From The Hill:
The Hill: ‘No Child Left Behind’ is up due for reauthorization this year. What exactly do you want to see fixed in the law?
Secretary (of Education Arne) Duncan: There are a number of things that I think are broken with the current law that working in a bipartisan way we can have common sense fixes. I think the law is too punitive, too prescriptive, it’s led to a dumbing down of standards, and it’s led to a narrowing of curriculum. We need to fix all of those things. We have to reward success, reward excellence, look at growth and gain, not just absolute test scores. We have to be much more flexible. When I ran the Chicago public schools, I almost had to sue this department for the right to tutor my children after school. It made no sense why I had to fight this department to help kids who wanted to learn after school, so we have to really get out of the way there. We have to continue to raise standards. We’ve seen 40 states provide leadership, and do that, and we need to provide a well-rounded curriculum, so reading and math are important, but science, social studies, dance, drama, art, music, foreign languages, physical education, all those things. We want the new law to be fair, to be focused to be flexible. And we think we can do these things working together this year.
I have to say that this gives me some hope that FINALLY the Obama administration will do something about this devastatingly bad NCLB policy. I have been railing against that law for the last seven years and I really hope that we will finally witness REAL education reform that actually improves education before the next presidential election.
I worked at a local elementary school for a number of years, and we were NOT allowed to say anything negative about NCLB on school property, not even in our e-mails, but away from the classroom the universally accepted opinion was that it was the worst thing to happen to education in our lifetimes.
It is still my considered opinion that the GOP purposefully attempted to destroy the public education system in this country in order to push people toward Christian based home school and private school options. The Republicans have LONG railed against the teachers union and the state of American education. But I have never believed that they wanted to improve it, but rather to do away with it.
I have also never really understood how George Bush was able to convince the late Senator Kennedy to support such a deeply flawed policy decision.
I completely agree
ReplyDeleteNCLB was promoted by a child who was severely left behind, George Dubya. I'm a teacher, and believe me, we bad-mouth NCLB all the time at school and away. I have yet to hear anyone in education (AKA the trenches) support it. Seriously, not one person that I know of has ever supported it.
ReplyDeleteRe: How Bush and the GOP got Kennedy to support it:
ReplyDeleteTHEY LIED!
They misportrayed (yes, I am making up a word) the level of funding they were going to give this bill...that's how they got the Lion to support their shitfest "reform."
She's not going down, is she?
ReplyDeleteI'm a teacher. NCLB is the most ridiculous thing - and one more example of how politicians get away with doing things that the public has absolutely no understanding of.
ReplyDeleteFor example: could you please explain how all children will be proficient in math and reading when proficient is defined as testing above the 40th percentile? Anyone with a BASIC understanding of percentages knows it's mathematically impossible to achieve such a thing.
NCLB...great in theory - of course I want every child to succeed...but really a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
With children who grew up with this ridiculous policy, it has been painful to watch the system degrade further from my time in the public system in California during the 70s. My kids would come home and complain about how the teachers were not teaching, but spending most of their time dealing with the paperwork supporting the outcomes and testing, and telling them to only worry about the information on the tests. My kids were discouraged to actually learn and encouraged to regurgitate. I am so glad they are out of the system, but fear for them while competing in college. Our glimmer of hope is that they did spend some time in international schools--which, unfortunately, have their issues too. Something needs to happen soon. Wish the Administration would pay attention to what Bill and Linda Gates have to say and are doing about education.
ReplyDeleteI taught and my husband still teaches. Both us have hated NCLB since Bush pushed it through because we knew (and know) it wouldn't help children.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of the worst things that could have happened to our public school system. Good riddance to it.
His school district forbids discussion of it (though teachers discuss it amongst themselves during lunch or after school).
We agree with you, Gryphen, and others here that the impetus behind the bill and its underfunding was to abolish the public school system in favor of religious and private schools. Perhaps they wanted to ensure that only a certain viewpoint was taught.
We sincerely hope that President Obama can effect the dismantling of NCLB.
"It is still my considered opinion that the GOP purposefully attempted.."
ReplyDeletePerhaps "It is still my considered opinion that the GOP is purposefully attempting..."
