a choice between <em>this</em> reform and <em>that</em> reform. Yet today, a movement that stretches back several decades has narrowed us down to a single set of take- 'em-or-leave-'em initiatives. How did this happen? </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Well, it didn't "just happen." What we now call school reform isn't the product of a gradual consensus emerging among educators about how kids learn; it's a political movement that grew out of one seed planted in 1983. I became aware of this fact some years ago, when I started writing about education issues and found that every reform initiative I read about -- standards, testing, whatever -- referred me back to a seminal text entitled "A Nation at Risk." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Naturally, I assumed this bible of school reform was a scientific research study full of charts and data that <em>proved</em> something. Yet when I finally looked it up, I found a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">thirtypage</span> political document issued by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, a group convened by Ronald Reagan's secretary of education, Terrell Bell.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> In this anxious context, Bell put together an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">eighteenmember</span> commission to report on the quality of education in America. Through the U.S. Department of Education's </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> National Commission on Excellence in Education, he hoped to link the country's economic woes to the state of our schools. Bell got all he wanted and more. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> When the report was released in April 1983, it claimed that American students were plummeting academically, that schools suffered from uneven standards, and that teachers were not prepared. The report noted that our economy and national security would crumble if something weren't done. But the sobering report received immediate publicity for an almost comically accidental reason. As commission member Gerald <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Holton</span> recalls, Reagan thanked the commissioners at a White House ceremony for endorsing school prayer, vouchers, and the elimination of the Department of Education. In fact, the newly printed blue-cover report never mentioned these pet passions of the president. "The one important reader of the report had apparently not read it after all," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Holton</span> said. Reagan had pulled a fast one, for political gain. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Reporters fell on the report like a pack of hungry dogs. The next day, "A Nation at Risk" made the front pages.<br />...<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> In truth, "A Nation at Risk" could have been read as almost any sort of document. Basically, it just called for "More!" -- more science, more math, more art, more humanities, more social studies, more school days, more hours, more homework, more basics, more higher-order thinking, more lower-order thinking, more creativity, more everything. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> The document had, however, been commissioned by the Reagan White House, so conservative Republicans controlled its interpretation and uses. What they zeroed in on was the notion of failing schools as a national-security crisis. Republican ideas for school reform became a charge against a shadowy enemy, a kind of war on mediocrity.</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">...</span><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> From the start, however, some doubts must have risen about the crisis rhetoric, because in 1990, Admiral James Watkins, the secretary of energy (yes, energy), commissioned the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sandia</span> Laboratories in New Mexico to document the decline with some actual data. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Systems scientists there produced a study consisting almost entirely of charts, tables, and graphs, plus brief analyses of what the numbers signified, which amounted to a major "Oops!" As their puzzled preface put it, "To our surprise, on nearly every measure, we found steady or slightly improving trends." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> One section, for example, analyzed SAT scores between the late 1970s and 1990, a period when those scores slipped markedly. ("A Nation at Risk" spotlighted the decline of scores from 1963 to 1980 as dead-bang evidence of failing schools.) The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Sandia</span> report, however, broke the scores down by various subgroups, and something astonishing emerged. Nearly every subgroup -- ethnic minorities, rich kids, poor kids, middle class kids, top students, average students, low-ranked students -- held steady or improved during those years. Yet overall scores dropped. How could that be? </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Simple -- statisticians call it Simpson's paradox: The average can change in one direction while all the subgroups change in the opposite direction if proportions among the subgroups are changing. Early in the period studied, only top students took the test. But during those twenty years, the pool of test takers expanded to include many lower-ranked students. Because the proportion of top students to all students was shrinking, the scores inevitably dropped. That decline signified not failure but rather progress toward what had been a national goal: extending educational opportunities to a broader range of the population.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Which approach will actually improve education? Here, I think, language can lead us astray. In everyday life, we use <em>reform</em> and <em>improve</em> as synonyms (think: "reformed sinner"), so when we hear "school reform," we think "school improvement." Actually, <em>reform</em> means nothing more than "alter the form of." Whether a particular alteration is an improvement depends on what is altered and who's doing the judging. Different people will have different opinions. Every proposed change, therefore, calls for discussion. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> The necessary discussion cannot be held unless the real alternatives are on the table. Today, essentially three currents of education reform compete with each other. One sees inspiration and motivation as the keys to better education. Reform in this direction starts by asking, "What will draw the best minds of our generation into teaching? What will spark great teachers to go beyond the minimum? What will motivate kids to learn and keep coming back to school? </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> In this direction lie proposals for building schools around learners, gearing instruction to individual goals and learning styles, pointing education toward developing an ever-broader range of human capacities, and phasing in assessment tools that get at ever-subtler nuances of achievement. Overall, this approach promotes creative diversity as a social good. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> A second current, the dominant one, sees discipline and structure as the keys to school improvement. Reform in this direction starts by asking, "What does the country need, what must all kids know to serve those needs, and how can we enforce the necessary learning?" In this direction, the curriculum comes first, schools are built around the curriculum, and students are required to fit themselves into a given structure, controlled from above. As a social good, it promotes national unity and strength. This is the road we're on now with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">NCLB</span>. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> A third possible direction goes back to diversity and individualism -- through privatization, including such mechanisms as tuition tax credits, vouchers (enabling students to opt out of the public school system), and home schooling. Proponents include well-funded private groups such as the Cato Institute that frankly promote a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">freeenterprise</span> model for schooling: Anyone who wants education should pay for it and should have the right to buy whatever educational product he or she desires. