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NCLB: No Conventioneer Left Behind
2008-09-06 05:06:00 A few chocolate covered champagne bonbons to munch on this evening:The Diva was so pleased to see that all those "Hooked on Phonics" lessons did not go for naught last night:And of course, I just had to post Jon Stewart's take on this week's festivus... No matter what your politics, you can't help but laugh out loud at his great clips The National Inquirer....doing some vetting? An interesting spin on what's good for the gander (John Edwards) is good for the goose (A little bit of Northern Exposure Miss Sarah?)Yes, even the Aging Disco Diva had to battle the big, bad fourth estate meanies when I was running for Diva Queen of the Whole Friggin' Universe. But I didn't scream sexism or sic some wrinkly white haired old dude and his money bag (no, not Cindy--I mean literally a bag of money) after the press .... I just sent the flying monkeys to toss pooh...come to think of it I think I did see Karl Rove flinging the feces this week. This is more fun than a barrel of flying monkeys.
[Asinine] Because it done be working so good, more NCLB improovements propo
2008-04-24 01:36:00 (Da gubbment)
NCLB is just another quagmire for this administration.
2008-03-15 22:20:00 In EdWeek (3/5/08) in an article by David Hoff, ?A Key Republican Sees Odds Dipping For NCLB Renewal,? Representative Howard P. ?Buck? McKeon (formerly mentioned in this blog in March ?07) bemoans the fact that it has been a bit tough to push the reauthorization of NCLB down the throats of other lawmakers.According to Buck, ?We?re in a climate where it doesn?t look very favorable to get the reauthorization done.?Of course, it would help if the members of Congress actually made an effort to do something about NCLB. Hoff mentions in his article that Buck (who is the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee) has not even met with Representative George Miller from California who is the committee?s chairperson to discuss anything about NCLB since October!It?s now March!Hoff reports that Miller claimed to have a goal of this spring to reauthorize the law! As of this posting, spring is in one week and ?the House education committee hasn?t taken any public action toward ...
Seventh Circuit: NCLB trumps IDEA
2008-02-15 18:42:00 The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has issued an interesting opinion inBoard of Educ of Ottawa Township High School District 140, et al., v. Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education, et al., No. 07-2008. The Court affirms the District Court's dismissal of a challenge of NCLB as inconsistent with IDEA but not for lack of standing as the District Court had held. Instead, the Court ruled that NCLB, which was enacted in 2001, must prevail to the extent that there are inconsistencies with IDEA, the portions of which that were at issue were enacted between 1970 and 1990. You can find the decision at http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp-/AU0PHBSR.pdfThe court did allow an interesting loophole. At the end of the opinion the Court noted that the challenge was to the entirety of NCLB, and the Court left open the possibility that portions of the Act, or specific regulations promulgated thereunder might yield. The claim against the entire statute was, however, too weak to a...
Wes Fryer on NCLB: A Must Read
2008-02-03 04:00:00 If you have not yet read Wes Fryer's impassioned and well argued response to President Bush's comments about NCLB in the State of the Union, go and go now. It's a fantastic read. Here's a sample: Our “failing public schools” are not failing because they have not been threatened enough with harsh punishments and closure. They are not failing because they need a stronger emphasis on “accountability.” Our educational system DOES need reform and change, but the solution is not to privatize public education and set groups whose focus is profit and the bottom line loose amidst our public education dollars. The path we have followed under NCLB is the WRONG path, and I have not yet heard ANY of our current political leaders or aspiring presidential candidates articulate a vision for U.S. schools which breaks with the failed patterns of the past and charts the visionary course for the future which our learners and communities so desperately need.And it gets bette...
By: Practical Theory
Interesting NCLB Decision by the Sixth Circuit: Is Divorce Likely?
2008-01-15 21:06:00 The United states Court of appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a noteworthy decision last week in Sch Dist of the City of Pontiac v. Spellings. The decision is interesting in that the Court held that the plaintiffs, a number of school districts and a teacher's union, with some of its affiliates, stated a cause of action that the districts are not legally responsible for the costs of implementing No Child Left Behind beyond the funds provided by the federal government for NCLB. The Court relied upon the provision in NCLB prohibiting unfunded mandates.The Court remanded the case to the trial court for resolution on the merits. Accordingly, it has no immediate impact. You can read the slip opinion at http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opi-nions.pdf/08a0006p-06.pdfI hear that one in two marriages ends in divorce these days. My question today is - coupled with the current stormy political climate for NCLB, could the marriage of NCLB and IDEA be headed to divorce court?
