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DEL.ICIO.USStop Leaving Children Behind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 28 years I spent in Georgia schools had a profound effect on who I am and how I think. I am the product of tremendous public schools and amazing teachers. But now I see the federal No Child Left Behind Act undermining both.
NCLB was supposed to narrow the “achievement gap” between black and white students. According to Harvard’s Civil Rights Project and recent national test results, it has not done so. In fact, it may be exacerbating the situation as highly qualified teachers leave failing schools, unwilling to work in unrewarding, high-stress environments.
In our frantic race to ratchet up test scores we have turned schools into oppressive institutions that dehumanize and miseducate. Many young students are learning to hate learning.
As school districts across the country jettison history, civics, science, the arts and foreign languages, they are doing away with subjects that lead students to better understand who they are and where they are going. The ultimate price: a society of hard workers but shallow thinkers.
Shouldn’t America treat its most precious resource better?
Today’s guest blogger, Philip Kovacs, is an assistant professor of education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Kovacs grew up and attended public schools in Fayette County, earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a master’s and doctorate from Georgia State University. Also chairman of the Educator Roundtable, a grassroots group pushing for the repeal of NCLB, Kovacs will be at GSU Saturday hosting a one-day conference on the federal law.
Comments
By One
March 16, 2007 8:13 AM | Link to this
Thanks to that ba$tard Bush…America is nothing but a money pot for him and his already rich cronies. Does he actually give a d@mn about our kids…….h3ll no!!! BUSH SUCKS!!!
By Jeff
March 16, 2007 8:16 AM | Link to this
Ya know, ths dude came to the exact same conclusion SET as been making for the past couple of years…
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this
NCLB is a joke. The problem is that our republican politicans still don’t care and don’t get it.
But, the stupid voters continue to elect these very same republicans. It is our own fault. We are our own enemy.
By Janine
March 16, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this
Amen to Professor Kovacs’ conclusions! But we on this blog have said the same things over and over. We and other teachers have protested, objected, and lamented! NCLB has caused many of us [good and caring teachers all] to leave our teaching careers and many more are contemplating getting out. But it seems that this , like many other things in which politics rears its ugly head, is just going to have to run its course . The body count is going to be high… and IMO history will judge this period in American education harshly. It is a catastrophic error made by politicians at the expense of the children.
By Jeff
March 16, 2007 9:10 AM | Link to this
JustMe:
There are as many DEMOCRATS as republicans pushing this!
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 9:11 AM | Link to this
On second thought, maybe the republican politicans do fully understand the impact of NCLB. After all, don’t they need mindless manual labor to work for their big businesses? They want illegal immigrants to currently fill this need, and they are ruinning our children to fill this need in the future….
By V for Vendetta
March 16, 2007 9:19 AM | Link to this
The old system was diverse and interesting. It created well-rounded students that were able to develop free-thinking skills and use them to solve complex problems in a variety of settings. It also understood one thing, one simple thing that many people seem to lose sight of: SOME KIDS NEED TO BE LEFT BEHIND.
We are doing a disservice to our best and brightest by catering to our lowest common denominator. We absolutely can NOT hold schools accountable for what the low end of the spectrum achieves (or fails to acieve). Instead, we should push schools to reward the kids who make an effort on ANY level to improve academically. We should offer them more choices, more opportunities, and more diversity in their educations. We should also push for MORE technical schools (not less) to provide some of those under-performing kids a chance to find a skill they are good at.
Basically, we should be doing the complete and total opposite of what we are doing right now. But this blog serves as a perfect example of the government not caring about what it’s own workers in the field think. As has been proven by posts from such people, members of the DOE at both the State and County levels read this blog. So far, I’m not seeing a lot of attention paid to what is said here.
When our educational system is run by accountants, politicians, analysts, and befuddled morons (Bush), how could we expect any different?
By jim d
March 16, 2007 9:32 AM | Link to this
Those of us who believe in freedom and the importance of an actual education must continue to stand up and speak out loudly, and expose this lie (NCLB) for the destructive drivel that it is.
By Lee
March 16, 2007 9:47 AM | Link to this
Regarding the “achievement gap” between black and white students, I thought that was integration was supposed to address.
If you want to know what is wrong with our schools, start with Brown vs. Board of Education. Brown began the federalization of our public education system. NCLB is merely the latest installment of the same.
V for Vendetta, ditto.
JustMe, re Rep vs Dem, not much difference between the two, IMHO.