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong class="subheadright">What's Next?</strong></span> </p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Don't be shocked if <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">NCLB</span> ends up channeling American education into that third current, even though it seems like part of the mainstream get-tough approach. Educational researcher Gerald <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Bracey</span>, author of <em>Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered</em>, writes in <em>Stanford</em> magazine that "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">NCLB</span> aims to shrink the public sector, transfer large sums of public money to the private sector, weaken or destroy two Democratic power bases -- the teachers' unions -- and provide vouchers to let students attend private schools at public expense." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Why? Because <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">NCLB</span> is set up to label </span><em style="font-weight: bold;">most</em><span style="font-weight: bold;"> American public schools as failures in the next six or seven years. Once a school flunks, this legislation sets parents free to send their children to a school deemed successful. But herds of students moving from failed schools to (fewer) successful ones are likely to sink the latter. And then what? Then, says <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">NCLB</span>, the state takes over.</span></span> </p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> And there's the rub. Can "the state" -- that is, bureaucrats -- run schools better than professional educators? What if they fail, too? What's plan C?</span></span> </p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">NCLB</span> does not specify plan C. Apparently, that decision will be made when the time comes. But with some $500 billion per year -- the sum total of all our K-12 education spending in this country -- at stake, and with politicians' hands on all the levers, you can be pretty certain the decision will not be made by those whose field of expertise is learning. It will be made by those whose field of expertise is power. </span></p><p> </p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-size:small;" ></span></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-25833207009547412162007-03-13T09:51:00.000-08:002007-03-13T09:52:27.824-08:00There's Always Money For War<h4 style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="author"><span style="font-style: italic;">Jared Bernstein makes nothing but sense...</span><br /></span></span></h4><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Okay, this is going to sound</strong> really naïve. It’s the kind of question you’d expect from an earnest, if not slightly annoying, 12-year-old, not from a hard-boiled wonk like yours truly. But why is it that our representatives can easily raise endless amounts of money for war, but can’t adequately fund human needs?</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Exhibit #1</strong>: <em>The Washington Post</em> recently ran <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501626.html" target="_blank">an important article</a> documenting the loss of child-care subsidies to low-income, working parents. One of the lessons from welfare reform is that such work supports are a critical component of a pro-work, anti-poverty agenda. But because the program is terribly underfunded—fewer than a fifth of eligible people receive help—there’s a huge waiting list, and families are left to give up on work or patch together less-than-desirable child-care situations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Exhibit #2</strong> : If the president gets his way on budget requests over the next few years, and he always has, the Congressional Budget Office tells us that spending on the Iraq war will soon top $500 billion—$746 billion if you throw in Afghanistan. According to OMBWatch, the Congress will soon begin evaluating the largest supplemental funding bill ever requested by an administration: just shy of $100 billion, mostly for the war on terror and its sundry components.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Exhibit #3</strong> : We currently spend about $5 billion a year at the federal level on the block grant that funds child care. Last year, we added a $1 billion increase over five years. A bill to dedicate $6 billion more died in the Senate. Because these values are not adjusted for either inflation or population growth, the demand for child-care slots is outpacing capacity. According to the Bush administration’s own budget, if we fail to devote more resources to child care, by 2010, the families of 300,000 fewer children will get the help they need.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Exhibit #4</strong> : I recently <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_minwage_tax_incentives_testimony_01102007" target="_blank">testified</a> before the Senate Finance Committee on the question of whether there needed to be $8 billion worth of tax cuts to businesses to offset the impact of the federal minimum wage increase. I argued that the cuts were unnecessary, but in this context, consider this point: Because tax cuts must now be paid for, the committee was able to come up with $8 billion of offsets to pay for these cuts. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In other words, when they want to, Congress can allocate or raise money. The problem, as put by my colleague <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_living_standards_and_ed_testimony" target="_blank">Lawrence Mishel</a>, is “... the direct consequence of maintaining other priorities. Some [policy makers] are wedded to maintaining the recent tax cuts. Many more believe we have to spend whatever it takes for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ... [o]thers believe that moving toward a balanced budget is essential. Whatever one thinks of these positions it is clear that the result is that human capital investments get the leftover fiscal scraps.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">For those of us unhappy with this state of affairs, who believe that these are the wrong priorities, the big—giant, really—question is what has to change? </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The answer, I think, comes from a meeting of top-down and bottom-up. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Today’s priorities are the result of politicians’ perceptions that their constituents, at least the ones they care about, want government to wage war and cut taxes, not to provide child and health care.</span> Thus, the first step in turning this around is to tap and nurture demand among the electorate for the best solutions to the problems we face. I’ve stressed child care for low-income workers because it’s so important to their ability to escape poverty, but think of national health care in this light, along with retirement security and the inequalities associated with globalization.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Progressive policy advocates need to shape and promote an <a href="http://www.sharedprosperity.org/" target="_blank">agenda</a> that reaches people on these issues and is at the scale of the challenges they face. If such an agenda is articulated by a 2008 candidate, it may well start to resonate and reverberate in precisely the way that’s needed to reshape the priorities of those who hold the purse strings. Then I can go back to being a hard-boiled wonk instead of a naïve ingénue who wants to trade guns for butter.</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-18158685366842001862007-03-13T08:52:00.000-08:002007-03-13T08:54:55.552-08:00Tell Me This Isn't How NCLB Plays Out<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">God, I hope Tom Hoffman is not right on this ...