Now it remains to be seen whether the WH Adm really means it and will work for it and push for it in every school district in the country, or if this is just more pretty sounding rhetoric.
Because for the WH and the Dims to sell anything the Repothugs don't want, they will have to go to every venue, no matter how small, just like the Repothugs do, and sell it. And so far they just haven't shown the will to hit the streets and do the work.
If they can convince every PTA in the country that this is good for their children, they can get everything they want. But they can't do that from inside the Beltway.
I am still waiting for that single payer, opt in, universally, VA modeled etc. health care that was promised in such golden tones three years ago. The pretty words just aren't good enough.
NCLB is nothing more than a policy to destroy school systems, buck up charter and private schools while robbing money from public schools, dismantle the Dept. of Education, and create a whole country of morons who will vote for whoever Fox News says to vote for.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that one Bush spawn was heavily involved with the company that created the testing system tells you all you need to know. Scam.
The R's are going to have to rethink things. Around Xmas it was reportd that approximately 25% of those taking the armed services exam did not pass it. When Republican educational policies result in recuits who aren't smart enough to tote a rifle, there's a major kink in their "all war, all the time" plans.
ReplyDeleteI just had a conversation with an old friend who is a teacher.
ReplyDeleteShe said one of the most frustrating things about this is that they are expected to show an increase in test scores every year. AS she explained it, that looks good on paper but it isn't realistic. Maybe one year you get an exceptional class of kids who have good family situations and the kids are bright and attentive and socially adjusted. This class does very well and aces the progress tests at the end of the year.
So far so good, right? No, actually this is a bad thing for the teacher, because the test scores from this exceptional class set the bar for the next year. This same teacher is again expected to show a certain % of improvement on test scores the next year, even if the next class is full of kids from broken homes, kids with alcoholics or tweakers for parents, and kids full of behavioral issues. There may be no way in hell this class is gonna score close to the class from the year before, let alone higher, and yet that is what is expected from the teacher.
As for behavioral issues, I help out in my son's classroom once in a while and it's unbelievable what I see. In a class of 24 or so students, there are 5 or 6 who are always disrupting the class and taking too much of the teacher's time for the kids who are trying to learn. They will just get out of their seats and wonder around or sit on the floor or talk in loud voices or just refuse to do what the teacher asks. These kids should not be in a regular classroom taking up time and effort of the teacher. They should be in a special controlled environment where they can work at their own pace and be learning self control. But the attitude that "we don't want to treat different kids differently they should all get the same learning" has created a situation where the disruptive kids take away from the learning experience of the other kids. There needs to be more discipline enforced in public schools.
And Gryphen, I totally agree that the GOP has been trying to ruin the education system in this country for years....decades really.
And their push towards private schools smacks of elitism. The funny thing about the private schools is, they don't need to accept the kids with the behavioral problems, so they have a jump start on the public schools right there. And private schools have parents who care about their kids' education so there is another plus. The right is trying to create a situation where only their children get a good education, essentially giving them absolute control of this country.
Rick
Considering the shennanigans that Jeb Bush did in Florida regarding education and education 'reforms', I totally believe many Republicans would be happy to scrap public ed altogether. Sad, sad, sad. Once again, only the wealthy will have educations and health care and any sense of security, and that is exactly the opposite of what the Founding Fathers and Mothers had in mind for this country.
ReplyDeleteMarvin M
"I have also never really understood how George Bush was able to convince the late Senator Kennedy to support such a deeply flawed policy decision."
ReplyDeleteLet's see. Teddy was a Kennedy... women ,wine, wandering eye...blackmail?
I was in high school when this bill was passed. All of my teachers HATED it.
ReplyDeleteI was on a local school board several years back and it was the most demoralizing experience of my life.
ReplyDeleteIt was like we were the driver of a large bus, filled with students, their parents, the school administration, teachers' union, the public at large. We had a gas pedal and a brake and all the passengers had a brake pedal only.
No matter what we wanted to do to improve the education process, unless we had the complete agreement of everybody on the bus, any one of them could push their brake pedal and stop it cold - usually through the threat of lawsuit.
