Greg Palast: No Child's Behind Left - The Test

From Scoop, Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 12:22 pm, Opinion: Greg Palast

New York -- Today and tomorrow every 8-year-old in the state of New York will take a test. It's part of George Bush's No Child Left Behind program. The losers will be left behind to repeat the third grade.

Try it yourself. This is from the state's actual practice test. Ready, class?

"The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year." And here's one of the four questions:

"The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

"A two matches in one day
"B against each other
"C with two balls at once
"D as partners"

OK, class, do you know the answer? (By the way, I didn't cheat: there's nothing else about "doubles" in the text.)

My kids go to a New York City school in which more than half the students live below the poverty line. There is no tennis court.

There are no tennis courts in the elementary schools of Bed-Stuy or East Harlem. But out in the Hamptons, every school has a tennis court. In Forest Hills, Westchester and Long Island's North Shore, the schools have nearly as many tennis courts as the school kids have live-in maids.

Now, you tell me, class, which kids are best prepared to answer the question about "doubles tennis"? The 8-year-olds in Harlem who've never played a set of doubles or the kids whose mommies disappear for two hours every Wednesday with Enrique the tennis pro?

Is this test a measure of "reading comprehension" -- or a measure of wealth accumulation?

If you have any doubts about what the test is measuring, look at the next question, based on another part of the text, which reads (and I could not make this up):

"Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a

"F baseball bat
"G tennis racquet
"H tennis court
"J country club"

Helpfully, for the kids in our 'hood, it explains that a "country club" is a, "place where people meet." Yes, but WHICH people?

President Bush told us, " By passing the No Child Left Behind Act, we are regularly testing every child and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing."

But there are no "better options." In the delicious double-speak of class war, when the tests have winnowed out the chaff and kids stamped failed, No Child Left results in that child being left behind in the same grade to repeat the failure another year.

I can 't say that Mr. Bush doesn' t offer better options to the kids stamped failed. Under No Child Left, if enough kids flunk the tests, their school is marked a failure and its students win the right, under the law, to transfer to any successful school in their district. You can' t provide more opportunity than that. But they don 't provide it, the law promises it, without a single penny to make it happen. In New York in 2004, a third of a million students earned the right to transfer to better schools -- in which there were only 8,000 places open.

New York is typical. Nationwide, only one out of two-hundred students eligible to transfer manage to do it. Well, there' s always the Army. (That option did not go unnoticed: No Child has a special provision requiring schools to open their doors to military recruiters.)

Hint: When de-coding politicians ' babble, to get to the real agenda, don't read their lips, read their budgets. And in his last budget, our President couldn' t spare one thin dime for education, not ten cents. Mr. Big Spender provided for a derisory 8.4 cents on the dollar of the cost of primary and secondary schools. Congress appropriated a half penny of the nation's income -- just one-half of one-percent of America 's twelve trillion dollar GDP -- for primary and secondary education.

President Bush actually requested less. While Congress succeeded in prying out an itty-bitty increase in voted funding, that doesn' t mean the extra cash actually gets to the students. Fifteen states have sued the federal government on the grounds that the cost of new testing imposed on schools, $3.9 billion, eats up the entire new funding budgeted for No Child Left.

There are no "better options" for failing children, but there are better uses for them. The President ordered testing and more testing to hunt down, identify and target millions of children too expensive, too heavy a burden, to educate.

No Child Left offers no options for those with the test-score mark of Cain -- no opportunities, no hope, no plan, no funding. Rather, it is the new social Darwinism, educational eugenics: identify the nation's loser-class early on. Trap them then train them cheap.

Someone has to care for the privileged. No society can have winners without lots and lots of losers. And so we have No Child Left Behind -- to produce the new worker drones that will clean the toilets at the Yale Alumni Club, punch the cash registers color-coded for illiterates, and pamper the winner-class on the higher floors of the new economic order.

Class war dismissed.

**********

See a clip of the actual practice test at http://www.GregPalast.com

*************

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Read his investigative reports at http://www.GregPalast.com
anti nclb

The No Child Left Behind Act Does Not Serve Students

Letter to the editor from first grade teacher Joe Navarro. From the Hollister Free Lance, January 6, 2006:

...In practice, the NCLB has restricted people of color to receive more remedial education, drill-n-skill instruction and rote memorization where art, music, science and other subjects are sacrificed. These students are often not challenged with learning that elevates their higher-order thinking skills or problem solving skills. The NCLB does not adequately address the need to distribute resources equitably so that the most disadvantaged students can be sufficiently prepared for school. Also, while schools may be punished under the guidelines of the NCLB for having low test scores, there are no penalties for fostering racial and ethnic segregation or other harmful racist practices...

No there ain't.
anti nclb

College Funds or Yacht Funds? --

By Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. © Tribune Media Services, from Black news.com

The Reverend Jackson hits home in this comment. Read the whole thing. It is pretty long, so here are some excerpts: (Emphasis is mine)

One resolution for the new year: let’s make clear the choices we are making as a country. I am certain that if Americans understood the choices that are being made, they would be outraged – whether conservative or liberal, male or female, rich or poor, whatever their race, religion or region.

Consider one choice the Congress is about to make. If the current leadership has its way, the Congress will pass over $100 billion in tax cuts early this year, the vast bulk of which will go to the very wealthy. At the same time, it will cast the final vote to make the largest cut in student college loan programs in history – some $12.7 billion over five years.

I doubt that many Americans would support raising the cost of college for students in order to reduce taxes on the wealthiest Americans, yet that is exactly what the administration and the conservative leadership of Congress are planning.

...

This comes at a time when tuitions and fees are soaring. After factoring out inflation, private college costs have risen by over 1/3 in the last 10 years. Public college costs have soared by over 50%. States are cutting back public subsidies to colleges, forcing them to raise tuitions and fees. We are witnessing the slow privatization of higher education. The result is to price college out of the reach of more and more American families.

These costs are rising just as we tell Americans that college or specialized training after high school is the sole ticket to the middle class. The good union jobs in industry that paid wages, pensions and health care are disappearing fast. Our leaders – whether Bill Clinton or George Bush – say they can’t do anything about that. But, they argue, get your child a college education and they will do just fine in the global economy of the 21st century. Without that, the next generation is likely to face a future less secure and less fortunate than their parents.

Yet at the same time our leaders tell us that college is indispensable, fewer and fewer families can afford it... ...

At this moment, our leaders should be summoning the nation to a major effort to insure that college education is affordable to all. The wealthy should insist on paying higher taxes to insure that the children of all Americans can afford the education that they will need. Corporations should be unleashing their high priced lobbyists to demand that legislators increase grant and loan programs, and that states increase their subsidies to public schools.

