NCLB is up for renewal this year. Who is up for opposing it?

[LWolf]

As an educator who has worked in public education since 1983, I can tell you that I do not see students, schools, or teachers better off under the high-stakes testing, threatening, punishing, "one-size-fits-all and father knows best" foundation this legislation rests on. I see plenty of complaining about schools, about teachers, and about voter apathy. Connect the dots, and see that legislation which influences curriculum and instruction away from independent critical thinking and towards rote memorization and obediently filling in bubbles is a death knell to the democratic process. NCLB is a bipartisan disaster, and has it's fervent Democratic supporters as well as republican. As an educator and a Democrat, this has become an issue driving me away from the Democratic Party. I cannot express clearly enough the profound sense of betrayal the party's support for this weapon of public ed destruction I've experienced. It's up for renewal this year. With a change in Congress, the Democrats can make a difference. Will they? It was suggested to me that I should bring this issue to the "Activist" forum. Below are some links that can get people who would like to defeat or at least radically alter the worst provisions in NCLB this year started. I hope there are enough Democrats who care to put some heat on this one.

The Forum on Educational Accountabililty has some good info, including a list of recommended changes endorsed by 100 different groups:

http://www.edaccountability.org/about/statement.php

Their suggested changes don't go far enough for me; personally, I'd abolish all high-stakes testing and related mandates. Still, it's a good start.

Then there is Margaret Spelling's response to the above group's suggested changes:

<snip>

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said yesterday that she welcomed proposals to "perfect and tweak" the No Child Left Behind law as Congress prepares for what could become a divisive debate on renewal of the landmark education initiative.

But in an interview five days before the act's fifth anniversary, Spellings said its implementation was on track. She rejected calls for a major rewrite of the law, including some proposals advanced yesterday by a coalition of about 100 groups with a stake in education.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301617.html

Two more places to research NCLB and track opposition:

http://www.fairtest.org/

http://susanohanian.org/

And then, from Jerry Bracey on the Huffington Blog:

<snip>

In "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell wrote, "When one watches some tired hack on the platform repeating the familiar phrases...one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy...." George Orwell was lucky. He never had to listen to Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education.

She famously said, "I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory Soap: It's 99.9 percent pure. There's not much needed in the way of change." Teachers/authors Debra Craig and Judy Rabin decided that Spellings was "99.9% delusional" while Education Week founder, Ron Wolk called the statement "99.9% bunk." (A full day's conference on the law's failings was reported in a post here December 9).
..................................

As with Bush's general war against science, Spellings subordinates facts to policy. She announced a proposal to send students to private schools with publicly funded vouchers four days after her own department released a study showing that private schools have an advantage on public schools only because of how they select students--more rich kids, fewer poor kids, fewer minorities, fewer special education kids, and fewer English Language Learners. Similarly, her attempts to shore up charters were undercut by another department study indicating that similar public schools outperform them. She brought forth regulations favoring single-sex schools and classes not long after a massive department report concluded there was no evidence that single sex schools improve anything.

It is depressing to think that at a time when the federal department of education is playing its largest role in history, that department is in the hands of a dunce like Margaret Spellings.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/margaret-spellings-an-ar_b_37741.html

and again:

<snip>

Simply counting how many kids get over the barrier can hide an increasing ethnic achievement gap. Here's a hypothetical situation, but I am confident something similar actually occurred in New York City last spring.

<chart snipped out>

So...If we look at percent proficient from year 1 to year 2, black kids gain 10 percent on whites and the gap closes from 40 percent to 30 percent. But when we look at actual scores, we see that while the black students scored higher in year 2 than in year 1 (68 vs. 62), white students registered a much larger gain (92 up from 78). The score gap, shown in the far right column, actually increases from 16 to 24 points.

In conversation, New York Times reporter David Herszenhorn, said this appears to have happened in New York City. A lot of kids in slum areas were already scoring close to proficient and gained enough to get over the barrier so their percent proficient jumped a lot even though their scores didn't. Most suburban kids were already scoring high enough to pass the test so they didn't show much gain in pass rates. And no one was looking at the actual scores which, Herszenhorn told me, jumped a lot in the suburbs.