I DID, however figure out why there are so many new school buildings: it is the only thing you can sell to everybody on the bus. People are perfectly willing to pay higher taxes so the Board can put up new buildings with the Board members' names on a bronze plaque at the door, but nothing that really improves education. (I made no friends when I observed that Oxford - arguably the best school on the planet - operated in buildings erected in the thirteenth century, and that maybe the problem was not one of brick and mortar.)
Perhaps the following might offer some insight. I am staying at a long-term hotel as I take some classes in another town. A teachers' union was having a "staff development" conference in the same building. The shuttle driver who takes me to my classes each day had helped clean up after one of the "development" classes the day before.
"These must be pretty boring classes the teachers are taking. There were folded notes everywhere - they were passing notes like second graders! A lot of them were pretty racy, but one really caught my eye: It said, "I am going to put my cell phone between my legs on vibrate. As many of you call me as you can!!" -- with the phone number.
Now tell me again why we are in 31st position in math? No, we have everything we need to get our kids educated - except the will. And until everybody on that bus is willing to do whatever necessary to get the job done, we will continue to hold thirty-first place - if we are lucky.
Margaret and Helen, Best friends for 60 years and counting.
ReplyDeleteI told you, Margaret. It’s only just beginning.
Texas Governor Rick Perry said he will introduce emergency legislation requiring women seeking abortions to first get a sonogram of the fetus and listen to a recording of the heartbeat.
Why? Well when someone has all the information, according to Perry, “the right choice will be made — the choice for life.”
I find it funny how universal healthcare is big government gone bad, but somehow the government crawling up my uterus and telling me what choice to make isn’t. Odd how giving patients information about end of life options is a “death squad for Grandma” but sonograms before abortions are simply souvenirs for the family photo album.
Rick Perry is a jackass. Period.
Did it ever occur to you Governor Jackass that some of those women who you plan to force to have a sonogram and listen for a heartbeat are young girls who have been abused… young women who are devastated that a wanted pregnancy has gone bad… poor women who just can’t afford to feed another mouth… scared women who have been raped… and even regular ‘ole women who made peace with their God and don’t need to hear from yours?
Governor, please take your big hair to church as often as you like. Get down on your knees and pray to your God everyday. Join the choir and sing his praises until the cows come home. Get it all out of your system so that when you walk into that Capitol building you are a little less inclined to blur the line between religion and politics and force your narrow-minded, black and white version of right and wrong on millions of people who just maybe – maybe - don’t agree with you and your backward ass group of right-wing zealots.
2,700,000 Texans voted for you. 2,100,000 Texans voted for the other guy. So many important problems to be solved and you decide to divide us even deeper.
Jackass.
Tomorrow I will make a donation to Planned Parenthood. I mean it. Really.
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/make-a-donation-to-planned-parenthood/
Margaret, I read the comment you sent me and felt compelled to respond. I know you don’t like it when I do, but honey you know how I feel about this particular subject.
Dear Readers,
In case you are new to my web page blog, I’ll give you a little background. I told my friend Margaret that I thought Sarah Palin was a bitch… is a bitch. Anyway, my grandson really hadn’t fully explained to me that other people could see this page besides Margaret. Which is kind of funny because Margaret actually has to have her husband, Howard, print the pages out for her to read because she doesn’t like computers very much….
But I digress.
So I kept writing about things and more people kept stopping by. Just yesterday I was telling Margaret that I find it very odd that Republicans think government is too big and healthcare for all Americans is just insane. It doesn’t seem to matter that it would cost less than Bush’s wars… but that would just be unAmerican of me to suggest…afterall Sarah Palin’s son is in that war…
continued...
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/sometimes-men-should-just-stick-to-football/
Sorry to disagree, but I'm a teacher in So.Cal and I have no hope at all. Arne talks a good game but it's nothing but talk. His Race to the TOP is worse than NCLB and punitive in it's own way: withholding funding.
ReplyDeleteOur district has just eliminated our OCILE program (where students spend a week off campus learning, 6th grade camp, 4th grade California history), eliminated our magnet program so schools with emphasis is art, music, foreign language will no longer offer those classes, music programs on a district level. Many schools will have thei5 libraries closed and locked because there are no longer any library staff to run them. All due to budget cuts. And there will be more. We're down to readin' 'ritin' and 'rithmetic. And since I'm sure the cuts will continue next year, I'm not sure what else is left to cut. All of our elementary classes will be over 30 students. Imagine trying to teach 30 6 year olds how to read or add and subtract.