Instead, the Bush administration demanded cuts in student loans, and the right-wing that controls the Congress voted for the largest cut ever – even as they insist on cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans. This doesn’t make sense and isn’t popular. So the Republican leadership mislead Americans about what they have done. Republican legislators have been on TV parroting the claim that the cuts will provide “significant new benefits” to students, by lowering fees and simplifying the application process. What they don’t admit is that parents and students, already struggling to make ends meet, will end up paying thousands more in higher interest rates.

Educating the next generation isn’t a time for political posturing, for clever spin, for misleading parents and kids. Let’s resolve to make the choices clear. And let Americans decide whether the choices made by the current crowd in power make sense for America.

This message need to get out to more and more Americans. Spread the word!
anti nclb

A Must Read Blog

It occurred to me today that I check this blog two or three times a day every day. I consider this a must read. Written by Jim Horn a professor of teacher education, I believe, at Monmouth University in New Jersey, and a student of his Judy Rabin. Recent posts include:

Poor Students Pay for Katrina, How do these guys sleep at night?

Here's an interesting take on the budgetary priorities of our elected officials you won't find on CNN. Chairman of the Education Committee calls for deeper cuts?

and

Tightening the Noose on Teachers

As pressure mounts under NCLB's impossible mandates, teaching to the test is fast becoming the mantra of know-nothing and dangerous politicians like Republican State Senator Teresa S. Lubbers, of Indianapolis who equates raising test scores with learning. She has introduced a bill in the Indiana legislature that ties ISTEP to teacher ratings.

and

Targeting Colleges of Ed
An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Out to destroy the last bastion of liberal or progressive thinking, George Will gets on board with Horowitz and Tierney in an attack on professors and specifically on colleges of ed. This is a new low even for Newsweek.

and

"Stereotype Threat" -- A New Phenomenon?, RACIAL STEREOTYPES MAY AFFECT TEST SCORES
Tampa Tribune -- January 8, 2006

by Adam Emerson St. Petersburg

The message is everywhere, black students say: You perform far worse than your white classmates, especially on high-stakes tests.

And much, much more. Check it out!
anti nclb

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: Local educators launch effort to show legislators challenges facing schools

From an article in the Northern Illinois, Times, January 7, 2006, by MELISSA GARZANELLI, melissag@mywebtimes.com

This article is about local action. It's about getting legislators into the schools to see what the effects of NCLB are. This is something that could and should be happening in small towns and big cities all over the country. (Emphasis is mine)

STREATOR -- At Centennial School in Streator on Friday, two fifth-grade students read a section of a sample test of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test that they will take later this year.

One student easily relays the information about the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, reading the text that will supply the answers to the upcoming questions. Later that morning, the other student struggles over the same text, painstakingly working to pronounce each word.

"He has made tremendous gains," Linda Brooks, a special education teacher at Centennial, said to state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, who visited the school Friday. " ... But what I've seen doesn't count on the ISAT. He has had problems in his life, but he never ceases to amaze me."

The session with Mautino was part of an effort by local schools who are part of VOICE -- a regional education lobbying group made up of more than 40 school districts -- to educate legislators about the challenges facing schools.

"The VOICE group, of which I am a board member, said we have got to get legislators into our schools so they can see and hear the human interest stories," said Ed Allen, superintendent of the Streator Elementary School District. " ... Then they can go back to the legislative session and tell these stories."

...

"It seems the majority of laws passed are geared toward preK-12 education. It would be foolish not to be proactive and build relationships with our legislators," said Mark Cross, chairman of VOICE and superintendent at Peru Elementary School District. " ... There are bills that are passed that sound good but are not good for children or education. We want to educate our legislators about the impact to our districts and help them understand better."

...

"In the reading portion of the ISAT, there are no accommodations (for special needs students)," said Cathy Centoni, a fifth-grade teacher. "No matter what accommodations students have in their IEPs (Individual Education Plan), in reading, they are not allowed to have those accommodations. If they normally have to have the test read to them, they are not allowed that on test day."

"I didn't realize that," replied Mautino.

...

District coordinator Chris Dougherty and district social worker Cindy Komater relayed stories of some low-income students and how that impacts education, including students coming to school hungry, without homework completed and missing basic school supplies.

...

Dougherty said that students entering kindergarten should have had 1,000 books read to them during their first five years, but some from low-income families don't have books in their home, have no magazine or newspaper subscriptions and have parents who are not readers.

"Because they've not had (exposure to reading) there is that achievement gap," she said.

Educators said being able to offer after school programs and summer "bridge" classes to provide an opportunity for extra help would benefit these students, but financially the district cannot afford it.

Special needs programs are also quite costly, said Allen.

...

"We cannot turn these kids away -- and we should not," said Allen.

...

"In the old days, you might have a student who was a low achiever but he had a strong family life," said Allen. "Now there are all sorts of variables."

"I wish people that are older could see how school is now," said Centoni. "Even in my nine years teaching, I've seen change."

What is VOICE?

VOICE is an education lobbying group made up of more than 40 school districts in La Salle, Bureau and other surrounding counties. The group serves 25,000 students.

As part of a recent effort to increase communication between legislators and school districts, VOICE is encouraging superintendents to invite their local lawmakers into classrooms. State Rep. Frank Mautino's visit to Centennial School in Streator was the first such effort.

To see if your school is involved for more information, visit the Web site at www.voiceforeducation.org.

This is the kind of thing that needs to happen over and over again if we are ever going to change NCLB and reverse this mad dash to destroying and then privatizing public education.
anti nclb

Roddy Stinson: The biggest news that you didn't read or hear last week --

Comment from My San Antonio.com, by Roddy Stinton, Web Posted: 09/25/2005 12:00 AM CDT


This comes from a while back but I think what he has to say is important and relevant. The study he talks about has recently been posted on the Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA). I was led to this article by this post on the TLN Teacher Voices blog. The original study can be found here. (Bold print emphasis is mine.)

One of the most significant news events of 2005 occurred last Tuesday. But you missed it.

I can say that with confidence because a check of Express-News databases found only a brief United Press International report of the event, and that report wasn't published in any newspaper or mentioned on any TV/radio broadcast.

Why did the news die aborning?

Because it bordered on heresy:

"According to a study released by the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University and the Great Lakes Center for Educational Research and Practice, the pressure associated with high-stakes testing has no real impact on student achievement."

Let me put that another way so no one will miss the heretical significance:

The standardized-test-as-God formula for educational success — concocted and adhered to religiously by the political and educational establishments in Texas and elsewhere around the nation — has been dissected and shown to be a sham.

The proof was produced by three scholarly researchers — David C. Berliner and Gene V. Glass of Arizona State University and Sharon L. Nichols of the University of Texas at San Antonio — who analyzed National Assessment of Educational Progress test data from 25 states and determined:

There is no consistent link between the pressure to score high on a state-mandated exam and that state's student performance on the NAEP.