NCLB comes up for reauthorization in 2007. Its flaws have become apparent even to many of its supporters (see the December 9 post, "Things Fall Apart"), but reworking it will be contentious and controversial and will not likely happen before the elections of 2008. While we wait for those elections, more and more schools and districts will be labeled as failing, and penalized with increasingly severe sanctions. This will happen because each year as we approach the 100% requirement of 2014, a larger and larger proportion of students must be "proficient."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/one-reason-among-many-t_b_37661.html

About Bracey:

<snip>

Gerald W. Bracey is currently an associate of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, a fellow at the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University and a fellow at the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He maintains a website, the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency, dedicated to using the real-time power of the Net to debunk dis- and mis-information about public schools.

The bio is available from the above link; here is the link to EDDRA:

http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/

This is plenty to start with, for research and organizing purposes.

Are there any Democrats or other DUers willing to take this one on?

[MADem]

1. Well, if they won't repeal, maybe they'll rename it truthfully

No Child Left Untested.

No Teacher Left Unstressed.

No State Given Adequate Funding.

Struggling Children Pushed Out (to keep those test averages up).

This effort was, from the git-go, a load of showboating and horseshit by BushCo...smoke and mirrors.

[HockeyMom]

3. You letf one out

No child left UNRECRUITED. Been there, done that.

All other things considered, the Democrats HAVE to get rid of the Military Recruitment of our kids under NCLB.

[LWolf]

7. By the Bushco and others, as well.

Try Ted Kennedy and George Miller.

Perhaps some demonstrations and marches, with all of those slogans on signs, would catch their attention?

[w4rma]

2. It should not be renewed. Teachers and students despise that law. (nt)

[LWolf]

4. You're right.

I've despised it since it's incubating period, in various states, before it went federal. It shouldn't be renewed, but it will be if a large block of voters besides teachers don't stand up and demand it. Teachers have been demonized to the point that every blessed thing that doesn't work right is our fault, and we've been labeled a "special interest group."

That's right. As an educator, a citizen, and an advocate for social justice, public education is a special interest of mine. It needs to become a focus for the rest of the vocal voting population, too.

[MichiganVote]

5. Remeber when teachers were called "terrorists" by the National Ed. Director no less

[LWolf]

6. I haven't forgotten.

:mad:

[MichiganVote]

9. Me either. :(

[Pikku]

20. Or when Reid Lyon said that education schools should be blown up

:mad:

Interesting words from the "War on Terra" crowd.

[AbbyR]

16. Do you know any non-politician who does like NCLB?

I talk to teacher and administrators all the time, and every one of them hates it. There is no time to teach anything but the test. Why isn't the NEA all over this? Don't they have lobbyists?

[LWolf]

17. The NEA has lobbyists.

They are lobbying for things like "modifications" and "full funding."

While some of their rhetoric sounds good, they aren't taking nearly as strong a position as I would like for them to.

[Reader Rabbit]

18. Is AFT any different?

I remember them as being far more militant, but most teachers' unions fall under NEA these days.

[LWolf]

19. AFT is the more conservative of the 2, imo. n/t

[goddess40]

14. and parents nt

[nebenaube]

8. me..

I'll stand to oppose it.

[LWolf]

11. Thank you! n/t

[jarnocan]

10. thanks K&R nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Count me in

This law needs to be thrown out.

Kids are not only being left behind. Some are being run over.

[Reader Rabbit]

13. To whom should we direct our complaints?

Should I contact only my representative and senators? Or are there other legislators who are willing to listen? Is there any kind of organized campaign specifically designed to get rid of NCLB?

[LWolf]

15. Fairtest is the most organized.

Not as organized as I'd like, though. I'd contact your reps, and I'd also contact Kennedy and Miller, and all members of the senate sub-committee on education and early childhood development and the house committee on education and labor. That's what I'm doing.

http://edworkforce.house.gov/

http://help.senate.gov/Education_sub_index.html

[LWolf]

21. NCLB in the State of the Union:

A quick summary: NCLB is great. We need to continue with more, more, more, of the same. Not a surprise, but still hard to hear.