</span><br /><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">now - 2008</span>: no change.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2008</span>: Democrats take the presidency and increase their majorities in the House and Senate.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2009</span>: Democrats pass NCLB reform which increases funding but also vastly increases complexity and cost. Republicans vote against it for "watering down" parts of the law that were completely impossible and/or nonsensical from the beginning.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2010</span>: Republicans hang the increasingly unpopular NCLB around the Democrats neck and run against it and teachers unions and in favor of Federalism and re-establishing local control (and charter schools & vouchers).</span></li></ul>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-33430826623570014812007-03-12T16:33:00.000-08:002007-03-12T16:37:56.212-08:00NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND HAS FLUNKED<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From the</span> Chicago Defender <span style="font-style: italic;">comes this reasoned <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">commentary</span>...</span><br /><br />The Commission on No Child Left Behind does not tell America what it really needs to know: Is the No Child Left Behind Act (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NCLB</span>) working? If it isn't working, will it succeed by the 2014 deadline? The answers to both of these questions, unfortunately, are no...<br /><br />...Many people who care about improving American education want to save <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">NCLB</span>. It is rare for an administration to do more than merely talk about improving education, and never before has the country focused on the real problem of the "soft bigotry of low expectations." Many people probably believe that it would be a shame to loose this unique opportunity for national educational reform. <span style="font-weight: bold;">But what is the point of saving legislation that is not working and that is fundamentally flawed?</span></span> <p style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The problem with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">NCLB</span> is that out of the smorgasbord of educational reforms, the Bush Administration selected the ones which suit its conservative ideology best, not the ones that educational researchers have shown to be most likely to succeed and produce the biggest achievement gains.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">NCLB's</span> heart is an accountability-based reform, but this type of reform has a weak track record.</span> A review of accountability reforms published in the American Journal of Education last year concluded that <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NCLB's</span> chances were "neutral at best.</span>" Why is such a monumental educational initiative centered on one of the least promising policies?</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">An effective national educational reform program should begin by expanding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">pre</span>-kindergarten programs</span> like the successful one now operating in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This program has produced significant gains for Hispanic and black children. There is a large body of research showing the benefits of quality early childhood education.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The commissioners agree and state that "half of the white-African American achievement gap in 12<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">th</span> grade can be explained by the gaps in achievement in 1st grade." <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">NCLB</span>, however, does little in the area of early childhood education. Because the commissioners are trapped within the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">NCLB</span> framework, they too marginalize the issue of early childhood education and relegate their discussion of it to one-third of the last chapter of their report.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Given that perhaps 50 percent of racial achievement gaps are due to differences in early childhood education, how can an educational reform dedicated to eliminating racial achievement gaps not make early childhood education one of its major components? </span>A real assessment of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">NCLB</span> would point out that the Act has ignored highly effective reforms like early childhood education, reducing class sizes, small schools and school integration in favor of something that is "neutral at best."</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">While there are some good recommendations in Beyond <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">NCLB</span>, the authors are mainly trapped by the flawed assumptions and biases of the Act. If we really want to leave no child behind, we have to get beyond <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">NCLB</span> and the Commission's report also.</span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:78%;">Special to the Defender from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">BlackNews</span>.com</span><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-3398012739649733152007-03-12T11:05:00.000-08:002007-03-12T11:06:30.881-08:00The Missing Variable: What Bill Gates Didn't Tell The Senate<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Gary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Stanger</span> knows that Bill Gate's main motivation is to create a large educated workforce that will compete for jobs, and therefore be payed less...</span><br /><br />No one should ever question Bill Gates’ generosity or commitment to improving American schools. His analysis however, should be subject to debate...He used his invitation to testify as an opportunity to delineate the failings of American high schools. His testimony also implied a correlation between test scores and Microsoft’s inability to fill 3,000 positions for high-skill workers.<br /><br />Perhaps it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hasn</span>’t occurred to Mr. Gates or the Senators questioning him that Microsoft has become an undesirable place to work.<br /><br />Don’t believe me? <em>Business Week</em> is but one publication chronicling the difficulties Microsoft has attracting and retaining talent. It’s articles, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_39/b3952001.htm">Troubling Exits at Microsoft</a> & <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc20050728_5127_tc024.htm">Revenge of the Nerds - Again</a> offer a primer on how not to sustain organizational innovation.<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">"There was a lot of buzz around the Google [employment recruiting] table and not a lot around the Microsoft table," says Bob Richard, associate director of employer relations at MIT. (<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_39/b3952001.htm">source</a>)</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">One web site claims that Microsoft is doing little to attract recent graduates.