The hidden agenda of NCLB

[Horse with no Name]

I had always just thought it was to keep the money in the family with Neil's testing business.
However, it dawned on me while listening to Jerry Springer today.
The outer motive is to give Neil money.
The inner motive is far worse.
The schools have to pass these initiatives or else they lose funding.
Sooo...the only thing they teach is math and science.
Could you imagine the uproar if we were told that the government was going into the school and force them to quit teaching Social Studies, History, Geography, Literature etc.? (IMHO, in the global climate today, these subjects are equally as relevant as math and science.)
Instead, they did it stealthily. And it is working.
The dumbing down of Americans in it's full glory. If there is any doubt it is an empire they seek...just think long and hard of the repercussions of not teaching our children about Adolph Hitler, Mussolini, The Depression, The New Deal, etc.

[lectrobyte]

1. And the name of the program is a "hidden handshake" to the

LaHaye-worshippers. Kiss me on the left behind, indeedy.

[Lars39]

3. Can you expand on that a bit?

on edit: I just want to connect a few more dots. :hi:

[lectrobyte]

7. LaHaye is the author of a bunch of rapture books that center

around the phrase "Left Behind" and a central figure of the "religious right." I believe the name of the program was chosen with this in mind as a wink and a nod towards getting more religion into education, banning teaching of evolution etc. I'm a bit tinfoilish on this perhaps, but it does seem to be an interesting coicidence. School vouchers fit in this picture somewhere, too, LaHaye and his organizations are pushing hard for those.

[Lars39]

8. Not tinfoilish at all!

I was thinking there was a tie-in to Neil's software he's pimping.
Can't remember the name of it.:donut:

[Tinksrival]

35. Ignite!

http://www.ignitelearning.com/index.shtml

To be fair I should add that Ignite does promote a new program on it's web sight called the Cow.

The COW (Curriculum On Wheels), a program designed to let you deliver lessons in the same way professional presenters do.

The COW (including computer, projector, and speakers) comes pre-loaded with all of Ignite!'s Science or Social Studies courses.

The science does include Darwins therory.

[Lars39]

36. What a scam.

Looks like it's got a cup-holder,too.

[donco6]

2. Actually, not science.

Science is one of the least tested areas under NCLB. Math is second-least. Primary is reading (tested in all grades from 3-10). Writing is second. Then math. Science is only tested twice here in CO.

So, it's even worse than you think.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Really?

Geez...that is bad.
I guess the reading is important because they need to be able to read their Bibles.

[Dhalgren]

26. And they will need to read their field manuals for the weapons

they will be using as soldiers fighting the enemies of God...

[formercia]

34. Comic book field manuals

Sgt. Klunk shows you how to clean your weapon.....

[Reader Rabbit]

4. NCLB is a wolf in sheep's clothing

It's being presented as legislation designed to improve America's education, but it's having the exact opposite effect. Instead of helping educate kids, it turns them into test-taking drones. It's creating a generation of citizens incapable of critical thought, most of whom will never have the tools or the inclination to question the status quo.

NCLB is nothing less than an assembly line for manufacturing our own homegrown underclass.

Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0325006377/qid=1143505761/sr=1-26/ref=sr_1_26/102-5501528-1339356?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[jmowreader]

6. There is a hidden agenda, but it's not the one of which you speak

The real agenda of NCLB is to eliminate public education.

Bush has two classes of supporters: rabid fundamentalist Christians, who hate public schools because the Bible isn't the textbook used, and big business, who hate public schools because there's not enough money in it for them.

Look at NCLB closer and you'll see what I mean: at some point, public schools must have one hundred percent of their students meeting NCLB standards to avoid losing funding. One hundred percent.

When the one hundred percent mandate hits, almost all of the public schools in America will stand ready to lose funding. (I say "almost all" because some districts have "academy" schools where the children must test their way in.) Naturally, the Christian schools will be standing ready to take all of the children from the shuttered public schools...well, all of the children whose parents have money above and beyond the amount of the voucher they've been presented as a substitute for an education, all of the children who play sports well enough to lead the school's teams to victory, and all of the children whose parents are Christian enough. Oh yeah, and all of those children will have to pass certain tests to ensure the high academic standards at that school will be maintained. (I know about non-religious private schools. They're very expensive to start. A Christian school is a lot cheaper to found because, until they've raised enough money to build a separate building, they can run it in the church basement if they have to.)

[Horse with no Name]

10. wow.

You make very valid and real points.

[lectrobyte]

12. Yes, an excellent summary of the situation.

[alfredo]

23. This quotation from Shandia Drury on Leo Strauss

could give some insight into NCLB.

The ancient philosophers whom Strauss most cherished believed that the unwashed masses were not fit for either truth or liberty, and that giving them these sublime treasures would be like throwing pearls before swine. In contrast to modern political thinkers, the ancients denied that there is any natural right to liberty. Human beings are born neither free nor equal. The natural human condition, they held, is not one of freedom, but of subordination – and in Strauss’s estimation they were right in thinking so. -Shandia Drury on Leo Strauss

Straussian philosophy calls for a stratified society. One way to do that is to deny higher education to the lower classes.

Notice how much harder it is to get a college education when neo cons are in charge. They don't want the working class sending their kids to college because people of that class are not smart enough nor are they moral enough to be exposed to higher thought.

[gollygee]

32. Yep

There are lots of people who don't believe that public education ought to exist at all.