The pressure created by the standardized-test-as-God formula has primarily served to increase student retention and dropout rates.

Nichols, the study's lead author, concluded:

"A rapidly growing body of research evidence on the harmful effects of high-stakes testing, along with no reliable evidence of improved performance by students on NAEP tests of achievement, suggests that we need a moratorium in public education on the use of high-stakes testing."

And that's why the remarkable study has been (and will continue to be) ignored.

For more than 20 years, the nation's educational and political establishments have touted the standardized-test-as-God philosophy as the solution to the nation's academic shortcomings. And the media establishment — like a baby bird with mouth agape — has swallowed the worm without a peep.

These elite groups could never admit their foolishness ... could never confess that they took tens of billions of dollars designated for improving public schools and blew it on educational hocus-pocus that was doomed to fail and that enriched no one but testing companies, high-dollar consultants and political demagogues.

Dissemination of the truth might cost them their air of superiority. (Oh, the psychic pain.)

So don't look for any serious public discussion of the Nichols/Glass/Berliner findings.

There won't be any.

Don't search for the trio's names on educator-convention programs or lists of witnesses at legislative hearings.

They won't be there.

Don't surf TV-talk channels or monitor newspaper editorial pages looking for commentator praise for the three researchers.

You will just waste your time.

In fact, you will never see or hear the matter mentioned again.

I theologically guarantee it.

Postscript ...

Out of curiosity, I looked in the Express-News archives to find the column in which I first used the term, "standardized-test-as-God" to describe the misbegotten path of Texas education.

The date: Oct. 6, 1991.

The column: Parental complaints about the education community's all-consuming focus on preparing students to take the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. ("My daughter has brought home no work from school this year," one mother reported. "The first five weeks of classes have been devoted to drilling the kids for the TAAS test.")

At the end of the column, I asked rhetorically:

"Where, when and how will the standardized-test-as-God nightmare end?"

Fourteen years later, the question is still relevant, the nightmare is still real and the end is nowhere in sight.

To contact Roddy Stinson, call (210) 250-3155 or e-mail rstinson@express-news.net. His column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
anti nclb

Colo. Town Raises Taxes to Finance NCLB Withdrawal --

From Civilrights.org January 4, 2006 they list their source as David J. Hoff from Education Week.

If only:

Residents of a Colorado town have decided they would rather pay more in taxes than force their tiny district to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In what is believed to be the first voter referendum on the 4-year-old federal law, taxpayers in the 95-student Kit Carson school district narrowly approved a property-tax levy to replace the $25,000 in federal money the district will lose by dropping out of the law.

"It felt like the federal government had overstepped its bounds," said Geoffrey Wolff, the president of the Kit Carson school board. "I believe in a limited federal involvement. They provide 3 percent of the money, and they want total control."...

Despite having teachers who may not be considered highly qualified under the law, the district has met targets for adequate yearly progress under the law, Mr. Wolff said.

While Ms. Johnson, the dissenting board member, agrees that such rules are onerous for Kit Carson and other rural districts, she said that federal officials are committed to finding "common sense" solutions to problems that districts such as Kit Carson face in complying with NCLB.
anti nclb

Why Tom Friedman does not compute --

By Gary Stager, from Distrct Administrator. (As usual, the emphasis is mine.)

There has been so much noise about this World is Flat B.S. It is about time educators began to speak out about this bogus, corporate led, race to the bottom.

I'm always on the lookout for educational trends. Over the past couple of months the usual suspects who speak at education conferences have been toting around copies of Thomas Friedman's new book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. These knuckleheads and the administrators who love them can't resist the temptation to quote Friedman in reverential terms. One popular speaker uses Friedman to support his new mantra, "American students need to develop a global work ethic." What the heck does that mean? Should U.S. high school students produce SpongeBob shirts for Wal-Mart?

I admired Tom Friedman. I found his insights into Middle Eastern politics interesting. I paid $65 to see him speak, but he read from the aforementioned book, virtually page-by-page. The naive yarn he spun stunned me.

For those of you who have not surrendered $27.50 to Mr. Friedman, allow me summarize The World is Flat. The Indians are going to eat your children. If any remain, the Chinese will kill the rest a few years later.

This book is a hysterical screed about how the Internet has made it possible for developing countries to threaten the American Way. Of course, our schools are maligned with test scores and insults about our lazy students.

No matter how complex the issue--education, economics, international affairs or technology--an expert is anyone willing to speak with Friedman. An e-mail from a gentleman Friedman met while waiting in an airport is included as a prescription for improving our schools and global competitiveness. The history of personal computing, as told by the Microsoft Corp., is littered with misinformation, glaring omissions and Ron Popeil-like amazement. Imagine if your grandmother explained Internet protocols and you begin to get the idea. Southwest lets you print your own boarding passes. Copying machines can fax... yada yada yada.

The book is littered with self-evident news of the information age. Think of it as The Weekly Reader Guide to Globalization or Current Events for Dummies. If you have not used the Web, read a newspaper, watched TV or left the house since 1980, this book is for you.

Wisdom is not always found in sound bites or factoids. Comparisons regarding the number of engineering graduates in China, India and the U.S. are meaningless. The only way we can "catch-up" is if Mr. and Mrs. Friedman do their part and birth a billion American children.

Friedman breathlessly tells the tale of Rajesh, an Indian programmer who owns a computer gaming company. Rajesh's employees are, of course, smarter and much harder working than Americans and the 'Net allows them to compete in the global marketplace. The most shocking revelation is that Rajesh's company recently bought the rights to use Charlie Chaplin's image for computer games. "That's right--a start-up Indian game company owns the Chaplin image for use in mobile computer games."

Say it ain't so!

How many 14- to 25-year-old boys want to play a Charlie Chaplin computer game? There is a reason why American companies don't invest millions in Charlie Chaplin-themed games. Nobody will buy them. If this is the best evidence Friedman can offer of global high-tech entrepreneurial threats, our test scores can safely slide for a few more decades.

Even if you are fascinated by what Friedman reports, his writing gave me a toothache. Every idea is named, 1.0, 2.0, etc... to demonstrate Tom's high-tech hipness. Cutesiness abounds. In discussing the end of Communism, Friedman writes, "Someone else was raising a glass--not of champagne but of thick Turkish coffee. His name was Osama Bin Laden and he had a different narrative." The book is peppered with spew-inducing passages like, "When the Berlin Wall becomes the Berlin Mall..." I suspect Nipsey Russell was the ghostwriter.

