Get Schooled

By Lynne

June 27, 2005 12:50 PM | Link to this

NCLB does not help to close the achievement gap, it just points out where most of the gap occurs. It also manages to put more work on already overworked teachers and makes really good teachers not want to teach in a school with a large minority population. But, the biggest effect NCLB has had is that it has managed to water down an already poor curriculum (in Georgia) and has lowered the bar tremendously.

By RF

June 27, 2005 01:00 PM | Link to this

As a GA teacher, from the research I’ve done, Georgia has a curriculum that is commensurate with any other state curriculum. What we have is a flawed system of measuring success. Because politicians are afraid to admit that poor and/or minority children aren’t learning as quickly or completely as white students, we have a system that ignores the real problem. Clearly NCLB fails to address how to fix the achievement gap. No simple answer exists, but let’s hope that NCLB will one day force us to look at and CHANGE the way we teach our lower achieving students. I doubt it will happen, but hopefully we will see some fundamental change in the methods we use to teach, which will help poor kids learn, and thus raise performance. No political wheeling and dealing would be necessary if we could just learn how to teach the struggling learners.

By Nikole

June 27, 2005 01:04 PM | Link to this

The achievement gap goes well beyond education. The government has to work on social issues such as poverty and lack of healthcare and many others in order to decrease the achievement gap. The government should look into the mission of the Children’s Defense Fund(an organization truly and originally all about leaving no child behind) and that will help guide them to decreasing the gap. Standardized testing and calling schools failures and blaming teachers does not help. It only helps to privatize schools, which is in my opinion, the real reason many politicians have supported NCLB.

By RF

June 27, 2005 01:34 PM | Link to this

There’s certainly little doubt that many who support NCLB want to privatize education. Basically they want to keep the poor and uneducated just the way they are. But in my “rose colored” world, I’d like to hope that we could use NCLB as a means of forcing fundamental school change. One thing to keep in mind- to change poverty, you have to do more than throw money at it. You have to educate in order to encourage a shift of ideology and lifestyle. The government currently gives enough money to the poor without requiring any change of lifestyle to break the habit. I can only hope that one day we’ll return to emphasizing the importance of learning and the idea that if you don’t make it on your own, then noone will help you.

By Dan

June 27, 2005 02:18 PM | Link to this

I believe the intent of NCLB is not to mend the gaps but to expose them. It is up to the local administration to figure out the most effective way to achieve the thresholds.

By Jake

June 27, 2005 02:55 PM | Link to this

RF - How does “want to privatize education” go with “want to keep the poor and uneducated just the way they are”? I think the goal is ‘add to the poor and uneducated’, dumbing down the better students by re-directing resources toward helping the worst students get 2 out of 5 easy questions correct. It’s the same reason we don’t enforce our immigration laws, to aid in the destruction of the middle class. Those that make these laws live in gated communities and send their children to the best private schools. They don’t want to privatize education for us, they want us so poorly educated that we won’t question being used as pawns during war and servants during peace.

By Michael

June 28, 2005 11:43 AM | Link to this

R.F. has a valid point. The lifestyle and ideology has to change in order for education to improve. When it becomes important to all parents and students that education is the way to lift themselves up out of poverty, then improvement will be seen. Privatizing education sounds excellent until you explore deeper. How much money will a parent get to send their child to a private school? For argument’s sake, let’s say $3500 per child. How many private schools will educate your child for $3500? What will happen to these schools when everyone can go there, not just the best and brightest and oh yeah, the richest. I want them to have to deal with some of the same students I deal with on a daily basis and see how successful they are. Statistics show that there is a gain in achievement the student’s first year in a private school, but after that the improvement levels off and is very comparable to public schools. We need a plan not to privatize, but to either motivate the kids that don;t want to learn or a way to rid our schools of these kids so that they do not take away from the education of the kids who want to be there. Jake has a good point also. I do feel as though there are people in the government that would like to see the education level stay where it is. The rich are educated, the poor do the best they can. This kind of system is what we started with 100’s of years ago in the beginning and if we are not mindful of the past, it will return.

By TN

June 28, 2005 03:17 PM | Link to this

When are we all going to just stop a second and realize that this was a very elaborate window dressing to appease a large public audience? C’mon people, NCLB was nothing more than politics at its best. Some idiot who couldn’t get into a Texas University miraculously gets into Yale (his daddy’s school) has brought to the forefront an educational program that his wife….an elementary librarian….approves of, and the public bought it….why, i don’t know. Perhaps for the same reasons the public bought the fact that Iraq was only going to take a month. But I digress, sure it’s helping us ID schools and districts that are part of the achievement gap problem, but that’s about all it does. And, in Georgia, at least the only thing we’ve done as a result is learn to tweak the rulebook to fit our own scores to make it look like we ain’t that dumb. Instead of funding programs that could help, the gubment would rather fund their own pockets….so what’s new? Nothing. Why do we care? No one has gotten fired for it yet, and if I’m correct in thinking, this idiot only has a few more years in office, and if he is replaced by another idiot that keeps his agenda, we’ll all keep rolling with the punches. I have a feeling though that this, along with most educational bandwagons, will lose its wheels very soon, especially since no one can afford to replace them.

By TN

June 28, 2005 03:32 PM | Link to this

Oh yeah, and who the heck is writing these tests for our students? Riddle me this: The GHSGT Science test requires a student score around 67% correct to pass (I’m not complaining, I think it should be higher) BUT the EOCTs (for biology and physical science) require that the students only score 40% and 42% respectively to pass. Hmm….a student can go an entire academic year without having a science class but must pass the GHSGT with a score meeting or exceeding 67%…yet a student who has had biology all semester must only make a 40% on a test that comes at (or near, don’t get me started on this)the end of the semester/year of having this class every day….Where is the logic in this? Yet AYP is measured using these tests, aren’t they? According to the BOE the GHSGT is a more generalized test and therefore should be graded as such…and the EOCT is more content driven/specific and must be graded as such…..so basically we’re testing kids just for the heck of it. We’re wasting trees, class time, money, everything, for a minimum skills test…which, by high school, the kids shouldn’t need. If they don’t have the minimum skills, they shouldn’t be there, or at least not in a “College Prep” (my school’s lowest level) class.

By sanibelgirl

June 28, 2005 05:08 PM | Link to this

TN,

I am a part of the large public audience who is now demanding a return on my investment - tax dollars spent on public education. As of this year, I will not only be paying school taxes, but will also pay for a private school tuition. Why? Because I am tired of the lack of accountability on the part of educators and the power games played by school administration. One of the worst mistakes we have made is to give so much control to local school boards. This is giving total power to idiots. It is time that the public demand more of a return on our money than a rating as one of the worst states in the country to receive an education. We are a joke to so many other states. Instead of trying to find solutions, we fudge and manipulate the numbers so it looks like we are trying to do better. Our old school decided not to turn in ALL of their SAT scores, only the really good ones so that way their overall school SAT scores would appear higher. It’s becoming a shell game and the only ones to lose are the kids. I’ve had it and we are out of it. If there were only a way to keep from paying school taxes…

Sanibel Girl