Obama Calls for Sweeping Overhaul in Education Law

[depakid]

Source: NY Times

The Obama administration on Saturday called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing.

By announcing that he would send his education blueprint to Congress on Monday, President Obama returned to a campaign promise to repair the sprawling federal law, which affects each of the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools. His plan strikes a careful balance, retaining some key features of the Bush-era law, including its requirement for annual reading and math tests, while proposing far-reaching changes.

The administration would replace the law’s pass-fail school grading system with one that would measure individual students’ academic growth and judge schools based not on test scores alone but also on indicators like pupil attendance, graduation rates and learning climate. And while the proposal calls for more vigorous interventions in failing schools, it would also reward top performers and lessen federal interference in tens of thousands of reasonably well-run schools in the middle.

In addition, President Obama would replace the law’s requirement that every American child reach proficiency in reading and math, which administration officials have called utopian, with a new national target that could prove equally elusive: that all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?hp

[msongs]

1. so is obama gonna put HIS kids in public schools then lol nt

[Lil Missy]

3. No. Nor should he. n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Of Course Not

That's for the Little People.

[nyy1998]

18. Right, cause no one in wealthy or upper-middle neighborhoods

would dare go to a Public School. :sarcasm:

[CreekDog]

22. i'd like to know what the point of that comment is

he shouldn't be overhauling the NCLB law unless his kids are in public schools?

[ncteechur]

2. If I were President Obama with the number of crazies out there, I would want my girls

schooled at the White House.

[loudsue]

20. I live in NC, also, and I'm here to tell you these people ARE crazy out here.

The red-necks near where I live are all locked & loaded for the minute someone assassinates the president, so they can go to town and shoot the black people who will be rioting in the streets. They're scarier than any damned Bin Laden, if you ask me.

[donco6]

4. Going for a growth measure would be a vast improvement.

Showing how much one class of students improves in one year would be miles ahead of the stupid "compare one grade level from a prior year to another grade level made up of completely different kids". So that's a plus.

[Hannah Bell]

15. that aspect no longer matters. because he's going to charterize the bottom 5% every year.

[donco6]

16. True. Ultimately everyone will be there. n/t

[maryf]

19. Until they are all charterized...

bye bye workers rights...

[YvonneCa]

21. It's HUGE. That has been one of my...

...biggest complaints as a teacher. They weren't measuring growth. The other problem was that NCLB compared scores of DIFFERENT GROUPS OF STUDENTS...ie, this year's fourth graders to last year's fourth graders... to determine progress. That's nuts!

[KoKo]

5. Send US YOUR TIRED WEAK AND POOR...to CHARTER SCHOOLS FOREVER....

(sorry...I needed to vent that one)

[defendandprotect]

11. That's what I'm afraid of ...more onslaught on teachers, students and unions -- !!!

Whereas he could be doing something positive -- like cancelling funding for

Charter/private schools --!!!

Is this still "America" or is it officially over? Can we start again?

[Ten Bears]

6. Why should all students be prepared for college?

Some move from high school directly into the work force. They have no desire to go to college. Sounds like it may be (gasp) elitist.

[Zoeisright]

8. Preparing kids for college simply means teaching them how to think.

Something this country obviously needs more of.

[atreides1]

10. That's crap

I learned how to think without being prepared for college.

I work with a lot of college graduates now, thinking isn't a main point for some of them.

I've also worked with motor pool mechanics when I was in the army, and they knew how to think, and not one of them ever considered going to college.

Kids can learn to think without being prepared for college.

[donco6]

17. Not at all.

We prepare kids with the requirements they need to get into any college. Which they've demonstrated they can do - even in our high poverty district. What it does is give them all the CHOICES other kids get in life. If they don't want college - fine. Any trade will be glad to have a kid who can read, write and do math. And a lot of trade schools these days require Accuplacer performance anyway, so you're doing kids no favor by cutting back on their math and science.

[Xipe Totec]

7. What about Central Falls?

Any regrets, Mr. President?

[defendandprotect]

9. Let's see if Obama works on fixing the "battering" Title IX took from Bush . . . and right wingers .

That would be a good start --

and get the military the F--- our of our schools!!!

[Lifelong Protester]

12. Ok, I'm listening...

eom

[TomCADem]

14. I Am Sure We Will Get The "Death Panels" Myths Being Spread Soon...

The changes described look reasonable. There really is no point in labeling 1 in 3 schools as failing under the current system unless you want to set up an argument for vouchers, which President Obama has mostly opposed.

[mbperrin]

23. Perhaps we should address the nationwide teacher shortage.

Need 500,000 bodies right now to meet desirable teacher-student ratios. Never mind highly-qualified, etc.

When there's a shortage, that means the price of that particular good is too low. So what is needed immediately is an across-the-board increase in teacher salaries. Then when each classroom has one, and when each teacher has a classroom (about 20% of all teachers "float" into someone else's class, depriving that teacher of planning and conference capabilities, never mind that the floater is limited in total resources to what they can carry), then perhaps we can see what would happen if we simply had these basic tools covered.

Right now, it's like running a McDonald's chain with too few employees, and some of the employees there don't have a grill to cook on or a register to check out on, but go ahead and "be creative", right?

[GeorgeGist]

24. no need for reading and math ...

as long as you're going to college.