Maybe I'm wrong and the book is fabulous. It's still alarming that so many school leaders feel compelled to seek advice from people who know nothing about education. Such pop business books create great PowerPoint bullets, but do little to transform classroom practice. You may curry favor with the Business Roundtable, but will do little to benefit children. Seeking wisdom from a variety of sources is laudable, but books sold in airport gift shops should not set education policy. DA

Gary Stager, gary@stager.org, is editor-at-large and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.
anti nclb

The Machete Budget --

Comment by Bob Herbert, NY Times, 2006-01-02. By way of O'hanian. (Emphasis is mine.)
I try to keep this blog for issues related to NCLB. This one strays a bit but notice that the biggest cut is for student aid. If education really was a priority for these folks, why would they not help everyone they could get a college education? Probably for the same reasons that they want to turn public education into a brain numbing test prep program.

If Congress were merely useless, the country would be better off. But it's worse than useless. In the iron grip of a Republican Party that is almost slavishly devoted to the Bush administration, it's downright destructive, especially to the interests of poor and working people.

Consider the budget that will soon be sent to the president for his signature. Members of the House and Senate have agreed on legislation that achieves something approaching $40 billion in savings over five years primarily by hammering the sick, the poor, the elderly and college students and their families.

This is the same Congress that genuflects each time the president asks for yet another gift-wrapped tax cut for the wealthiest among us. The textbooks tell us that the U.S. is a representative democracy, but only the upper strata are truly represented.

...

One of worst aspects of the Medicaid provisions is that large numbers of poor people, faced with the higher premiums and co-payments, will inevitably decide to take a pass on the health care they need. Some will die.

"The Congressional Budget Office," wrote Kevin Freking of The Associated Press, "has concluded that such increases would lead many poor people to forgo health care or not to enroll in Medicaid at all - contributing to some of the $4.8 billion in Medicaid savings envisioned over the next five years."

...

"The conference agreement also includes provisions that would delay certain [Supplemental Security Income] payments for up to a year for many poor individuals with disabilities who are found eligible for S.S.I. In addition, the bill cuts federal foster care aid in a way that will make it much more difficult for states to provide federally funded foster care benefits to certain relatives who are raising children because the children's parents are unable or unfit to do so."

This is ugly stuff: mean-spirited legislators hacking like wild men with machetes at the already ragged safety net. Poor children, the very sick and the disabled are among those most likely to tumble into the abyss.

The largest chunk of "savings" in the budget bill would come from student aid. With the special interests driving up in 18-wheelers to haul away our tax dollars, Congress and the administration apparently felt that mugging college students would be a good way to recoup a bit of those losses.

...

Because of some minor, last-minute changes that have to be dealt with, the House will have one more crack at this bill before it goes to the president. It would be an opportunity for some Republican "moderates," who should be appalled at what is happening, to step up and be heard.

Don't hold your breath.

I won't.
anti nclb

Commentary - What's wrong with NCLB - Erica Jacobs

Comment from the Washington Examiner, 02Jan'06 (Emphasis is mine)

...

Most teachers and parents I know hate No Child Left Behind - not because we don't want students to learn or teachers to be held accountable, but because it's such a simple-minded solution to the problem of getting children to think rather than memorize. "Learning" is not about rules, dates or who did what on Page 453. It's about how to organize information so it makes sense.
...
What education needs is an understanding on all levels that we are sweating the small stuff; our graduates know the dates of the Civil War but don't know how to figure out cell phone charges or airline blackout dates. We need students who read, think, extrapolate and deduce. No test on Friday; the real test is for the rest of your life.

So my "New Blank Document" is a wish that the new year will bring common sense to educators. Don't throw out the tests, but ask our students to do more than remember. Memory is the first thing to go after a month, a year, a decade.
Make education foster a compulsion to read and write carefully. That's a gift that never expires: There's no blackout date on careful thinking.

Erica Jacobs teaches at Oakton High School and George Mason University. E-mail her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.

It's my guess that the powers that be don't want a citizenry that can think for themselves. Then maybe they would except an elite that acts in their own interest without regard to anyone else. The more I get into this the more that I think that this is what actually is happening.
anti nclb

Tis the season to be testing --

Editorial from the Anniston Star, 2005-12-3, via Susan O'hanian.

...According to an Associated Press report, unless NCLB is changed, by 2014, when students in our schools are required to be 100 percent proficient in math and reading, even our best schools won’t be.

If one kid drops the ball, one student slips up, one subgroup comes up short, a school fails.

If there has ever been a classic example of lockstep, one-size-fits-all, individuality-out-the-door, ideological gobbledygook, this is it. If, indeed, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, No Child Left Behind is educational asphalt.

But there is hope.

Between now and 2014, when the hammer falls, the law must be reauthorized at least three times. That gives reasonable people three chances to change things.

And during that time, there will be at least four elections, which will give reasonable people four chances to vote out the folks who gave us this and put sensible people in their place.

In theory, No Child Left Behind makes only a little sense. In practice, it makes even less.

The author is correct. It is past time for all of us to begin demanding change from those of us that serve us in congress.
anti nclb

Letting Literacy Slip --

Editorial from the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, Published on: 12/30/05

Finally, someone is getting the point! (The emphasis is mine.)

At every level of education, Americans are faltering in their ability to grasp a newspaper story or a passage in a book.

This skill is known as prose literacy, and it's declining even among well-educated Americans. The latest sampling of adult literacy by the National Center for Education Statistics found a 10 percentage point drop in graduate students who tested proficient in prose literacy in 2003 compared to the last time it was measured in 1992.

There was also a marked slip among college students testing proficient; 40 percent in 1992 and 31 percent in 2003.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy gauges Americans' fluency in reading text and documents such as maps and labels. It also looks at quantitative literacy, a person's ability to understand tax forms, tables or bank statements.

To be ranked proficient, an adult has to be able to read and extract information from complex materials, such as legal documents. "No group, not even those with the highest levels of formal education, had an average in the proficient level on any of the scales," says National Center for Education Statistics commissioner Mark Schneider.

The sampling found that 13 percent of adults demonstrated "below basic prose literacy." According to Schneider, that translates to 30 million Americans who "could not do much more than sign a form or search a simple document to find out what they are allowed to drink before a medical test."

What's hard to understand is how literacy is falling at the same time that schools are making reading their top priority.

The poor showing on the national literacy assessment even among college grads ought to generate discussion at both state and federal levels about whether test-driven reform is creating better test-takers rather than better readers. As schools concentrate more resources on teaching kids how to bubble in the correct answers on standardized tests, less time is available to develop critical thinking skills...