Dismantling NCLB won't do any good when the public is buying the extreme right's blame game; accusations of incompetent teachers, attacks on unions, claims of failing schools and still demanding that the fat be cut. We haven't had fat for decades. The muscle and sinew is gone. We're gutted. We're down to bones now. And next year, the amputations start.
You get what you pay for and the U.S. has no right to claim the best education system in the world.
We do have the best prisons and spend more on defense than the next 9 world powers combined. That's our value system. Education is not.
I've been a teacher for 25 years. While I agree with educational Standards, the high stakes testing connected with NCLB and subsequent "teaching the test" (which, despite anyone claiming differently, is what goes on) has only served create a generation of students who can't think, can't problem solve, and can't work together. The only thing they can do is pick the best answer from a multiple choice question. This has truly dumbed down our students.
ReplyDeleteAsk any college professor; they'll tell you the quality of students they have been getting from public high schools since NCLB.
In addition, an unbelievable amount of time is spent testing. This spring, my students have a day of national testing in February, 2 full weeks of statewide testing in March and a full week of statewide testing in April. Imagine if all of that time could be spent on classroom instruction!
The interesting thing is that PRIVATE schools don't have to follow NCLB mandates - so rich GOPers can send their kids to schools where they DO learn thinking and problem solving skills, innovation, etc.
See, I think NCLB was designed to keep the rich in charge, and keep the poor and middle class stupid.
I try my best, but every year it gets more difficult to justify to administrators, school board, and community (who only care when the scores are published in comparison with other local schools) when I step outside the boundries of "teaching the test."
The sooner NCLB is dumped the sooner US kids can get back on track with their international counterparts.
I totally agree. NCLB is an unmitigated disaster. So thankful that my kid completed high school BEFORE this monstrosity was in place.
ReplyDeleteI support Obama but I believe that public education is a real blind spot for him. He went to a private high school and has sent his daughters only to private schools. He has no notion of what it's like out there. Until now I haven't seen many signs that Arne Duncan does either. Let's hope for the best.
I vaguely remember that Neil Bush was the recipient of some of the proceeds from sofware needed for this scam to occur. Remeber when Barbara donated to Katrina, with the stipulation that the money was to be spent on software from her son's company?? Most people who used it complained that it was useless, but what else could we expect from anything connected to a Bush??
ReplyDeleteI think President Obama knows about the problems with public education, although he went to a private school in HI. He spent years as a civil rights attorney and community organizer in Chicago. He has diverse insight, but he has to fight the GOP machine. It's up to us in our local communities to get the information to our legislators.
ReplyDeleteWhen NCLB first went into law, a wise person overseas stated, "When our children are hungry, we feed them. When your children are hungry for knowledge, you test them".
ReplyDeleteIt has become a shell game within districts regarding students with special needs.
ReplyDelete10:21AM. Besides Gryph, Margaret and Helen are my blog heroes. I just smile at their snarky wit and take no prisoner blogs.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great book written quite some time ago that compared the teaching of math and science across three different countries to try to understand the disparity in the International Math and Science scores. I believe it was called the Teaching Gap. The approach to teaching was unbelievably different in the U.S. vs. Japan vs. Germany. They also did systematic video recording of all the classrooms. It was so easy to see that the difference was in the teaching techniques. Whereas students in the U.S. classrooms plugged in numbers to formulas from the largest textbooks available, students in Japan were able to problem solve and determine what the formulas actually were from application to real world situations. They also had the thinnest textbooks I'd ever seen in Japan!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like textbook companies and testing services are driving the education of students in America!
OT - but
ReplyDeleteRegina has got her groove back - her post today is absolutely one of the best at palingates.
I have taught at the elementary level for ASD and never once did I feel that I wasn't allowed to speak my mind about the disastrous policies of NCLB.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious - which school were you at?
I am 62 y/o and have witnessed the gutting of the educational system continually, over all those years that I have been aware. The thing that has always bothered me the most was the cutting of such courses as Music, Drama, AV, Band, or basically anything that would allow kids who were not high scholastic achievers, gifted athletes, or in some other way exceptional, an opportunity to
ReplyDelete"be good at something". Not every body is the captain of the football team or head cheer leader. Everyone has their niche. That's why we're Democrats. Everyone gets a chance to shine, not just an elite few.