<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">What is really disturbing about the Microsoft connection with the H-1B issue is that they are not even making a show of trying to hire US high-tech workers. Microsoft did not attempt to recruit at <strong>any</strong> of the 22 California State University campuses, where many of the high-tech US computer workers graduate. Microsoft is also not participating at this year's Engineering Job Fair at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">CSUS</span>. (<a href="http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=21718">source</a>)</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Gates also fails to acknowledge a trend regarding the career aspirations of young people. The USA Today article, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2006-12-06-gen-next-entrepreneurs_x.htm">Gen Y Makes a Mark and Their Imprint is Entrepreneurship</a>, describes how young Americans are less attracted to jobs in large corporations. </span><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">"People are realizing they don't have to go to work in suits and ties and don't have to talk about budgets every day," says Ben Kaufman, 20, founder of a company that makes <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">iPod</span> accessories. "They can have a job they like. They can create a job for themselves." (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2006-12-06-gen-next-entrepreneurs_x.htm">source</a>)</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"> Other analyses of employment conditions at Microsoft may be found <a href="http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2004/09/microsoft-layoffs-hiring-and.html">here</a> & <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/09/23.html#a8291">here</a>. Like most large American companies, Microsoft has also outsourced thousands of jobs to other countries.<br /><br />Microsoft might be better served by creating more attractive working conditions and responding to the market than by beating up on high schools.</span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-81473733489851011282007-03-09T12:53:00.000-09:002007-03-09T12:55:58.971-09:00Article challenges 'No Child' law<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This from New Hampshire. I will never understand why there has not been more of this throughout the country these last five years.</span><br /><br /> One of the proposed warrant articles on the Shaker Regional School District agenda has drawn attention from Washington.<br /><br />The article, a non-binding resolution, recognizes the goals of the No Child Left Behind mandates to raise academic achievement, but says the law itself has some serious flaws and that include unfunded mandates and "costly testing of students with misleading results."<br /><br />"Now therefore, be it resolved that the Shaker Regional School District is committed to either correcting and responsibly funding or repealing the (No Child Left Behind) act," the article reads....<br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-86273512936617023882007-03-08T11:36:00.000-09:002007-03-08T11:42:22.046-09:00NOT WORTHY OF A PASSING GRADE: The No Child Left Behind Act<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From</span> <a href="http://eurweb.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">EURweb</span></a><span style="font-style: italic;"> comes this assessment of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NCLB</span>. The author sees <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">early</span> childhood education as the key to success. That's <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">OK</span> but I did not think we were looking for expensive solutions, or ones that might have a chance of actually working...</span><br /><br /> ...<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">NCLB's</span> heart is an accountability-based reform, but this type of reform has a weak track record. A review of accountability reforms published in the American Journal of Education last year concluded that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NCLB's</span> chances were "neutral at best." Why is such a monumental educational initiative centered on one of the least promising policies? </span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> An effective national educational reform program should begin by expanding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">pre</span>-kindergarten programs like the successful one now operating in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This program has produced significant gains for Hispanic and black children. There is a large body of research showing the benefits of quality early childhood education. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> The commissioners agree and state that "half of the white-African American achievement gap in 12<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">th</span> grade can be explained by the gaps in achievement in 1st grade." <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">NCLB</span>, however, does little in the area of early childhood education. Because the commissioners are trapped within the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">NCLB</span> framework, they too marginalize the issue of early childhood education and relegate their discussion of it to one-third of the last chapter of their report. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> Given that perhaps 50 percent of racial achievement gaps are due to differences in early childhood education, how can an educational reform dedicated to eliminating racial achievement gaps not make early childhood education one of its major components? A real assessment of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">NCLB</span> would point out that the Act has ignored highly effective reforms like early childhood education, reducing class sizes, small schools and school integration in favor of something that is "neutral at best." </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"> While there are some good recommendations in Beyond <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">NCLB</span>, the authors are mainly trapped by the flawed assumptions and biases of the Act. If we really want to leave no child behind, we have to get beyond <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">NCLB</span> and the Commission's report also. </span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-8956013152248890752007-03-08T09:58:00.000-09:002007-03-08T10:03:35.123-09:00Don't Take This to the Bank, But...<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NCLBlog</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br />March 8, 2007 08:45 AM</span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">This bit of speculation may not be worth the paper it's written on, but...there's some talk that we can rule out 2008 as the year when <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NCLB</span> will be reauthorized. The idea is that election-year politics will prevent Congress from passing the bill during 2008, which leaves 2007 and 2009 still in the running...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...<br /></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Senate Education Committee is moving faster than the House in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">NCLB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">reauthorization</span> process, meaning that they held their <a target="_blank" href="http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_03_06/2007_03_06.html">second hearing</a> today, while the House has not begun their hearings. For bettors on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">NCLB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">reauthorization</span> date, I think this slows things down considerably. <span> </span></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The result: 2009 emerges as the favorite. But I'd sooner bet on the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.protrade.com/content/DisplayArticle.html?sp=S87a2cfd0-c78a-11db-bd62-657f60fbe801">Washington Nationals</a><br /></span> (ranked 30<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> out of 30 teams in this analysis) winning the World Series than lay down money on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">NCLB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">timeline</span>. </p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Why do we prolong what this horrible bill is doing to children? Because it's not about kids, it's <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">about</span> politics. (See Below)</span><br /></span></p><p> </p><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-74587110558866052382007-03-08T08:52:00.001-09:002007-03-08T08:52:33.911-09:00Republican Congressman to Introduce No Child Left Behind Alternative<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From the</span> <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Cybercast</span> News Service</a>. <span style="font-style: italic;">There are moments, and issues, where I do, actually agree with right wing republicans and this is one..