Yep, that's it I'd say. You might ask yourself, Why would the powers that be want a nation that can fill in bubbles might not think critically? Hmmm...
anti nclb

The New Educational Privatization: Educational Contracting and High Stakes Accountability --

Another from Susan O'hanian's site. This one a study of school privatization. The introduction reads:

The institutional landscape of K-12 educational contracting is fundamentally changing. Based on industry and district data, this study identifies three distinct shifts in the content and structure of interactions between suppliers of instructional goods and local school systems. These shifts include i) elevation of test-related services and products, ii) increasing emphases on technology-based solutions. and iii) an expanding role for the state in spurring market activity. Drawing on a case study of district practice, the study provides evidence of how broader changes are influencing local contracting activities, and the dilemmas and responses generated by these pressures. The study suggests the need for new conceptual approaches to studying educational privatization that draw on the institutional analysis of organizations and also identifies critical questions for future research.

I refer to this research, first published in the Teachers College Record so that I might publish a letter in respnse, also from O'hanian.

Comment by Dick Schutz

Burch’s inquiry and analysis are breaths of fresh air rising above the data-free, tis-taint polemics that have heretofore comprised the “privatization/voucher/charter/reform/etc.” literature. Her inferences are grounded on the simplest of descriptive statistics and direct observation, but they shed more light on what has been and is now going on than all the randomized-control experiments, hierarchical linear analyses, and such bundled together. “Midvale,” N=1, is prototypical of every school district in the country. (School districts, like individuals, are each different; but at the same time they share many commonalities)

What Burch doesn’t note are the fatal technical flaws in federal educational legislation and its implementation over the time period that she considers. Zooming in on these gives sharper focus to the “lens of the organizational field.” Here are five for starters:

· El-hi educational standards are not performance standards; they’re content standards. The “standards” are largely rhetorical, formulated by logrolling committees 5-15 years ago and never revised since their initial proclamation.

· The Item Response Theory that undergirds the mandated standardized tests inherently yields relative, ungrounded scales. The terms “proficient” “below proficient” and such are fictions, based on nothing more than arbitrary segmentations of normalized distributions. Linking the tests to the content standards does not fix the flaw. The same test item formats are sliced differently, but it’s the same baloney any way you cut it. As the Midvale experience indicates, local efforts to fix the flaw have been stifled by federal mandates; and teachers who need “good data” the most are now the least likely to have such.

· The “New Science of Reading” proclaimed by NCLB is empty. Bottom line, each individual teacher is left with the responsibility of integrating the elements of the “Stone Soup science.”

· “Annual Yearly Progress,” which is to get us to “No Child Left Behind by 2014, is a statistically impossible enterprise.

· Recent efforts to introduce “flexibility” in meeting AYP requirements open the door for a whole new set of tests for kids with “specific disabilities”—that is, kids who don’t pass the current tests. By rotating carefully selected kids who are “near the bubble” into SpEd, everybody “wins.” The kids are not harried as much. Teachers get rid of their “worst” kids. Schools and districts make AYP. And the Education/War President can declare that the “Plan for Victory” is working in Education as well as in War. The arrangement gives a whole new meaning to the term, “flexibility,” but I can’t think of anyone who might object, other than maybe the kids and teachers on whom the “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” treatment is being inflicted.

Dick Schutz
3RsPlus@usinter.net
— Dick Schutz
Teacher College Review online discussion
2005-12-17
anti nclb

First-Ever National Private School Voucher Program Sent to President’s Desk --

They have done it! A national school voucher program. where the hell is the media on this?

This from People for the American Way:

Legislation diverts money from public schools, allows for religious discrimination in hiring, and fails to keep federal funds from being used for religious indoctrination

WASHINGTON—On the same day the Senate passed legislation that cuts public education funding for the first time in a decade, it also voted to establish the first-ever national private school voucher program, as part of the final appropriations measure for the Department of Defense. With final approval in the House today, Congress has signed off on this dangerous measure, under the guise of one-time relief for students affected by this year’s hurricanes. People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas voiced strong opposition to the voucher program, which, in addition to diverting funds from public schools, allows federally funded private schools to discriminate on the basis of religion while hiring teachers, and fails to protect against the use of federal funds for the religious indoctrination of students. “The promise of a quality public education for every child is a cornerstone of our democracy, but private school vouchers divert money from public schools and undermine that promise. Most Americans oppose such voucher programs, which might be why this one was attached to a must-pass defense appropriations bill,” Neas said. “This program throws open the door to using taxpayer dollars to fund private schools. It also allows for government funding of religion and religious discrimination. We deeply regret its passage.”

anti nclb

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior ==

By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer.

This has nothing to do with NCLB, but a lot to do with what is happenning in our country right now. I quote in full:

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.
"I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book," Professor Pontbriand said. "Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it."
Although The Standard-Times knows the name of the student, he is not coming forward because he fears repercussions should his name become public. He has not spoken to The Standard-Times.
The professors had been asked to comment on a report that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to spy on as many as 500 people at any given time since 2002 in this country.
The eavesdropping was apparently done without warrants.
The Little Red Book, is a collection of quotations and speech excerpts from Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung.
In the 1950s and '60s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it was required reading. Although there are abridged versions available, the student asked for a version translated directly from the original book.
The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a "watch list." They brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said.
Dr. Williams said in his research, he regularly contacts people in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Muslim hot spots, and suspects that some of his calls are monitored.
"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," he said.
Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk.
"I shudder to think of all the students I've had monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that," he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."

Contact Aaron Nicodemus at anicodemus@s-t.com
anti nclb

'Straight-cut ditch' schools widen gap in education --

Marion Brady | Special to the Orlando Sentinel

First, the New Advocate is out. If you have not read it yet do it now!

I started out just planning a few quotes, but this guy is so right on I ended up quoting nearly the whole thing:

Brent Staples writes about education. His opinions appear in the New York Times. I write about education. My opinions appear in the Orlando Sentinel.

Staples thinks No Child Left Behind is improving education in America. I think it's hammering nails into education's coffin...

...The long-range consequences of NCLB will be bad for all students, but they'll be devastating for the very students NCLB's advocates and apologists most want to help.

I begin my argument by asking not what's bad for students, but what's good for them. Hands down, the most popular answer to that question is, "The basics! The 3 Rs are the foundation of everything else!" The power of this assumption is demonstrated daily in the school nearest you as all else is put on a back burner in an effort to raise reading and math standardized test scores.

But as is often the case, the popular answer is superficial. The basics are mere means to an end. What we most want for our kids is an education which helps them realize their potential. Obviously, highly developed basic skills are important tools in a kid's pursuit of her or his potential, but it's easy to win the "basics" battle and lose the "developing individual potential" war. And that's where NCLB is taking us.

Henry David Thoreau can help explain where I'm coming from. "What does education often do?" he asked. "It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook."

No Child Left Behind is a strategy for making straight-cut ditches. In contrast, developing individual potential doesn't just leave brooks free to meander, it aims to clear away debris and make meandering easier.