No child Left Behind was and is a pharse and should be illiminated. We should be teaching our children to think and reason, not take an exam.
ReplyDeleteAs others have pointed out this program was designed by someone with a learning disability to conpensate for that particular learning disability. And they made alot of maney off it especially when the program was required by the entire nation.
Our nightmare in Ohio is just beginning. I agree with you Gryphen. The fundies are trying to take over and do away with our public schools in favor of cult christian schools.
ReplyDeleteKasich wants to privatize our toll roads, schools, sell our state buildings, etc. etc.
Ohiovoter
Expecting that Arne Duncan will fix what is wrong with NCLB is wishful thinking. Check out these links. Or search using education deform( deform not reform)and additional names and phrases to get the other side of this story.
ReplyDeletehttp://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/duncan-donuts-with-arne/
http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/
http://broadeducation.org/news/127.html
No she is not going down.
ReplyDeleteOnce again it all gets swept under the rug.
But I can't stop thinking about the poor person who posted first one AlaskaWTF - which is still unavailable - and then reposted here.
Today my thoughts are of the trust fund. Several people remember it being mentioned a year or too ago and now it is back. What if the intent of this mysterious trust was to provide for the children mentioned? What if one or both of the exicuters of that trust was a family member - uncle, brother, half brother or sister? What if they mismanaged the trust and spent the money rather then managing as designed? Someone thinks they know who the family was. If you are reading this do you know if their was a trust fund? Have you looked for one?
I had a radio show for nearly five years in WA State that covered education exclusively. During the mid 1990's we seemed on the verge of a golden age in education. But there was a strong push for vouchers from the right.
ReplyDeleteSome guests admitted they were telling lies about public school but that the end justified the means! In my opinion, it boiled down to the fact that they didn't want their kids to go to school with "them" -- them being different ethnic groups in each community. These particular outspoken critics did end up commandeering the conversation about public school, got elected to school boards, public office, etc. Their only expertise they all touted was that they had gone to school as a student years before in a different era!
I found all of this disdain quite interesting because public school was championed by our protestant forefathers in New England. The pilgrims felt it was imperative that everyone learned to read, even the Native Americans. Of course, the reading material was the Bible. It was their strong belief that people should be able to read it on their own for meaning, rather than having it interpreted for them (aka Catholic interpretation). The Pilgrims insisted that land be set aside for school houses. Our founding fathers of the modern US put great emphasis on an educated populace as the bulwark of democracy. These are the supposed heroes of the right (and not of all Americans?).
As to NCLB, it can from the model developed in Texas, and unfortunately imposed heavy-handedly on the rest of the country. I've taught in Texas and two other states. The basis behind the Texas model was actually good. Many schools were not educating their minority students well, and just covering up their scores in the mix as a whole. The state was court-ordered to put a stop to that so schools had to disaggregate scores by ethnic and low socio-economic status. It was a reality check, and I can say firsthand how hard the schools worked -- and still do -- to improve education for African-American, Hispanic, and poor students. Honestly, it's tough-going. And when the state/feds keep upping the ante without acknowledging the tremendous gains that have been made, exhausted educators sometimes throw in the towel.
I'd say that NCLB has led to the early retirement of so many great teachers who really did know how to teach kids, but were forced into teaching the test. The stories are many. I come from an education family that has produced teachers for many generations -- we were part of that first migration of pilgrims in the 1600s to New England. None of our young people want to go into education now. It's shocking to me! They've witnessed the struggles of their dedicated, professional educator parents and/or have endured the current system themselves and have been numbed by it. It's a loss to our profession that needs them.
I'm withholding judgment on this next reincarnation. If you've been in the profession any length of time, you know that we are jerked from one end of the pendulum to the other -- everything is touted as working, but nothing can work for everyone.
Aside from the scorn and disrespect continually heaped on us, American educators as a whole are incredibly flexible, persistent, and ultimately hopeful. There's one thing I know since facing my first class of 3rd graders in 1978, it has become increasingly challenging to teach other peoples' children. Let's not forget, it's a shrinking pool of talent who are willing to do this day in and day out. Kids have changed, families have changed, societal support and respect has changed, and the unfunded demands have only increased.