By JIm in Marietta
March 16, 2007 9:57 AM | Link to this
I got some bad news for you Mr. Kovacs. NCLB is not the problem. It is a mere symptom of what any government controlled education system inevitably becomes. If you want to fix the problem, then get government out of the education business and privatize the system. Let parents keep the money currently being spent by the failed system to educate their children. Surely we don’t trust the public school system to spend the money and produce better results than the parents could using their hard earned money to do so? Or do we! Many posters on this board are paid by the failed system and will never truly endorse privatization and homeschooling. After all it could cost them their jobs. And evidently most parents are perfectly happy to let the public school system continue wasting their money “educating” their children. Also, the NEA certainly isn’t going to allow anything like privatization to threaten their happy little organization that has nothing to do with education and everything to do with self preservation and growth.
Educating our most precious resource is a right and privilege that if given to the government yields the results we see today. Looks like we might just as well suck it up; we will continue to get exactly what we pay for until enough people get fed up enough to stop blaming NCLB and fix the real problem.
By KA
March 16, 2007 9:57 AM | Link to this
Kudos to you Professor Kovacs! NCLB should be changed to Every Child Working to Potential! Require parental and student responsibility for school attendance and performance: let teachers give the grades the students earn: teach the students critical thinking skills along with subject matter content: challenge the best and brightest students instead of dragging the curriculum down to the laggers level: start grouping students by ability not by strict chronological age levels: and address the reason many kids are not succeeding….assess and remediate for poor reading skills to get the slow readers reading on grade level. Good luck with the conference and with your efforts!
By Ernest
March 16, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this
JimD:
I’m with you man, but what is the plan? I agree that NCLB seems to be failing more students than helping them. Being open minded, it is bringing attention to the lack to true measures to help us determine the quality of education.
How does the education my son is getting in DeKalb compare that that your son is getting in Gwinnett? Is the A my son got in Geometry that same as the A your son got? When they graduate from HS, they won’t be competing against each other for jobs but against some kid in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. If we don’t know how to measure and assess the effectiveness of our education, more students will definitely be left behind.
By Bionic Blonde
March 16, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
Those of us who have been in education for a long time have seen so many “We Have Found the Answer!” miracles come down the pike. NCLB is just the latest incarnation. Sadly, it is affecting student learning in a negative way. Every legislation should have to spend a week in a public school in her/his district. Incompetence seems to be rewarded in a Peter Principal type way. Everyone in a society is responsible for teaching the next generation. And I want any child growing up in the United States to have an education because I know this will affect all our lives in the future. This “get tough” policy on immigrants will end up being bad for our future. We need to stop acting as if the millions of people will get tired of the United States and head back across the border. This is the No Child Left Behind policy that should be happening here.
By WFC
March 16, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this
What if NCLB actually “worked” and every single child ended up with a Ph. D. in something? Is society going to magically change to have only jobs that reqire extreme erudition? NCLB was a clever political slogan but that’s all. It’s a hoax as long as some parents can pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into their children’s development and other parents can barely pay the rent! It’s a hoax as long as some parents have master’s degrees and others dropped out in the tenth grade. And don’t even get me started on unmarried “parents.”
By HS Teacher Too
March 16, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
What we need:
Educators making the rules, not legislators (with the logic of “well, I was a student once …”)
A return to rigor. To achieve that, we in Georgia might need to get rid of the HOPE to help combat grade inflation/dumbing down of standards.
To that end, we need a curriculum in the basics that allows us to go slowly enough that the kids actually learn it, instead of checking off a line item that they have “covered” it. (We need to get rid of the mile wide, inch deep junk we presently have.)
A sense, as V said, that there is NOTHING WRONG with technical programs, and in fact, we need more of them. Hey, I pay good money for skilled trades, because I CHOSE not to learn them. There is NOTHING WRONG with choosing a trade, and we need to get the legislators who think that there is, off their high horses. I sincerely doubt many of them change their own oil, fix their own plumbing, etc., etc.
Administrators who have the backbones and support to stand up both to pushy parents (I am not anti-parent, but there are some who, in wanting what is best for their child, actually have the reverse effect, and in that sense parents should NOT rule the show) and discipline problems. We need the ability to tell students — and back it up — that they are OUT if they can’t follow the rules!
But what do I know; I’m just a teacher.