I'll hear from those who resist this idea. They'll tell me kids have to learn to live in the real world. They'll say that NCLB's emphasis on standardized tests is a good thing because "everybody has to take tests." They'll maintain that schools dedicated to developing individual student potential will be "soft," that such an education might be OK for a few talented kids, but as a general policy it's an invitation to anarchy, or at least to social decline.

Ironically, while America chases Japanese "straight-cut ditch"standardized test scores, the Japanese come to America to find out about our "meandering brook" students. Asked by Dr. Joseph Renzulli at the University of Connecticut about their interest in American education, visiting Japanese educators recently said, "We have no Nobel Prize Winners. Your schools have produced a continuous flow of inventors, designers, entrepreneurs, and innovative leaders. We can make anything you invent faster, cheaper, and, in most cases, better. But we want to learn what role this 'creative productivity' focus plays in the production of creative and inventive people."

NCLB's push for "straight-cut ditches" is bad policy, but exactly why it's often particularly devastating for blacks, other minorities, and the long-time poor may not yet be obvious.

The main problem? Those high-stakes tests NCLB demands.

There are many kinds of "smarts" -- linguistic, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and so on -- many paths to the development of individual potential. Never mind, says NCLB. It focuses on just one -- symbol manipulation skills -- and ignores the rest. Worse, the emphasis isn't even on symbol manipulation skills in the broadest sense, but just on those most valued by those hired to write test questions.

Well, it will be argued, those skills are the key to good jobs, so they're the ones every kid needs.

Maybe. But the big test isn't seen either by the kids who take them or by the general public as just a test of ability to manipulate symbols. It's seen as a general intelligence test -- a measure, across the board, of smarts, of brains, of innate ability. That one score on that one ability then becomes, both to the kid and the larger society, the whole, denigrating story.

If you have any doubts about the effects of thinking you're not smart, in a society that thinks you're not smart, Google "self-fulfilling prophecies."

Marion Brady, a longtime educator, lives in Cocoa. He can be reached at mbrady22@cfl.rr.com. He wrote this commentary for the Orlando Sentinel.
anti nclb

D’s AND F’s FOR ‘NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND --

From the Black voice news. This article uses the recent NAEP results to say that NCLB is not working. This a lot you have had before here but what Marian Wright Edelman has to say is important:

“Our children have been hijacked and shackled by bad policy and bad politics,” says Marian Wright Elderman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund. Elderman who has accused the administration of stealing her successful child achievement concept, is both worried and angry.

“This nation has squandered away four years and billions of dollars in education funding. Our children have been tested to death, forced to regurgitate and at the end of the day they haven’t learned to do basic reading and math or much less learned to think. It’s a national shame,” said Elderman.

And it is.
anti nclb

Superintendents blast 'No Child Left Behind'' --

Another item from the Chicago area:

Area school superintendents met in a recent town-hall meeting with lawmakers and community members to discuss academic and financial performance.

Two common themes were voiced: Schools need more money and the No Child Left Behind Act isn't working.

...
"No child left behind. That sounds great, but, in fact, there are so many children who are going to be left behind as a result of this legislation,"

...
the process by which schools are taken over after they fail to meet standards for five consecutive years is ambiguous and potentially harmful.

...
...state funding has been primarily aimed at failing schools...

"There is funding for Watch List schools," Jordan said. "Fortunately, we can say it today, 'We aren't on the Watch List.' (But that also means) we can't get any funding."

...

Willie Mack, superintendent of District 88, said that while NCLB, which was created in 2001, isn't working, the political discussion as it pertains to education has always been the same.

"Get rid of some of those unfunded mandates on teachers, if we're serious," Mack advised. "(In Springfield,) What they were saying in the 1970s, they're still saying today."

Mack also assailed politics at the local level for interfering with education, calling it a "fight."

"Fight indicates some sort of contest," Mack said. "I know some people would like peace and harmony and that would be nice, but we are up against forces who do not have children foremost on their minds."

...

"Don't go into the board room looking for peace," he warned. "Go in there looking for justice for the children."

...

"I really think that No Child Left Behind was a wake-up call for us because what we were doing wasn't working," Cole said. "I think it's been used to expose what we need to focus on."

Davis disagreed with Cole.

"It's a wake-up. But a wake-up to what?" he asked. "And with what consequences?"...

Exactly.
anti nclb

Can Policymakers Improve Teacher Quality? --

From ASCD. There's a lot here, but what catches my eye:

Department of Education Stalls Teacher-Quality Requirements

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced a one-year delay in enforcing penalties on states that have not yet met the teacher-quality requirements of NCLB. To escape penalties this year, states have to show evidence of a "good faith effort" toward meeting the following criteria:

1. Establishing a state definition of a highly qualified teacher.
2. Implementing a system for reporting to parents and the public on classes taught by highly qualified teachers.
3. Ensuring the completeness and accuracy of data on highly qualified teachers reported to the U.S. Department of Education.
4. Taking steps to ensure that experienced and qualified teachers are equitably distributed among classrooms with poor and minority children and those with their peers.

States that satisfy these expectations will be able to negotiate a delay in meeting the full requirements until the 2006–07 school year.

...
And then there's:

Senate Bill Seeks Increased NCLB Flexibility

Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have introduced the NCLB Flexibility and Improvement Act to give states, school districts, and schools greater control in meeting the requirements of NCLB. The bill addresses several aspects of teacher quality, such as giving more flexibility for middle and high school teachers who teach multiple subjects. In addition to teacher quality, it also addresses accountability, funding, and provisions for assessing special education and limited-English-proficient students. More information on this bill is available in the ASCD Action Center.

Pretty sure this bill will get nowhere for now, but might be worth watching.
anti nclb

The New Advocate is Out --

Check it out! Great reading as usual.

This morning as I was checking out the Advocate and just generally reviewing recent posts in the blogosphere, two from Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas caught my eye.

The first one is a must read. The author argues that more religion not less is needed in government, and I am inclined to agree with him. The second story is about a boy in a Texas High School who got suspended for speaking Spanish in school. I am horrified that this kind of thing can still happen. Those school officials should read the first post.
anti nclb

Deadline Looms for School Aides, Hundreds Must Get Certification by June

By V. Dion Haynes,Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday December 8, 2005; Page DZ03

Here's an up and coming problem that we have not been hearing much about, paraprofessionals in the schools that must meet strict education requirements soon. These are people, as the article notes, that often have only a high school education. What the article does not say is that many of these people are part time workers, working at entry level wages, with few or no benefits. The article does state that little or no money has been put up for ther required education. And, if these people lose there jobs who will replace them? Go here for a list of what the law requires of these people and, of course, some right on comments from Susan Ohanian.