Hillary on NCLB?
2007-11-28 02:46:00 I’m working on a paper for my education class on the No Child Left Behind policy. I’ve been reading lots of policy wonk stuff on it but occasionally like to see someone talk about it. Senator Clinton does so very well. She knows her stuff…
Iron Knees, Climate Change, and NCLB
2007-10-11 18:44:00 Just the other day, President Bush stood in the White House Rose Garden and urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In so doing, he emphasized that schools must be held “accountable.” Broadly speaking, Mr. Bush is right. Institutions that serve the public and play a vital role ...
By: Kmareka.com
The ABCs Of Fixing NCLB
2007-09-07 22:23:00 The New York Times reported yesterday that Margaret Spellings was at it again, criticizing the efforts of Congress to try and fix NCLB.In a speech before a business group and at a news conference, Ms. Spellings said that a series of proposals in draft legislation circulated by Democrats and Republicans on the House education committee, taken together, would allow states to remove children from testing regimes and tutoring services, and would make it too difficult for parents to know whether students and schools are making progress.To me, the first clue that something is wrong is the fact that she?s meeting with a business group and the media instead of a roomful of parents.Well, fortunately for us in the 8th U.S. congressional district, Patrick Murphy has?(Murphy), a Democrat who represents Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia, credits the law with setting some standards. A federal study analyzing the law shows that students are making improvements, and achie...
How NCLB is Robbing Our Most Talented Students
2007-08-31 15:12:00 This editorial from The Washington Post highlights concerns raised in an earlier post about the consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Washington Post piece suggests that our best learners are not getting cultivated in the public schools, creating a snowball effect of talented students moving toward private education. From WaPo: […] ...
By: Kmareka.com
NCLB - TEST THE KIDS
2007-08-03 07:13:00 LIFTED FROM the SCHOOLS MATTER Blog:This space explores issues in public education policy, and it advocates for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasizing testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build.
Flunk NCLB Once And For All
2007-05-31 23:16:00 What follows is an excerpt from education writer Alfie Kohn?s column in USA Today about No Child Left Behind, one of the grossest frauds in education ever perpetrated by Bushco, a regime that seems to manufacture them on a daily basis (though I will admit that they didn't act alone in this, but they own it).?according to a recent 50-state survey by Teachers Network, a non-profit education organization, exactly 3% of teachers think NCLB helps them to teach more effectively. No wonder 129 education and civil rights organizations have endorsed a letter to Congress deploring the law's overemphasis on standardized testing and punitive sanctions. No wonder 30,000 people (so far) have signed a petition at educatorroundtable.org calling the law "too destructive to salvage."NCLB didn't invent the scourge of high-stakes testing, nor is it responsible for the egregious disparity between the education received by America's haves and have-nots. But by intensifying the former, it exacerbates ...
NCLB - Deja vu.
2007-04-20 14:48:00 We haven?t gained any ground on NCLB. David J. Hoff writes in EdWeek (4/18):The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is simply stated: All children should be proficient in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year. But more than five years after the law was enacted, it remains unclear what ?proficient? means. Because the federal law gives the states the power to define proficiency, there are 50 different definitions of the term. And policymakers are sending mixed messages about how to judge the rigor of each state?s standards.There is no consistent target among states. There is no consistent definition of proficient. States do not even use the same tests or testing procedures to determine proficiency. Hmmm... Heard this before. See TPO (The Principal's Office) blog posting "The NCLB target: What is it?" on 3/14/07 for the déjŕ vu feeling.The article continues?As Congress considers changes to the law, it will have to address the question of what it means to be pr...
Back to the drawing board on NCLB?
2007-03-22 01:53:00 There are two signs that Congress thinks the good ship W. is in trouble!First sign: Congressional support for NCLB is dwindling as fast as U.S. Attorneys! According to the Christian Science Monitor (3/21):Support for No Child Left Behind – President Bush’s signature education reform – is fraying as it heads into reauthorization this year. The heaviest criticism is coming from within his own party. Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate introduced bills last week that allow states to opt out of most of the law’s requirements, while keeping federal funding. Backers of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) say that move would gut the law. Even supporters say that changes are needed…“It’s pretty obvious that the consensus that led to [NCLB] six years ago is unraveling,” says Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a former Reagan-era education official. “How badly it unravels over what period of time is what we don’t know yet.” Second sign: T...
Raise your hand if you supported NCLB!