By Dan
March 16, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
KA is exactly right the implementation of NCLB has caused teachers and administrators to ababdon critical thinking and kids working to their potential. But the fault lies locally, the people imlementing the rules that hold them accountable do it in the easiest fashion where they can divert the most blame. Essentially NCLB says you need to show accontability for your results. The rules around implementaion testing etc are all determined locally. So hard working programs with high level teachers can do all of what KA says and be completely within all the guidelines. But that would require to much work for most. Additionally no one says you have to comply. federal monies only come to around 7-9% of total school funds so if a school feels the testing costs more, don’t do it. Clearly there needs to be accountability on teachers and administrators part (as with ANY job) if you have a better way lets hear it but whining about things especially whenignorant of the facts helps no one and KA you weren’t whining and had very good ideas but many others are
By fed up
March 16, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
Uh, Jim in Marietta… my kids have been in public schools for years. One consistently scores in the 97th percentile on nationally normed tests, the other is 99th. One recently was a finalist in a statewide math competition- top 12 out of 1800. Seems like public school is working pretty well for us. How do your little darlings score?
Also, keep in mind that these kids you are so loathe to educate will be paying for your prescriptions and retirment one day. I would suggest that you be interested in their education lest they lose interest in your old age.
The problem is NCLB. Fortunately our school system still at least attempts to teach critical thinking skills despite (not because of) NCLB. I wonder how long that can last as we creep toward 2014 when 100% of even special ed kids must pass the CRCT.
I used to be a Republican. Now I am a Democrat thanks to NCLB. Yes, I know, the Democrats are responsible for it too, but seems to me that they are the party more likely to dump it.
NCLB is such a ridiculous joke that it’s hard to even know where to start in criticizing it.
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 10:53 AM | Link to this
Whatever can we, citizens in GA, do to stop NCLB?
Well, it is my understandings that some States refuse NCLB and also refuse federal education dollars (which really is not very significant anyway). Why can’t we convince GA politicans to do the same?
The reason why we can’t convince them is because they are republican and do not want to go against the republican ideology coming from the federal level.
By decatuparent
March 16, 2007 10:53 AM | Link to this
Here’s what I want to know. I have been dying for years to just tell my school system, “Sorry, my kids will not be taking part in this abuse.” Can a parent refuse to give permission for their kid to take the CRCT? Can they hold them out of school on test days? What about “gateway” years (3rd, 5th, 8th).. If a kid has straight As and scores very high on nationally normed tests like the ITBS (I don’t mind the ITBS - it’s a very different test from the CRCT) can a school system hold the child back b/c they refuse the CRCT?
I’m on a school council in a Decatur elementary school, and I have done a good bit of reading on past CRCTs. Y’all would not believe the poor quality of the test. In any given test, there are several questions with no correct answer or that could have more than one correct answer. There are typos all over the place. There are grammar and usage errors all over the reading sections. It’s a complete joke.
By Lisa B.
March 16, 2007 10:57 AM | Link to this
I have finally caved in to the pressure to drill, drill, drill my 4th graders with practice CRCT tests. They practice the online tests in the computer lab, we go through practice questions on transparencies in the classroom, we have CRCT practice tests, and read passage after passage followed by CRCT format questions.
I resisted this teaching style for years. I love teaching reading and writing, having children do projects, play word games, chess, and act out plays. I think recess is vital, but recess, and the above mentioned “fluff” are not on the CRCT.
My elementary school was recognized by the DOE last fall for making great strides in closing the achievement gap. So maybe I am wrong. Maybe recess, and “fluff” are not important.
Great posts everybody. I agree with out guest writer’s comments, and with much of what was said in response. I know that NCLB will pass by the wayside eventually. The pendulum always swings. In the meantime, I still work hard to make sure my students become true readers and writers around all the drill, drill, drill.
By SET
March 16, 2007 11:16 AM | Link to this
NCLB is hardly an accident. Neither is the Great Society. Bush personally is not the cause of the deterioration of the USA. He is just expanding on his days as a cheerleader.
The systematic destruction of American Society and the replacement of the American People with new people more to their liking (more enslavable) is a product of Congress. The executive branch and their appointees rotate in and out from Congress and confirmed by Congress. The tax and economic policies come from Congress.
Other than limiting the vote I don’t have a solution to this. I do believe that since the great depression Congress has tossed the Constitution out the window without bothering to amend it and embarked on a steady unconstitutional concentration of power in DC. It’s like an addiction - it was fun for a long time (Dams, Freeways, Checks in the Mail, Tons of Pork) but now we are an empire and no longer a Constitutional Republic. Empires rot.