Officials in a union representing teacher's aides in the D.C. public schools say they fear that more than half of about 700 members could lose their jobs in June for failing to meet a provision of a federal law that requires them to be certified.

The No Child Left Behind law mandates that the country's 750,000 teacher's aides who are part of Title I programs for impoverished students be certified as "highly qualified" by June. The certification requires that they either have an associate's degree or two years of higher education or pass a test verifying their knowledge.

In recent years, teacher's aides have been playing a larger role in the classroom, offering tutoring and individual instruction for academically deficient students and translating lessons for students who are learning English. Most aides have been required to have only a high school diploma...

On the more encouraging side of things in New Hampshire, Most elementary school teachers with more than three years of experience will no longer need to take the Praxis II exams to be considered "highly qualified" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
...
"This is an exciting new development that the federal Department of Education recognizes New Hampshire's rigorous certification and training process for elementary school teachers," said former teacher Sen. Iris Estabrook in a statement. "This eliminates any need for legislation at the state level on this matter, and assures teachers that they can be considered highly qualified without additional burdensome tests to the certification process."
...
We can only hope that this encouraging development will spread to other states. To say that passing a test or having a certain amount of education makes one highly qualified is absurd.
anti nclb

The New Advocate is Out and NCLB Resistance Appears to be Growing ---

Welcome back Joe. Glad to see you are up and at it again! Checkout the New Advocate. Great reading as always including a another must read for this blog. The second part of this post has to do with these four articles: Lakewood Board of Education Takes a Stand; School administrators bash No Child at town hall meeting; School laws blasted; Change 'No Child Left Behind' law, panelists say. Two are from the Chicago area and two are from Ohio. School administrators, superintendents, school boards, educators, parents and students are speaking out against NCLB. All in a two day period. There will be more and more of these, just you wait and see.

From the last article about the panelists come these:

Teaching "to the test" gets in the way of creative instruction and impedes learning.

Struggling schools need more resources, both through federal funding and from business and community organizations.

Greater weight should be given to individual student progress.

High-stakes testing should be replaced by diagnostic tests that show students' strengths and weaknesses.

School administrators should make schools more inviting to parents, to better meet the parental involvement section of NCLB.

Students and parents themselves should be held accountable for their work and actions, rather than placing all responsibility on schools and districts.

Standards should remain high, but more help should be given to help students meet standards.

Funding should be available to increase early literacy.

It would be a good start.
anti nclb

Highly Qualified Teachers and Alternate Universes

Another great post from Jim Horn over at Schools Matter. Sunday, December 04, 2005

One of the core lies undergirding NCLB is the claim that the Law will provide “highly-qualified” teachers in every classroom in America. But just as the “Clear Skies” initiative offers more latitude to the polluters and the “Healthy Forests” initiative gives great swaths of virgin timber to the logging companies, the “highly-qualified teacher” initiative inside NCLB disguises a policy designed to accomplish the exact opposite of its claim.

What the neo-cons at ED have done in terms of teacher quality since the signing of NCLB in 2002 is to, in fact, denigrate teacher education programs (or threaten to blow them up) and undercut professional accreditation efforts by NBPTS to offer a rigorous licensing procedure for teachers that has national legitimacy. ED prefers, instead, to offer to schools non-teachers with subject area degrees whose only exposure to the art and science of teaching (pedagogy) will have been through brief self-induced tutorials to conditioning techniques that are central to Ed’s preferred straight- jacketed model of teaching, Direct Instruction...

Now go read the whole thing. Jim's right on as usual.
anti nclb

Oakland schools in need of real reform --

This from Inside Bay Area, Article Last Updated: 12/01/2005

If anyone has any doubts about the designs the Broad Foundation and corporate America have on our public education system this commentary should go a long way to convincing you (emphasis is mine):

THIS month's $24 million question: When should you reject a gift?

Answer: When that "gift" is a poison pill.

When the state picked Randolph Ward, from the pro-charter school Broad Foundation, to take over Oakland schools in 2003, some smelled a corporate coup.

If the onslaught of school closings and charter openings under Ward has left any doubt, he's finally made his goal clear: to privatize Oakland schools.

In a nakedly aggressive public gesture, representatives of some of the world's richest men and corporations — including Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Clorox, Kaiser, Dell and Dreyer's/Nestle — joined Ward on Nov. 14 to unveil their "investment" in district "redesign."

Executives congratulated themselves for throwing crumbs to a project allegedly for education. But, as the Tribune reported, the $24 million "will not bring in any new pencils, books, teachers or school buses."

Instead, it buys technology and training solely to transform the district into a private business network. The investors say the district's new central office will become a "business service," and new small schools will "act as customers" who "invest in services."

Donors revealed that corporate executives will now call the shots in the district. The head of the East Bay Community Foundation said his private organization will disburse funds and "communicate the bottom line" to educators.

...

The Oakland Education Association proposes a different educational vision: 15 students per class; the best facilities, materials and technology for teaching and learning; enough support staff for students' academic and extracurricular needs; and much more.

OEA's vision focuses on what students need each day and is based on extensive research, experience and commitment.

The district's corporate investors disregard this vision, because authentic reform costs many times more than what they currently pay in taxes or token "gifts."

Each year Clorox gives its CEO 32 times more than what it will give to 41,000 students. Kaiser called its million-dollar donation "a big deal," but its 18 to 24 percent planned rate increase over two years will cost the district several times that amount.

...

It's time to say no to phony reform, no to handing our children over to big business; but yes to real change and excellent schools for all.

A movement of educators, students and parents can achieve this goal by demanding that Oakland's major corporations: (1) pay off the district's debt to restore democratic control to Oakland citizens and (2) commit to substantial, mandatory and ongoing contributions for genuine reforms that will dramatically improve learning conditions for all students.

Craig Gordon has taught in Oakland public schools for 15 years. He is taking a leave this year to write about educational issues.

Did you catch bottom line stuff. I am aghast. How could anyone in their right minds think that these corporate yahoos are what will fix the American public education system? I tell you these guys are out to really screw things up, and you just watch, they will.

anti nclb

Susan Gets Responses to Previous Article --

Again from Ohanian's site. These are all worth a read but this one got me (Emphasis is mine):

Susan Ohanian's masterful summation in your August issue of what is really going on today in public education serves as a powerful rebuttal to the absurd charges made by business leaders.

The outrageousness begins with the blatant accountability double standard. It seems that in corporate America nothing succeeds like failure. Those at or near the top walk away with more money in one year of driving a corporation into the ground than 100 teachers make in a lifetime of demonstrated success with their students.

So what is the risk for them? Maybe their egos get bruised a bit when they are asked to resign. But in the short time they're at the help calling the shots, they take home perks and cash beyond the wildest imagination of most teachers.