</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:78%;"> By <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Monisha</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bansal</span><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">CNSNews</span>.com Staff Writer<br />March 08, 2007</span><br /><br /><b> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">CNSNews</span>.com) - </b> With the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NCLB</span>) scheduled for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">reauthorization</span> this year, some in Washington are judging the effects of the federal education policy.<br /><br />Rep. Pete <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Hoekstra</span> (R-Mich.), now a member of the House minority, plans to create his own education proposal, because he is unhappy about the bureaucratic elements that have arisen over the last several years.<br /><br />"You have a bunch of unintended consequences out of No Child Left Behind that destroy our public education system," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Hoekstra</span> said at a discussion at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"With No Child Left Behind we shifted down the road toward federal government education," he said. "We are now on the road to a national curriculum, national accountability, national testing ... and then we will also have a process of federally mandated corrections standards for those who don't meet the standards."</span><br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Hoekstra</span> added, "Every school in the country will begin to look exactly the same. Say goodbye to local control, and say hello to federal government schools."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Under his proposal to be introduced next week, the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act of 2007, states would no longer be required to follow regulations tied to federal funding, and it would allow them to "assume full responsibility for the educational needs of its students."</span><br /><br />But Andrew <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Rotherham</span>, co-director of the education think tank Education Sector and a member of the Virginia State Board of Education, said, "The reason we're in the jam we're in is in no small part because of the states."<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Rotherham</span> said the federal government has had to intervene to improve equity in America's school systems as well as the quality of education.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"It just doesn't work," Susan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Neuman</span>, former assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the Department of Education, said of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">NCLB</span>. "<span style="font-size:100%;">We've stopped improvement with greater accountability."</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br />Under the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">NCLB</span>, students take 14 standardized tests between grades three and 11 on math and reading. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Hoekstra</span> noted that this number is likely to grow with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">reauthorization</span> to 84 or more standardized tests as more subjects are added.</span><br /><br />Bush has mandated that children be proficient in math and reading by 2014. <span style="font-weight: bold;">"This notion that by 2014 all children will be proficient is a fantasy, and it's rhetoric and it's unfortunate, and it's turning people against and afraid of our schools,"</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Neuman</span> said.<br /><br />Neal <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">McCluskey</span>, a political analyst with the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, told <b> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Cybercast</span> News Service</b> that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Hoekstra's</span> proposal "probably won't be enacted given the political circumstances."<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Hoekstra</span> was cast into the House minority when Democrats swept control of the chamber in November.<br /><br />"I think a lot of this depends on how badly President Bush wants to have a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">reauthorization</span> of his education law as part of his legacy," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">McCluskey</span> said. "If he wants it badly enough, I think he will be willing to compromise [with congressional Democrats].<br /><br />"I think we will definitely see it happen before he leaves office," he said.<br /><br />"Virtually all behavior in Washington over the last several years has been covered by political considerations," said former House Majority Leader Dick <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Armey</span> (R-Texas). "Politics is a curious form of juvenile delinquency."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Armey</span> said the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">NCLB</span> is not about effective policy, but about politics.</span></span><br /><br />"No Child Left Behind has always been a major political initiative of the Bush administration, and it has scarcely been anything other than that," he said. <span style="font-weight: bold;">"There will be very little about this education bill that will be intellectual, and a whole heck of a lot that will be political and emotive."</span><br /><br />"Federal education programs live or die by whether or not they work politically, not academically," said <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">McCluskey</span>.<br /><br />But Andrew <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Coulson</span>, director of the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom, defended the intent of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">NCLB</span>, even though he is a strong critic of the program.<br /><br />"The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">NCLB's</span> goals of raising academic achievement and diminishing the gaps between <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">socio</span>-economic groups are admirable and universally popular," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Coulson</span> said.<br /><br />"But the regulatory means by which the law tries to achieve those goals is ineffective, harmful, contrary to policies that actually do work, and unconstitutional," he said, noting that the U.S. Constitution does not address education.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Coulson</span> said students would be better served by allowing school choice or vouchers.<br /><br />"A vast body of empirical research points to competitive education markets as significantly better than bureaucratically-run school systems in achieving all of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">NCLB's</span> goals," he said.<br /><br />"Parents will become meaningful consumers," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">McCluskey</span> added, as they will choose the schools that serve their children best.<br /><br />But <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Neuman</span> disagreed. "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Some of you believe choice alone will make a difference. It will not," she said. "We know that from the existing provisions in No Child Left Behind."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I applaud the reporter. This is a piece that offers <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">different</span> views of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">NCLB</span>. There's plenty her to agree and disagree with. And I <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">never</span> thought that I would agree with what Dick <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Armey</span> has to say, "</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">NCLB</span> is not about effective policy, but about politics."