Nobody summed up how I felt about NCLB better than the singer Pink. I am posting the lyrics to a song she penned about the bush admin...and I cannot suggest strongly enough that everyone buy this on CD, iTunes, whatever.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. President by P!nk aka Alecia Moore
Featuring: Indigo Girls
Dear Mr. President, come take a walk with me
Let's pretend we're just two people and you're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror? Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye? And tell me why?
Dear Mr.President, were you a lonely boy?
How can you say, no child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way... from whiskey and cocaine
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work, hard work, hard work
You don't know nothin' 'bout hard work, hard work, hard work
How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President, you'd never take a walk with me, would you?
O/T: Daily Beast story on Palin's speech to Safari Club.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/6yfj2jz
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteShe's not going down, is she?
9:17 AM
------------------------------
Unfortunately, it sure doesn't look like it. Whatever that big thing was that was suppose to finish off her political ambitions, well, it just seems to have been all but forgotten, hasn't it? I wonder if this means the iceberg has melted and once again, evil wins.
NEW
ReplyDeleteChris Matthews Panelists Admit That Sarah Palin Isn't Qualified or Running for President
Video and transcript: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/chris-matthews-panelists-admit-sarah-palin-i
I've been an educator for 30 years and I can tell you that No Child Left Behind is nothing but bullshit. It is nothing more than a GOP attack on teacher unions. It is but one of a long list of teacher union attacks stretching back to at least Agnew. As for Arnie Duncan, I think he’s a disingenuous asshole that is pushing a neo-GOP educational “reform” scheme that is still more about attacking teachers and busting unions than it is in actually making anything better in our schools or making sure our children get the best education that we can possibly provide them. If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly apologize, but I have yet to hear anything sensible come out of his mouth.
ReplyDeleteI am constantly amazed at how many fairly well educated ostensibly liberal folks I know that buy into the "lazy teachers are the problem" bullshit mantra that has issued forth from GOP pieholes since Agnew. I can assure you that anybody who says that hasn't spent more than a few moments in a classroom. Teaching has a built in safety valve that effectively eliminates laziness: the work is too damn hard, you are paid too damn little, you get no damn respect, and you are CONSTANTLY ridiculed in the media and by the ignoramus GOPbaggers that you are too damn lazy. Gee, who wouldn’t want to sign on for some of THAT?
Laziness is the LAST trait I would use to describe teachers. There is an extremely high turnover rate for new teachers. Why? Because the job is so fucking hard. You get ZERO support from administrators or your district, the parents couldn't give a shit, and you get paid dirt. The brief time I spent teaching high school I'll bet I spent close to $1,000 buying supplies out of my own pocket because the district was too damn cheap. That is not an uncommon experience.
Equally as insulting is the “you can’t fire bad teachers” bullshit. Yes you can. In fact, I’ve seen GOOD teachers fired who had the temerity to complain, so I know damn well you CAN get rid of bad ones. There are lots of anecdotal stories, but very few verifiable factual ones to back up these contentions. Talk to career teachers before you buy into the anti-union GOP propaganda.
As for merit pay and rating teachers, I'll support those measures when they are also applied to the president, Congress, corporate CEOs, state school superintendents, school district administrators, principals, and PARENTS. THEN we can talk about such measures for teachers. Teachers are the LOWEST rung on the educational system ladder and can effect the LEAST degree of change to the system. Why penalize the people who have effectively no power to change anything? If everyone else gets scored and paid by the job they do, then I’ll support the same for teachers. Until then it is just another way to target union members.
The sooner they scrap NCLB entirely, the better. It is was a farce, it is a farce, and it will always be a farce.
I forgot all about standardized tests. THAT is THE biggest crock of shit in the entire NCLB nonsense. The ONLY folks that have benefited from standardized tests have been the companies which sell the tests.
ReplyDeleteWhen I taught high school, I had kids that spent time in jail, kids who were being physically and sexually abused at home, kids whose parents just didn’t give a shit, and I even had one student who witnessed his best friend commit suicide in front of him. NCLB’s standardized test said to me, “We don’t fucking care. Make their tests scores go up anyway.”