The no-longer-so-hidden agenda, of course, is to create a two-tier society, reminiscent of Latin America. By scapegoating and eventually destroying public education, the goal becomes easier to achieve. The evidence abounds. The middle class is becoming an anachronism, as both parents work full time and still can't support their familes. Three-quarters of personal bankruptcies are the result of medical bills that individuals can't pay because they don't have health insurance. Unions are being emasculated by court decision and hostile lawmakers. And the hits just keep on coming.

When the American people finally wake up to what is happening, it will be too late. It's a frightening scenario.

WALT GARDNER
Retired Teacher,
Los Angeles Unifified School District,
Los Angeles, Calif.

That last part is on the same theme as this editorial in The Nation about Delphi Corporation seeking chapter 11 status:

posted November 9, 2005 (November 28, 2005 issue)

...

Delphi's move could have been predicted from its recent hire of Steve Miller as CEO. He has made a long career, going back to the Chrysler bailout of a generation ago, of using government handouts and corporate welfare in the form of bankruptcy to restructure firms while looting workers' assets. Just before he joined Delphi, Miller was CEO of Bethlehem Steel and a board member at United Airlines (UAL). Before selling off Bethlehem he eliminated health insurance for 95,000 retirees and offloaded the firm's underfunded pension obligations to the government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. And he offloaded UAL's even larger underfunded pension to the PBGC, itself now underfunded. At the time, Forbes announced that this spectacular disappearance of worker savings foretold "the end of pensions"--not just for UAL but the country. It has since been imitated by Delta and Northwest. Miller took the job at Delphi because he thought it offered a "pivotal position to impact the restructuring of America's auto industry," meaning more of the same.

Miller's plan for Delphi is cynical and wildly greedy. The bankruptcy is targeted only at Delphi's 51,000 US-based workers, less than a third of its worldwide labor force. It is well financed, with Delphi holding $1.6 billion in cash and a new credit line for as much as $4.5 billion in low-interest debt from Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and JP Morgan Chase. Nothing in US bankruptcy law--recently tightened for individuals but not for corporations--says a company actually has to be broke to enjoy its protections. And Delphi is not broke; of its forty-five US plants, only eleven are in a separate holding group of financially troubled enterprises.

As the price of not canceling the workers' contract and liquidating their pension, Miller is demanding a drop in average wages from $27 to $10 an hour, concessions that would total more than $2 billion a year. This is about 25 percent more than Delphi's current losses, counting the money-losing plants, and will be pure profit once those are eliminated...

...Whatever wage cuts Miller gets at Delphi will be a marker in the full Big Three contract negotiations in 2007, when current contracts expire...

And whatever the out come it scares me as much as NCLB does.
anti nclb

Refrains of the School Critics

Publication Date: 2005-08-03, By Susan Ohanian

I somehow missed this in the summer but O'hanian elightens as usual. The emphasis is mine.

Behind the rhetoric lies a contempt for the work of public school educators.
This article is from the August 2005 School Administrator, published by the American Association of School Administrators

George Packer, a New Yorker staff writer, points to the danger of clarity, observing that seemingly simple and tough-minded words blow out as much smoke as the jargon of the Pentagon of decades past.

Nowhere is this smoke thicker and trickier than in the lingo the corporate-politico-media squad uses when talking about public schools. At first glance, their talk seems plain and to the point: failing schools, caring about education and education as war. In contrast, education progressives befuddle the public with authentic means of assessment,decision-making processes and triangulated learning.

But the simplicity is deceptive. The expression failing public schools has a lot in common with war on terror. After the media parrot these phrases often enough, we find ourselves at war and in the morass of radical public school deformation. Familiarity breeds acceptance. We need to unpack the knee-jerk, smoky phrases to examine the purposes behind the rhetoric we are in danger of taking for granted.

What follows are refrains about schools plucked from the news--not always unique statements but phrases repeated so often they have become jingles framed around a common theme: Make sure the public can’t think about public schools without thinking about failure.

The structure below is designed to encourage people to look closely at the rhetoric used to describe schools. Readers are invited to unpack popular phrases, to think about what is revealed and what is hidden. In so doing, we can keep our own discourse free of the corporate catchphrases.

The refrains are these: Schools are failing; Caring about education; Education as war; The knowledge supply chain; Failing schools, failing teachers; The private-sector fix;

and my two favorites:

Refrain: Preparing all students for the 21st century

Example: “Today, more than ever, we live in a global economy where competition and technology are changing the workplace and impacting economic success for all Americans. U. S. schools must change if they are to prepare all students for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. This is not a partisan issue.”

Speaker: Edward B. Rust Jr., chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Co.; former chair, The Business Roundtable’s Education Initiative; and member National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century. (Testimony before House Subcommittee on Education Reform, March 8, 2001)

What It Means: Rust is right that this isn’t a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats alike embrace the corporate agenda. When working people can’t find living-wage jobs and their children don’t pass the high-stakes test for a high school diploma, blame the schools. When 50-year-old high tech workers find their jobs shipped to India, blame the schools.

What It Hides: The global economy is a cutthroat slaughterhouse for which corporate America assumes only profits, not responsibility. Despite all the hype, algebra cannot ensure a living-wage job for tomorrow’s workers. As Gerald Bracey and Richard Rothstein have pointed out in their essays, technology often lowers the skills needed for jobs. Moreover, even a casual glance at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’Occupational Outlook Handbook, ( www.bls.gov/oco)reveals that retail sales positions account for almost as many jobs as the top 10 fastest-growing occupations combined.

In case you missed it: Sandy Kress, education adviser to President George W. Bush and prime architect of No Child Left Behind, pointed out in his keynote address to the EduState Summit in June 2004: "The Business Roundtable has been at the forefront of the effort to craft, pass and implement the No Child Left Behind Act."

and finally (because I am a kindergarten teacher after all:

Refrain: Beefed-up kindergarten academics

Example: Nap time needs to go away. We need to get rid of all the baby school stuff they used to do. (“Time May Be Up for Naps in Pre-K Class,” The Washington Post, March 15, 2004)

Speaker: André J. Hornsby, former superintendent, Prince George’s County, Md., Public Schools

What It Means: In hyper-academic frenzy, kindergartners get DIBELS-tested on their speed parroting of nonsense syllables--instead of singing, dancing, finger painting, block building and hanging from the monkey bars.

What It Hides: Developmentally appropriate practices are abandoned in favor of giving the appearance of high standards. Suddenly, 5-year-olds worry they aren’t good enough to measure up to the demands of the global economy. Battling this tide, the admissions office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked seniors who applied: "Tell us about something you do for the pleasure of it."
anti nclb

Read all of the NCC's ten “moral concerns” here --

Which is Jim Horn's School's Matter or get them as a PDF here. They are worth a read. These guys are right on!