</span></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-72288954908958660222007-03-07T16:13:00.000-09:002007-03-07T16:16:01.224-09:00NCLB needs to be replaced<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> A great letter from the Petuluma (CA)</span> Argus-Courier<br /><br />How long will it finally take until we realize that pouring more money into enforcement of this law, and that tweaking its most egregious problems, will get our public education system nowhere? NCLB needs to be replaced with a genuine national commitment to the education of our children, a commitment that’s designed to provide a public school environment for our children that promotes creativity and critical thinking. I can’t believe that any administrator or legislator actually buys the notion that turning our children into minimally- to high-scoring standardized test-takers will keep America safe from its enemies and our citizens competitive in the global economy, and will maintain our fragile position as the leader of the free world.<br /><br />Some administrators will continue to defend this law, its testing mandates, and its punitive stance. Some will continue to blame its problems on lack of funding. Until, that is, enough of us with children in this system let it be known that we don’t want our education resources wasted in this way, and that we want real change in both the way we educate our public school students, and in how we measure their improvement.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Here! Here!</span><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-1757815842038474862007-03-07T15:21:00.000-09:002007-03-07T16:04:58.174-09:00Critics Say No Child Left Behind Report Misses Real Problems<div class="teaser"> <h4 style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This from Livia Gershon of</span> <a href="http://newstandardnews.net/">The New Standard</a><br /></span></h4><h4><span style="font-size:85%;">An ‘elite’ commission that has reviewed President Bush’s keystone education policy avoided difficult issues and has recommended an expansion of standardized testing.</span></h4> </div> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b> Mar. 6 – </b> This year, Jevon Cochran’s English class has been "postponed." Instead of the usual mix of reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary lessons and discussion, Cochran, a junior at Lewis Cass Technical High School in Detroit, said he and his classmates are now drilling for the ACT exam. They must take the national scholastic test as part of Michigan’s effort to evaluate students and schools under federal standards passed in 2001. That, he said, has meant a change in the classroom atmosphere.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">In past years, Cochran said, "while we would be reading these novels and stories and whatnot, the teachers would try to get us to become better critical thinkers by getting us to write essays and getting us to talk about what we read in class and how it pertains to things in life that we go through today. Now we’re learning just a bunch of crap that’s going to be on the ACT."...</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">...Later this year, Congress will consider reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). When it does, the chairs of the House and Senate education committees have said that their evaluation of the program will be guided by a report released last month by the Commission on No Child Left Behind, an independent group that evaluated the law’s effects over the past year. </span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">But critics say that in creating its report, "Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation’s Children," the Commission ignored the perspectives of students like Cochran as well as parents and educators who see problems with the law...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...The Commission, chaired by former US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, essentially concluded that No Child Left Behind is moving schools in the right direction, but needs to be applied more forcefully. The report recommends creating a more-uniform national standard for the tests required by law, adding a new 12th-grade test, and evaluating individual teachers and principals in part based on their students’ performance on the tests.</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"If anything, their recommendations would intensify the role of testing," said Robert Schaeffer, the public-education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), a nonprofit group that promotes changes in the use of standardized testing. "It’s more of the same bad thing."</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Commission, which is housed at the Aspen Institute, was launched with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and six other private foundations. Its thirteen members are mostly academics and education officials, though about half of them worked as classroom teachers at some point in their careers. In the course of its study of the law, the Commission held a series of hearings across the country, where they heard almost exclusively from high-level education, government, union and business leaders.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Schaeffer argues that the Commission’s conclusions are not surprising, given the way the body was formed. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">"</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >It was a very elitist operation in which they spent very little time talking to actual practitioners, the people on the ground dealing with the effects of No Child Left Behind every day,</span><span style="font-size:85%;">" he said...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...n particular, the report does not question the value of standardized tests, probably the most-widely criticized of NCLB’s features. The Commission’s summary of its hearing on the use of standardized tests begins with the statement, "There is broad agreement that testing plays a critical role in education reform by giving educators, administrators and the public a means to understand how schools and students are performing." </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">But critics like Cochran say emphasizing standardized tests encourages teachers to focus on skills that are ultimately not very useful to students.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">"The tests are supposed to measure how good you would do in college, and I don’t see how," said Cochran, who is a member of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a civil rights coalition that works to defend affirmative action and immigrant rights. "For instance... [in a lesson] on the English section of the test, there was this whole section on where you have to place semicolons in sentences. I don’t see how learning about where you place semicolons is going to help you better prepare yourself for college."</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Cochran said he would like to see his classes focus more on developing critical thinking skills and helping individual students figure out what learning techniques work best for them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Another BAMN member, Christopher Sutton, a senior at Murray Wright High School in Detroit, said he notices teachers becoming dispirited and showing less creativity in their teaching when they are preparing students for a standardized test: "It’s like, ‘Okay, you all know what this is, you already know what we’re preparing for, it’s boring, I know, I’m sorry, but I have to go over this information because it’s mandated by the district.’"</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Another flaw some critics see in the report is that its discussion of funding is almost completely limited to making recommendations on how to spend money that is already allocated for education.