The complaining we are doing about education is the local impact of the federal fantasy legislation that the public schools have to live with. Maybe the solution is to give them what they want and enforce all the federal mandates to the hilt and let all the schools and all the students fail. Stop trying to live with NCLB and live ON it. And tell the parents and the students that this is what they get thanks to Congress.
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this
SET -
I wonder why you do not lead the charge for GA to not participate with NCLB and to refuse federal education dollars. This would then free up GA to do what we think is right for our students.
By decaturparent
March 16, 2007 11:28 AM | Link to this
When the Vanderlyns, Morningsides, Crabapples and Walton Highs of the world start failing NCLB, it will be repealed because parents who have not been paying attention will wake up.
And, if the law stays as written, that is certain to happen 2014.
Too bad we will have most of an entire generation taught to read nonsense words with the use of dog clickers by then.
Woof, woof… sit… now, roll over…good job! … Now bow down to the imperial government. Good boy!
By KA
March 16, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this
Our America was built on individualism and the spirit of adventure, opportunity, and hard work. Now we are only lumbering along with a managing the masses mentality. Each one of us can still influence and educate our own children, and work to turn off the mass management mentality. Hope springs eternal!
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this
decaturparent -
It is my understanding that a single parent cannot refuse to participate in this NCLB mess. And, the school system cannot refuse either because they need the State education dollars. However, the State of GA can make the decision to refuse NCLB and the federal dollars.
If you do try to refuse to allow your child from taking the CRCT, all that does is inch your school towards not making AYP (due to low test participation rate). And, there are many repercussions to a school not making AYP, per the NCLB rules.
Honestly, the only thing we can do is harrass our State politicans to stop cooperating with the federal NCLB act. And, to harrass our federal politicans to stop NCLB all together.
By KA
March 16, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this
JustMe, SET in in California.
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 11:35 AM | Link to this
decaturparent -
Those families that you mention don’t have to worry about NCLB because they can afford to send their children to private schools, or even better, to school abroad.
NCLB is for US public schools to crank out mindless worker bees for the wealthy republicans and their big business interest.
By lou
March 16, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this
How long has it been since you’ve stepped foot in a classroom? NCLB has done a great job making sure that schools focus on the performance of all children. No longer can educators sweep under the carpet the children who can’t answer the most basic of questions on a simple standardized test. I have three kids in three schools and NCLB has finally held the schools toes to the fire. Teaching to the test is fine by me as long as the test assesses if a child has learned what was presented in the curriculum. If they haven’t learned, the schools are held to task. PERIOD. No excuses. Good teachers still make learning exciting and interesting. NCLB siimply ensures that the community knows exactly where extra attention needs to be focused and compares apples to apples in terms of student acheivement.
By Jim in Marietta
March 16, 2007 11:40 AM | Link to this
fed up,
I was fortunate enough to have attended a parochial elementary school, a private middle school and a public high school. While public school was slightly more than a joke some 30 years ago it is an insult today, and was well on its way long before NCLB came about.
I have a sophomore on the Dean’s list at Kennesaw who was homeschooled since second grade. I have a 16 year old also homeschooled who scored 98% on the PSATs. He is finished with his “high school” curriculum and will begin taking college classes locally in the fall. I said this before; my kids are not “gifted.” They are typical of anyone given an opportunity to flourish outside of the PS system.
As for the people supporting me in my retirement, there is only one person responsible for that, and I see him in the mirror every morning. I don’t believe in entitlement or the social security system. My happiness is due to my self reliance and hard work not reliance on the government for much of anything outside of basic security and infrastructure.
By V for Vendetta
March 16, 2007 11:42 AM | Link to this
JustMe,
I think SET is localized in Cali, so it would be quite a commute for him! Although, for the record I too wish he lived here and could be a part of our growing dissatisfied ranks. He consistently has some of the most interesting and thought-provoking posts, especially since they come from a legal standpoint.
I guess decaturparent is right, we should all just wait for 2014 when all the “good schools” go belly up and people freak out about it. To be honest, I teach at one of the “good schools” and I can’t wait for that to happen. Maybe our community will open their eyes.
NCLB scares me for more reasons than just education though. I fear we are moving towards a dystopian future, one not unlike the futures portrayed in 1984 or even more recently in V for Vendetta.
Maybe now you understand my name a little better. :-)
By jim d
March 16, 2007 11:45 AM | Link to this
Oh Dear!!