Bush suggests, among other things, an increase school takeovers and privatization:

<snip>

* We Will Strengthen School Restructuring. Schools subject to restructuring for chronic underperformance will be required either to make substantial changes in staff or to reconstitute the schools' governance structure.

* We Will Require Persistently Underperforming Schools To Offer "Promise Scholarships." These scholarships will enable low-income students to transfer to private schools or out-of-district public schools, or receive intensive tutoring. Federal funds will follow the students to their new schools.

* We Will Offer Competitive Grants Through The "Opportunity Scholarships Program" To Help Communities Expand School Choice Options For Low-Income Parents And Students. Similar to the Washington, D.C., choice program that the Federal government has funded since 2004, families would be able to send their children to a private school through a locally designed scholarship program. They could also seek intensive tutoring.

* We Will Increase The Availability Of High-Quality Charter Schools, Which Provide Important Options For Parents. Charters will also have a greater degree of flexibility to use their grants in executing planning and startup activities.

* We Will Expand Access To Tutoring. We will ensure that districts notify parents whose children are eligible for tutoring and require school districts to make full use of the Federal funds set aside for tutoring and other school choice activities.(This means more private tutoring companies who are given contracts with public funds).

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2007/initiatives/education.html

[LWolf]

22. One State of the Union Response:

The whole found here:

http://www.fairtest.org/FT_Resp_2007StateoftheUnion.html

<snip>

President George Bush's State of the Union proposals to escalate the failing test-and-punish strategy of the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law, as outlined by a White House policy memo (http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion /2007/initiatives/print/education.html), rest on misinformation and ideologically skewed assumptions, not evidence. Pres. Bush wants to continue pursuing dead-end policies that have not improved educational quality, particularly for our nation's most vulnerable children.

The facts demonstrate that NCLB is not a success. Key independent indicators, including dropout rates, college admissions test scores, and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results are unchanged or only slightly improved. Narrowing of the racial achievement gap has slowed since NCLB was implemented.

[LWolf]

23. Response from AASA:

AASA = American Association of School Administrators

<snip>

“We are disappointed in President Bush’s plans for education, which he mentioned in his State of the Union message last night. The President reiterated his plans to ‘stay the course’ with his badly flawed program created by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. He claims the program has been successful, when teachers, parents and children know that its main success has been in diverting attention and energy away from real learning and a comprehensive curriculum. While the President acknowledged that changes needed to be made to the law and flexibility would be required, his overall approach failed to consider the destructive elements of his policy and how they might be addressed differently in the future.

<snip>

“The President’s ideas for privatizing education under the cloak of parental choice has actually weakened the very skills and children his program purports to help by siphoning off higher achieving children and resources to private and more privileged schools. His proposal to create two new voucher programs will not ensure increased student achievement; it will simply divert federal tax dollars from public schools to private schools that are not held to the same standards the President espouses.

“During the five years NCLB has been in place, several of its underlying assumptions have inhibited students’ progress. For example, the law has failed to take into account the individual learning needs of students in special education and students with limited English proficiency. Under NCLB, students are judged on a single test score, rather than multiple measures that more accurately reflect students’ individual growth and learning during the school year. In addition, the law’s focus on reading and math test results has led to a narrowing of the curriculum, which limits schools’ ability to offer children the broad education they need to succeed in life.

“There is a better way to proceed to close the achievement gap and increase student achievement. We support a fundamental transformation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to restore the law’s original intent to provide equitable educational opportunities for all children. We ask the Congress to join us in an effort to transform the current version of ESEA. Specifically, we ask that the Congress enact and the President support:

1. A law and regulations based on trust and an assumption that teachers and principals are trying their best to improve the achievement of all students, including low-income students;
2. Continued improvement of how student achievement is measured and data is used to assess group scores and individual progress;
3. Selecting a goal for progress in student achievement that is attainable;
4. Focusing the federal government’s role in education on providing support and developing capacity for improvement, rather than emphasizing sanctions; and
5. Engaging parents of low-income students as regular participants and partners in their children’s achievement

Edited to add link! :blush:

http://www.aasa.org/newsroom/pressdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=8144

[LWolf]

24. "What Every Parent, Teacher, and Community Member Needs to Know"

About NCLB, cross-posted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=219&topic_id=7621&mesg_id=7621