Anybody who has had even basic training in education or psychology will be familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which in a nutshell states that if a child is in need of shelter, food, protection, a sense of belonging, or a sense of basic self esteem, any meaningful learning is unlikely to occur.
Yet, according NCLB, the plight of the students who had clearly NOT achieved those markers in Maslow’s Hierarchy, it was just too fucking bad for them and for their teacher, i.e., me.
The kids also think that the standardized tests are a joke - they know all too well. The scores do not follow the students and there are no consequences to individual students for poor test scores, so they simply don’t take them seriously. I heard kids tell me how they intentionally randomly guessed at answers. They simply went “eenie, meenie, miney, moe” to determine their answers. And THESE are the results that can divert funding from a district, or a school, or potentially end a teacher’s career? Please explain to me how this is a good idea.
When a politician, a state school superintendent, or a school board member hears a salesman peddling their brand of standardized tests tout a product that they claim can make children taller, smarter, and more athletic, those folks say, “GREAT! Can you have them ready tomorrow?” When a teacher hears the same pitch, they respond, “Great, show me some objective verifiable data which supports your conclusions. Who wrote the test? How did you rate it? What was the size of your sample? What was the demographic profile of the sample?” etc., etc., etc.
Yet when this system so dependent upon standardized tests was shoved down our throats, the teachers were NOT given a leading role in crafting what was taught. Gee, what could possibly go wrong with THAT plan? Pretty much everything that has transpired since NCLB went into effect.
How is such a brain dead system supposed to produce the best education for our kids?
One more teacher here who hates the NCLB (gee, anyone see a pattern?).
ReplyDeleteWhat I see as one of the biggest faults of the entire program (and there are many) is that education is treated as a business. Curriculums, standards and tests are created by people who have not been in a classroom in decades, but use the model of the business world to create an image of what education should be.
The education system is viewed like a factory, where increased efficiency and productivity is expected and rewarded while poor performance and poor quality products are punished. The problem with that idea is that children are not manufactured parts that come off an assembly line. They are all different, have unique talents and abilities, varied backgrounds and home lives, and different styles of learning. Expecting them to all learn the same material in exactly the same manner at exactly the same pace is completely absurd. The name may be No Child Left Behind, but the end result is an attempt to create miniature robots that are all identical. Any child who does not conform to this rigid standard is deemed inferior and any teacher who cannot force every one of her students to conform is labeled lazy or incompetent.
I proctored a special ed student years ago who took 2 days of a 4 day state test before I happened to feel her forehead because she was increasingly listless. A trip to the nurse revealed that she had a 102 degree fever. Needless to say, she bombed the test but that measurement was still used to evaluate the competency of her classroom teacher. I now work with a teacher who has five students in a special ed class and not one of them will pass the English state test in May. According to the black and white numbers, the teacher is terrible, despite the fact that every one of her students has made astounding progress from where they started in September, some making a year's progress in several months time.
The worst part is that NCLB, combined with the new movement to tie pay to performance, is pushing many wonderful teachers out of the very places they are needed the most: the poorest schools, the special education classrooms, the inner cities, and the subjects that don't have standardized tests to measure performance. Why would anyone choose to teach special education in an inner city school when you might never qualify for a raise or bonus pay and constantly be labeled as unqualified?
George and beloved Ted created it together, yet it is all blame Bush.
ReplyDeleteObama's Race to the Top is even worse. Even more stakes based on testing and teachers now will be fired based on a once a year test.
This does nothing to help the students, or help the teachers help the students.
You can blame it all on GB and the right, but BOTH sides are now bashing teachers and the unions. Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates and Arne Duncan (all Dems) are creating an even worse situation for teachers and students...get rid of "bad" teachers and the evil union and all problems will be solved. No, they won't. Until they deal with the poverty and the issues that go with that, things will not improve.
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't know of anyone - parents, teachers, administrators or school committee members who are fans of NCLB. Playing the blame game doesn't help the children. We should all be focused on our next step - hopefully a step in the right direction - for our children.
ReplyDeleteThink, focus and take action. Let your legislators know what you expect.
You go, Gasman. Tell us how you *really* feel.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I think I love you.