Decatur parent.
CRCT scores are tied to funding and federal (NCLB) sanctions. This puts taking the CRCT on the same level as making payments on a mob loan; skipping either means your future will quickly become unpleasant.
By Truth Filter
March 16, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this
The pluses or minuses of NCLB aside for a moment…
The federal government provides Georgia with 1 BILLION dollars in revenue. Georgia can’t say “no thanks” to 8 percent of its education budget. While some of that money goes to the administration of NCLB (testing, etc), a lot of it goes to Title 1 programs, Free/Reduced Lunch and other important programs.
Imagine that money disappearing. Everyone has been all over Gov. Perdue for austerity reductions that amounted to 2.5 percent of the total budget each year. I can assure you, the state and local governments are not going to pick up the tab for another 1 billion bucks.
That’s the quandry and it’s why some have threatened to drop out of NCLB but no one has done it. The Feds say “if you want this money, you have to do this: NCLB.”
It’s best to be at the table to make sure NCLB is changed intelligently, don’t you think?
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this
This is a rather tangent to the conversation, but I thought it interesting….
I brilliant high school student shared with me, today, her definition of political “conservative” vs. political “liberal.”
A political “conservative” is one that thinks the government should regulate social issues (like education) and not regulate the economy.
A political “liberal” is just the opposite. They think the government should regulate the economy and not regulate social issues (like education).
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this
Truth Filter -
I disagree. I think that if GA said “no thanks” to the federal money and to NCLB, we would be better off.
First, as you pointed out, money won’t be wasted to comply with NCLB rules, to include testing. Currently we pay a nice bucket of money to people’s salaries and to training and to the tests to make this happen.
Second, for any budget gap remaining, I would rather fill with a 1% increase in State sales tax. Or, how about filling the gap with some of this lottery money. Anything would be better than the federal dollars and NCLB!
By Jim in Marietta
March 16, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this
SET,
I agree with the point below from your 11:16 post.
“The systematic destruction of American Society and the replacement of the American People with new people more to their liking (more enslavable) is a product of Congress. The executive branch and their appointees rotate in and out from Congress and confirmed by Congress. The tax and economic policies come from Congress.”
The government needs the public school system for this to continue to work. The government needs mindless drones, lemmings, sheeple, (call them what you will) who can barely take care of themselves and who look to the government for handouts and who harbor feelings of resentment towards others who work hard and have something more, and say out loud, “They have more than I do. It’s not fair.” And the government elected by the same people says, “Yes of course you need more, you poor slob. Let’s get some more money for your entitlement from Joe who works, so you can sit on you’re a$$ all day. Just keep sending your kids to our schools we’ll take real good care of them.”
By Ernest
March 16, 2007 12:22 PM | Link to this
The timing of these comments are ironic. I just read an AP story from 11:53 indicated NCLB is headed for fundamental changes. Maybe the folks in Washington are listening. FWIW, I read it on the 11 Alive site at: Lawmakers Eye Changes to Education Law
By Jim in Marietta
March 16, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this
Nice article. Of course the government will make everything aaaaall better for the NEA and its members. They can’t afford to have PS fall apart or truly change in any way!
By philipkovacs
March 16, 2007 12:52 PM | Link to this
I wanted to thank all of you for the comments. In terms of solutions to the problems, we will be discussing those tomorrow at GSU. The meeting is free and open to the public, and all are encouraged to attend.
A few responses: This law had bipartisan support, and it will take bipartisan support to undo the legislation. Yesterday’s WaPo had a front page article detailing 50 Republican members of Congress working to undo NCLB.
The NEA takes a different position than the one favored by our organization. NEA leadership wants tweaks, while we want to replace NCLB with educator-led reform…something we will also be detailing tomorrow.
I don’t think GA should turn down federal funds. Here I think, ehem, Reagan’s use of Block Grants are instructive. If we want schools to be innovative (Bill Gates calls for this all of the time) then we need to support the very risk taking and creative approaches to problem solving that lead to innovation in the first place. Micromanaging schooling will not give us innovative thinkers or doers…
In terms of NCLB providing accountability and holding schools’ toes to the fire…that is nonsense. As we will show tomorrow, the legislation has resulted in massive cheating and widespread corruption of information. More problematic, teaching to the test has reduced the amount of time teachers spend on higher order thinking skills, and has led to a narrowing of the curriculum.