2007-03-20 16:36:00 The Dallas Morning News (3/17) reported the following concerning NCLB: Key Democrats who control the federal purse strings are demanding changes. Moderate Republicans say the law must be more flexible. On Thursday, they were joined by dozens of GOP conservatives who want an even more radical overhaul. The Congress is continuing to distance themselves from the President on the issue of NCLB. Instead of questioning who supported the Iraq War at its beginning, Congress may start to question each other as to who supported NCLB!Maybe STANDARDIZED TESTING will have the same credibility of the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!
The NCLB target: What is it?
2007-03-14 18:19:00 In 2014, the expectation is that every child in the United States will perform at grade level in math and reading. Here?s what TPO continues to find fascinating:Each state has its own standards of performance measured by each state?s own standardized testing to determine whether students are performing at a proficient level.In other words, there is no standard.
Definitions of Sanity and NCLB
2007-02-25 02:13:05 Doug Noon over at Borderland just wrote a really powerful, thought-provoking, interesting piece on NCLB. It's just an amazing lens... agree, disagree, there's space for both, I'm sure. But I'd argue that, no matter what you initially think, be sure to (to quote Mr. Kay, one of our amazing English teachers at SLA) "let it marinate for a while" first. [Update: It was Doug Noon who wrote it, not Doug Johnson. My apologies!]
By: Practical Theory
The State of NCLB
2007-01-25 04:09:00 In his State of the Union address, President Bush included the following paragraph referring to the No Child Left Behind Act: Now the task is to build on this success, without watering down standards ... without taking control from local communities ... and without backsliding and calling it reform. We can lift student achievement even higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around failing schools ... and by giving families with children stuck in failing schools the right to choose something better. We must increase funds for students who struggle – and make sure these children get the special help they need. And we can make sure our children are prepared for the jobs of the future, and our country is more competitive, by strengthening math and science skills. The No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America's children – and I ask Congress to reauthorize this good law. Without taking control from local communities? Sorry, Mr. Bush, NCLB does not provide for local ...
Better Teacher Training is where the focus of NCLB should be!
2007-01-10 21:29:00 Most of the higher-achieving countries we consider peers or competitors now provide high-quality graduate-level teacher education designed to ensure that all teachers can effectively educate all their students. Preparation is usually fully subsidized for all entrants, and includes a year of practice teaching in a clinical school connected to the university. Schools receive funding to provide coaching, seminars, classroom visits, and joint planning time for beginners as well as veterans. Salaries are competitive with those in other professions and include additional stipends for hard-to-staff locations.From "A Marshall Plan For Teaching" by Linda Darling-Hammond, EdWeek, Vol. 6, No. 18.If the government is serious in its efforts to improve schools, they must be committed to improving the quality of teacher training programs. The job of the teacher is difficult and multi-dimensional. Teaching is a complex activity in an ever-changing world. Teachers must be masters of content, motivat...
Inquiry and Creativity: Are they lost in an age of NCLB?
2007-01-10 00:40:00 These are difficult times for educators who believe that learning is worth pursuing for its own sake and that the chief purpose of school is the nurturing of students as whole human beings. Higher test scores seem to be the order of the day. To accomplish this aim, administrators strain to meet political agendas, teachers respond by teaching to the test, and students in turn react by cheating, taking “learning steroids” (legal and illegal pyschostimulants), or just not caring in order to cope with the demands placed on them in school. The adventure of learning, the wonder of nature and culture, the richness of human experience, and the delight in acquiring new abilities all seem to have been abandoned or severely curtailed in the classroom in this drive to meet quotas, deadlines, benchmarks, mandates, and targets.- - -The most destructive legacy of NCLB may turn out to be that it hijacks the dialogue in education away from talking about the education of human beings and toward a...
NCLB - Now Citizens, Let's Blog!
2007-01-05 23:18:00 More than two-thirds of American children ages 6-17 lack the sustained support needed to put them on track for adult success, according to a report scheduled for release this week.- - - - -The (study), conducted in the fall of 2005, asked the adolescents and the parents about a set of indicators in five areas:- Caring relationships with adults both in and out of school.- Safe families, schools, and communities and the chance to engage in constructive activities, such as after-school clubs and teams.- A healthy start and health development, including regular medical checkups, good nutrition, and daily physical activities.- Effective education for marketable skills and lifelong learning, including a positive school climate, a school culture that emphasizes academic achievement, reading for pleasure, and friends who value being a good student.- Opportunities to make a difference through helping others.- - - - -The indicators, according to the report, are designed to supplement more tra... |
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