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Caprice Taylor-Mendez, the director of the Boston Parents Organizing Network (BPON), an advocacy group for parents of Boston public-school students, said that even if test-based evaluations could determine which schools are having trouble, what is really needed is more funding to address the problems. "What does assessment do but flag problem areas?" she said. "Then where is the support?"...</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">...The report does recommend a minor increase in federal education funding, but it is for education research and state data systems, not individual schools’ budgets.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">It's good to see some reporting that tells it like it is.</span><br /></span></p><p> </p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-18342343475602493682007-03-01T14:47:00.000-09:002007-03-01T14:49:13.033-09:00The Kids Are OK, But Journalists and U.S. Department of Education Bureaucrats...<span style="font-size:85%;">...</span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">It is quite possible that reading scores are down <em>because</em> the kids are taking more math and science courses. Sure there are other more familiar villains to charge: television, video games, the strange spelling and syntax of text messaging, even multitasking. But the number of courses the average high school student takes in mathematics, science, and computer science enroute to a diploma have all increased since 1990 (English classes have not). The time for these courses has to come from somewhere. Reading about quarks or taking derivatives jeopardize Jane Austen. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Mostly, though, I think the kids just don't give a damn about NAEP and I bet they give less of a damn now than they did 15 years ago. Nor should they care. I once said to then-NAEP Executive Director, Archie Lapointe, that NAEP systematically underestimates achievement because kids don't take it seriously. Yes, he laughed, the major challenge for NAEP was keeping the kids awake during the test. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Over the last 15 years, much of schooling has been reduced to testing. SATs, ACT's, APs, high school exit examinations, formative assessments (in reality, just little tests). Plus test-obsessed NCLB. These tests all have consequences (although some, like the SAT, have many fewer than commonly believed). And now, in the second semester of the senior year comes NAEP (did the Senior Slump exist in 1992? I don't recall having heard that phrase back then). </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Dude, you seriously want me to take this test seriously? It won't tell me or my parents anything. It won't tell the teachers or administrators or district anything (NAEP does not report below the state level). It means doodley squat, nothing, nada, nil for my future and you want me to give it my all? It wouldn't surprise me if teachers and administrators, saturated by tests and test-related anxieties communicate through body language that kids can blow off NAEP with no consequences. In fact, NAEP is having trouble these days getting schools to agree to test. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Motivation bears tremendously on test outcomes. When I directed Virginia's testing programs, my staff developed a computer program to detect what the state superintendent called "inappropriate administrative procedures"--cheating to the rest of us. One year a heretofore middling rural district popped way up. We visited the local superintendent to determine how he'd done it. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">He had done it by transferring testing from the academic realm to the sporting world. You should bust your gut, not to show how smart you are or how well your teachers taught you but so that we can beat the adjacent archrival county like we try to in football, basketball and baseball. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">If you walked around the school and asked kids "What are you going to do on the SRA's?" The answer was, "Beat Orange County!" The week of testing, teachers dressed as cheerleaders and the schools held pep rallies in the auditorium. Students in grades not tested cheered on those who were under the gun. It worked. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Find me something that makes seniors take NAEP seriously and then maybe I'll take 12th grade NAEP results seriously.</span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-25284159401063917822007-03-01T13:10:00.000-09:002007-03-01T13:21:50.832-09:00Frameshop: Bush to Tout "No Child Left Behind" in New Orleans<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I try not to link to other blogs. I really am trying to dig up news or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">commentary</span> that you might have missed. This from a blog that is new to me, Jeffery <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Feldman's</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Frameshop</span>.</span><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />In a cynical photo-op in New Orleans, today, President Bush will use the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070228-5.html">backdrop</a> of a local charter school to promote his "No Child Left Behind" policy.<br /></span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">If anything, the disaster of hurricane Katrina represents the willingness of the Bush administration not only to leave children behind -- literally, leave them behind in rising <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">flood waters</span> -- but to then blame those children's predicament on their lack of education.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The announcement for a <a href="http://humidcity.com/2007/03/01/rebuke-bush-2pm/">local </a><a href="http://humidcity.com/2007/03/01/rebuke-bush-2pm/">protest</a> planned today frames the situation best. Even before Bush failed in the face of Katrina, his policies were already ripping the roof of the public school system.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">From <a href="http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/a%20mce_thref=%22http://humidcity.com/2007/03/01/rebuke-bush-2pm/">Humid City</a>:<br /></span></p><div style="margin: 0px;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px;"> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">JOIN THE KATRINA SURVIVORS’ REBUKE OF PRESIDENT BUSH<br />2:00 PM THURSDAY MARCH 1<br />SAMUEL GREEN SCHOOL<br />2319 VALENCE ST. (Near <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Freret</span> and Napoleon)<br />NEW ORLEANS<br /></span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">New Orleans Needs Federal Aid, Not Presidential Photo-Ops.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President: Katrina Survivors Do Not Welcome You, We Rebuke You!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"> </div><div> </div><div style="margin: 0px;"> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">We live in a devastated city and you are a big part of the reason why it sill sits in ruins. Your administration has abandoned our children by savaging their public schools. Your administration has tortured our working class people by refusing to reopen the city’s public housing developments. And your administration is fully complicit in placing our uninsured in harms way by ruthlessly pursuing the privatization of local public <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">healthcare</span> in the aftermath of Katrina. And, finally your administration is guilty of sending our sons and daughters to war for oil and empire just when we need them most to help us rebuild our community.</span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President, we, Katrina Survivors all, do not welcome you to our city, we rebuke you!