I’ll try to post again in a few hours, as I am inbetween meetings at the moment.
Again, thank you for the comments and questions…
philip kovacs
By catlady
March 16, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this
“When all is said and done, MORE is said than done.” NCLB and its “collateral damage inficting devices”(CDID) such as Direct Instruction and Reading First make waayy too much money for meaningful reform. Sort of like Halliburton or oil prices, but in education. No matter how you challenge it, it will only get worse (see the dismantlement of special ed classes for a preview). The government and those with money will make sure that new, educationally disadvantaged workers will be readied, and those that can will flee the system. It does not matter how many congresspersons speak out against it. Until states stand up and refuse it, like the patriots we CLAIM to be, it will continue to expand and the problems will continue to multiply.
By KA
March 16, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
Ernest, thanks for the link, good story, and it sounds like they are really listening to educators from the trenches, and considering reasonable changes. Now if they would include some changes to boost learning opportunities for the smart kids who are not being challenged, then I would be happy.
By hs sped
March 16, 2007 1:01 PM | Link to this
Give all students IQ tests and then place them accordingly. A student with a 75 IQ is not going to learn at the same level(or speed) as a student with an IQ of 115. Why punish both? What ever happened to tracking? Does it violate civil rights, or something? Another complaint…I’m so sick of all the slow learners being labeled as OHI and put into special ed and then we’re faced with teaching them via all NCLB crao. Which ultimately means…..dummy down the curriculum, because they definitely are NOT being left behind. I’ve heard that OHI students generate more money. Is this the reason it’s happening? Some (note I wrote -some-)private schools are just as bad. If you pay the money…you get the grade. I’m dealing with a student this year that transferred from a private school with great grades. He knows nothing.
By KA
March 16, 2007 1:23 PM | Link to this
Hooray again for Professor Kovacs! Wish I could go tomorrow, but we have plans already. All of our work in this blog may be paying off…
By Ernest
March 16, 2007 1:42 PM | Link to this
For those who have access, check out the Washington Post, per Professor Kovacs suggestion. After reading it, it looks as though there is momentum to make changes this year to NCLB. Does anyone know the position our senators have on this? Now is the time to appeal to them and our US reps.
By decaturparent
March 16, 2007 1:56 PM | Link to this
I’ve been emailing my congressman (John Lewis) weekly with an article on what a joke NCLB is and how it harms his constituents, there’s lots of fodder for this type of correspondence at susanohanian.com if y’all are interested. I send him a weekly article.
He has never emailed me back. My emails probably don’t get read, but it’s better than doing nothing I guess.
I also signed the petition and forwarded it to my email lists to get friends who are like minded to sign it also. The link is in the blog intro above… Educator Roundtable.
By jim d
March 16, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the link Ernest.
I had read it early this morning on the ajc site.
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/USCongress/CongressNo_Child.html
By jim d
March 16, 2007 2:31 PM | Link to this
Ernest,
Here’s your senators views.
Isakson co-sponsored the origional crap and is proud of it: Chambliss seems ok with the bulk of it.
http://isakson.senate.gov/enewsletter/2007/030907.htm
http://www.senate.gov/~chambliss/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=7390d258-7806-4414-99ac-fc9ead953065&CFID=47603292&CFTOKEN=35508774
.
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 3:03 PM | Link to this
phillip -
It is unfair to claim that the NCLB legislation had bipartisan support. The republican party was in control of all parts of the federal government at the time. Democrats could do nothing to stop it. And if they had tried, the republicans would have painted them as anti-education.
By catlady
March 16, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this
Here is where the rubber meets the road, in my opinion: rules, laws, directives, and procedures that are written with no ulterior motives will be changed when they are shown to be predicated on false information, assumptions, etc. NCLB is founded on incorrect assumptions, half-truths, etc., but its stated purpose is not its REAL purpose. Challenging the incorrect assumptions and false data will not result in changes, because those assumptions only provide cover to justify the program for the REAL reasons it was created. That, folks, is the REAL WORLD.
By JustMe
March 16, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this
phillip -
It is unfair to claim that the NCLB legislation had bipartisan support. The republican party was in control of all parts of the federal government at the time. Democrats could do nothing to stop it. And if they had tried, the republicans would have painted them as anti-education.
