Online petition re: NCLB

[LWolf]

I don't know how much weight an online petition carries, but this one hits close to home. Many of you have expressed support for teachers here at DU, and I truly appreciate that. I hope you will read the petition. Then, if you feel so inclined, sign it and pass it on. Here's the link and a snip:

http://www.petitiononline.com/gmd4285/petition.html

To: State and Federal Legislators

Over the last decade, for all practical purposes, you’ve taken over American education. Convinced, as you apparently are, that education professionals lack standards, and don’t want to be held accountable, this is understandable.

In your new role, there are several things you should keep in mind.

First, you’ve taken on an awesome responsibility. The future of about 53,000,000 students is now primarily in your hands. As adults, they’ll sit in judgment on your decisions.

Second, the human brain is the most complicated thing known. That its capabilities and potential can be measured by the machine-scorable tests your policies mandate is a cruel myth.

Third, your power and influence in support of education are essential. But as Soviet-style central planning surely demonstrated, "top down" change strategies are rarely effective. Reform is tough under the best of circumstance. In education, with its myriad layers of management between you and students, "top down reform" is probably an oxymoron.

Fourth, you’re blaming teachers and students for education’s ills. When you scapegoat, not only are you unfair, you close your mind to other, even very obvious, explanations of poor performance.

Fifth, you’re assuming that market forces—choice and competition, reward and punishment—can work the magic in schools they sometimes exhibit in the marketplace. A few days spent in a real classroom would show you that, for both teachers and students, the satisfaction of doing something worth doing, and doing it well, motivates far more effectively, for far longer, than promises of money or the shame of publication of test scores and school rankings.

[DiverDave]

1. Done

No child left behind...another misdirection from the thief.
Black is white, up is down.

1984

[LWolf]

2. That's right.

NCLB is leaving most of us behind.