</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Sponsored by Survivors Village, United Front For Affordable Housing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">(504) 587-0080</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Keep in mind that one of the major frames that Bush and the authoritarian right cling to about Katrina is that the disaster was a "failure of citizenship."</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">As Newt Gingrich put it his 2006 <a href="http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2007/02/frameshop_name_.html">speech</a> at Johns Hopkins:</span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">The last great domestic challenge I think is the fact that we have large structured government institutions that simply don't work. You saw some of this with what happened in New Orleans and Katrina. The fact is, in Katrina, government failed. The federal government failed. The state of Louisiana failed. The city of New Orleans failed. <strong>And for 22,000 citizens in the lower 9<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> ward, citizenship failed. They literally did not have the education, the training, the habits of responsibility, or the capacity to get out of the way of a hurricane.</strong> And so you have got to look at that experience and say how much do you have to change each of those four layers, so that if it happened again you <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">didn</span>’t have the same failure?</span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">In Gingrich's logic -- which has largely become GOP logic -- the really real cause of the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans was not the failure of the federal government to mobilize its resources on behalf of citizens in need, but the failure of citizenship to work on behalf of citizens.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">It is an odd rhetorical construction, but we see where he is heading. Government should change, he is telling us, but it should change by accelerating the destruction of government programs and public schools -- moving faster to set up an authoritarian vision of a country where all government action is displaced by a vague notion of responsibility.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">By touting "No Child Left Behind," today in New Orleans, Bush is really saying that the disaster in Katrina happened because his Utopian vision of free-market America was hampered -- ergo, the people of New Orleans became victims instead of what they were supposed to be prepared citizens.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">All of this, of course, glosses over the continuing cry of voices on the ground in Katrina -- people who spend every waking moment of their lives rebuilding a city from scratch, only to be rewarded by a college flunky President who claims education is the key to getting ahead.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Education is important, no doubt. But it was not so much children who were left behind by the authoritarian conservative movement in this country in the decade before Katrina. What was left behind -- or rather thrown from the moving train -- was the American principle that the purpose of government is to help individuals in situations where they cannot help themselves.</span></p></div><span style="font-size:85%;">Flood waters crashing through a levee system left in disrepair was precisely one of those moments where individuals needed the collective strength and ability of their government to help them.</span><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">President Bush should be ashamed of himself for promoting such a cynical ideology of personal responsibility in a city still reeling from the failures of his worldview and actions.</span></div><span style="font-size:85%;">© 2007 Jeffrey <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Feldman</span>,<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">He should also be ashamed of what he and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">NCLB</span> are doing to education in this country.</span><br /></span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-13875963316737186272007-02-27T11:31:00.000-09:002007-02-27T11:37:35.544-09:00Governors Uniting for NCLB Changes<span style="font-style: italic;">Another from </span>Ed Week<span style="font-style: italic;"> this time about a National Governors meeting. It seems they disagree about the changes <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NCLB</span> needs but do agree about..</span><br /><br />They all agree, for instance, that more funding is needed, and that some of the accountability provisions need to be made more flexible, especially regarding the testing of English-language learners and special education students.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">That's all rather vague isn't it? Also...<br /><br /></span>Gov. Gregoire said the governors will work closely with their chief state school officers and designate one person from each state to form a coalition that will develop more specific policy goals as the debate over <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">reauthorization</span> continues. She said the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">NGA</span> is considering convening an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">NCLB</span> summit to talk about what changes should be made to the law.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I'm waiting with baited breath.</span>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10125140.post-16299516614391773832007-02-27T08:58:00.000-09:002007-02-27T09:06:33.443-09:00How Are These NCLB Reports Like All The Other Reports? Lotsa Ways.<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">From the </span>Ed Week<span style="font-style: italic;"> column</span> This Week in Education...<br /></span><h4><span style="font-size:85%;">Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education covers education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge...</span></h4><span style="font-size:85%;">Back in the day, there used to be a thing called a "side by side" that would compare the key provisions of different versions of legislation category by category or even sometimes provision by provision. Maybe it's still done. </span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In the meantime, David <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">DeSchryver</span> from <a href="http://www.bruman.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Brustein</span> & <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Manasevit</span></a> has done somewhat the same thing based on seven <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">NCLB</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">reauthorization</span> reports (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">USDE</span>, Commission, Chiefs, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">NEA</span>, AFT, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">NASBE</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">NCSL</span>. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Common if not unanimous areas of interest and direction include: a focus on standards and cross-state comparisons, calls for more flexibility in accountability models, improved assessment quality, a better menu of sanctions and corrective action, addressing the special education system, incentives for teachers in high need schools and districts, more exemptions for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">ELLs</span>, and increased funding. However, the devil is in the details... </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Interestingly, he says it's the Aspen Institute Commission Report that is the real outlier in terms of size and scope (I had thought it was the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">USDE</span> proposal).<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a pretty thorough <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">review</span> of what people are thinking, and as the man says the devil is in the details...</span><br /></span></p>NO NCLB.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17039930736970437481noreply@blogger.com0