By Jim in Marietta
March 16, 2007 3:26 PM | Link to this
Educating children is a tough job. It’s sooooo! hard to do we just can’t do it well in this country. We have an army of educators and bureaucrats and many laws, and we spend billions of dollars and we just can’t get the job done. We Americans, we’re just no good at it. It’s too hard. It’s because parents don’t care. It’s because of NCLB. Five year from now it will be because of X. Ten years from now it will be because of Y. We have been more successful sending men to the moon, vanquishing our enemies and establishing one of the world’s greatest economies. Pretty easy stuff. Nothing to it.
Based on what I’ve seen of the American spirit, we can rather painlessly and inexpensively educate our children. And we will, but only if we want to. The trouble is we don’t want to. Isn’t it obvious? If we did, we Americans would be no less successful at it than anything else we have ever truly wanted to do.
By philip kovacs
March 16, 2007 3:51 PM | Link to this
Just Me,
Please visit the websites of both George Miller and Kennedy. The most powerful man in the House, and the most powerful man in the Senate, both supported and continue to support NCLB.
Decaturparent,
Email, as I have learned over the past 5 months, is easy to ignore. If you want them to liste, why not pay them a visit once a week…in your free time :)
By Lee
March 16, 2007 3:54 PM | Link to this
Everyone forgets that public education was in a downward spiral for about 30 years before NCLB was enacted. NCLB was passed to address the issue that schools were graduating students who were basically functional illiterates. Create a crisis, real or imagined, and Congress will respond.
The federalization of education began in ernest after Brown vs Board. After the forced integration years, in which parents, local governments, and schools were powerless to stop the federal government from using children as pawns in a sick power struggle, the federal government realized that they could do anything they wanted. NCLB is merely the latest installment of that phenomenom.
Until local governments can force themselves to push away from the federal government money trough, expect more of the same.
By lopro
March 16, 2007 3:57 PM | Link to this
NCLB has had a detrimental effect on schools with a heavy ESOL population as well as special education students. The problems with both are far too many to list. Needless to say the immigrant majority schools are leading “native” students to rock-bottom stauts and borderline special education students have been falling through the cracks of the NCLB machine.
Lest we forget about the more rural communities who are punished by NCLB particularly in school schoice. Also, school choice has led to overcrowding in classrooms in the sought after schools. This diminishes the educational opportunities for all.
NCLB is nothing more than socialism. From those who have (or care) to those who do not have (or care) for education.
Don’t even get me started on what NCLB has done to the Native American schools funded by the BIA…
By jim d
March 16, 2007 4:30 PM | Link to this
Education’s Dunces and Whipping Boys
by Linda Schrock Taylor
Well worth the read She pretty well nails it.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor101.html
By HS Teacher Too
March 16, 2007 6:31 PM | Link to this
Lou,
You are right that good teachers succeed despite NCLB. However, you also say “Teaching to the test is fine by me as long as the test assesses if a child has learned what was presented in the curriculum.” Unfortunately, here in Georgia that is not the case at all. The curriculum is instead defined by what is ON the test. Even worse, at the high school level End-of-course tests occur a full month to six weeks before the end of the course, so in some cases (and I refer to math classes only, because that is my experience) the tests actually assess how much cramming a teacher could throw in about topics they had not yet gotten to — nor should they have, based on a logical, sound pace and order to the course.
So I agree — we need some accountability. But NCLB is a very, very broken (if it ever was workable) way to go about it.
By jim d
March 19, 2007 9:08 AM | Link to this
For the few bloggers here that feel NCLB has created any meaningful change.
The one comment I have heard over and over again when it comes to high stakes testing is that “students are introduced to the materials they will be tested on.”
Personally, I’d prefer my student be taught the materials rather than having him introduced to it.
Point and case: My child had a math teacher one year that would jump around in the math book they were using in order to introduce different math concepts. The problem I had with this is that in so doing they were skipping over concepts that should be comprehended prior to learning the next one. What this amounted to, in my opinon, was learning of a math concept without knowing the steps necessary to get to that concept.
Now I could be wrong here, but math to me has always been logical, in order to use that logic one must understand the logic that preceded the concepts you are attempting to learn.
Jeff, what’s your take on this? Am I totally off base on this one?
By Lisa B.
March 19, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this
One good thing NCLB has done is reduce the number of Special Ed referrals. In the past, way too many young African American boys were placed in Special Ed. There is a big difference between “slow,” and “untaught.” I do feel that, even with all the problems, educators do a better job now of teaching all (or almost all) children. Certainly there are weaknesses in mandated methods, but teacher accountability has had some positive outcomes.