[LWolf]

9. Warning: I'm going to RANT:

While I agree that NCLB has a hidden agenda, I believe the agenda is more in line with what jmowreader posted in reply #6. That said,

WHY THE FUCK HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG FOR A FEW PEOPLE TO BEGIN TO RECOGNIZE THIS?

Some of us have been fully aware of the hidden agenda since before it went federal under GWB. We've spoken up. In all arenas. We've been ignored, or portrayed as enablers. This fucking agenda has been supported by all, including the fucking democratic party "leaders."

Just here at DU, I've been posting about NCLB for 3 years now. Posts sink like a rock. Including a post, lost somewhere in the "old" DU archives, that pointed out the relationship with Neil Bush and company, and some education publishers that have 3-generation long relationships with the Bush family.

THESE CONVERSATIONS SINK LIKE A ROCK. THEY AREN'T FASHIONABLE ENOUGH TO PUT PUBLIC ED AT THE TOP OF ANYONE'S PRIORITY LIST.

I can find a few threads every week bashing public ed and teachers, though, on the very limited time I spend here. Feeding the propaganda machine out to destroy public education.

HOW THE FUCK DOES ANYONE EXPECT TO WIN ANOTHER ELECTION IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE WHEN ALL THE UPCOMING VOTERS HAVE BEEN "PROGRAMMED" BY NCLB TO AVOID THOUGHT AND BUBBLE OBEDIENTLY???

WHERE WAS THE OBJECTION WHEN THIS PIECE OF SHIT LEGISLATION WAS PASSED?

[Horse with no Name]

11. I'm going to assume you are a teacher

I think you and post #6 are absolutely correct.
With all of the legislation that is passing that is harmful to our country, it is difficult to be completely up to speed on all of it.
Some of us catch up "one issue at a time".
Keeping up with this cabal is like putting 10 toddlers with forks in a room full of electrical outlets.
It is very difficult to keep your eye on every outlet at once.

[justabob]

13. 10 toddlers with forks in a room full of electrical outlets - LOL

exactly.... That is exactly what it is like. Thank you for the great way to say it.

[LWolf]

14. You are correct.

I'm a teacher, and I've lived in the NCLB-driven classroom since before there was a federal version; back when some governors in some states were incubating state versions that GWB took to washington to impose on the entire nation.

Your analogy is funny, and right on the mark. It's eerily like spending your days in a classroom with 30+ kids of any age; while the mandate is to standardize them, get them marching in line, and make sure they all bubble their tests compliantly, they are determined to find every outlet available, lol.

And I don't blame them.

[Horse with no Name]

16. That sounds so scary when you lay it out

"standardize them, get them marching in line, and make sure they all bubble their tests compliantly"

Teach them 1)reading 2)writing and in less quantitities 3)math 4)science

These kids don't stand a chance as anything other than soldiers.:scared:
That IS the whole madness of the situation, isn't it?

[LWolf]

22. That's the madness.

And when teachers speak up, we're told that we are incompetent, that we don't want to be accountable, etc..

We can see what's happening, but as long as the general public allows the current stranglehold, we can't do much about it.

[WinkyDink]

42. I'm a retired English teacher, and you are too kind to the program!

That future "100%" NOW includes NON-English-speaking students taking ENGLISH-language tests and Special Education students allowed NO ACCOMMODATIONS!!

In PA., EVERY student takes the SAME test, and schools' results are in the aggregate, for rating for funding.

It's evil. And Dems go along with this charade so as not to get labeled "tool of the teachers' union" or "anti-education".

[ChazII]

18. With the AIMS in Arizona

it was at first a combination of bubble in as well fill in. In third grade math, for example students were give a problem like this.

(1) Write a math sentence whose answer is 8. Write an explanation and digram how you got your answer.
Now of course the question was worded better than my exampl and this type of question was about 4 years ago. The students in my classroom had to write in the math section as well as the reading and the writing.

Here in AZ, science standards will be added to the testing in the 2006-07 school year. Social studies the year after.

Due to turn around time the state went to bubble. The tests were taken in April and we still did not have results back by August during the first year of AIMS.

[donco6]

25. kick - just so people read this post. eom

[annabanana]

15. All done to the corpomedia tune of

"What's Wrong with the Public Schools?"
and that perennial favorite,
"Those damn teachers get paid too much and only work 9 months of the year"

And our public weal keeps taking the hits off the hit parade...

(nom)

[AnnInLa]

17. jmowreader is correct....we were warned

by our state association (Louisiana Assoc. of Ed.) when NCLB went into effect...the ultimate aim is the complete destruction of the public school system, and the privitization of education, either religious or segregated or elitist. After all, what is the most egalitarian institution we have in this country? The public school system.

[Initech]

19. NLCB is the same as "faith based initiatives"

Basically the same message - preach what we tell you and you get more money. The greed in this country has no end.

[Horse with no Name]

20. OH it has an end all right

As soon as the money runs out.

[Initech]

24. 8 trillion dollar debt. We're literally spending money we dont have.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. The hidden agenda is VOUCHERS

By wrecking our schools, they build support for the voucher movement.

[loudsue]

27. Kicking this!! This thread is sooo right on the money.

What is being done in education is CREATING an enormous problem down the road for the masses in this country, and creating an enormous BENEFIT to the wealthiest.

When people are ignorant, they can be easily controlled and manipulated. So much of the republican base are the working poor and the uneducated, and they BELIEVE all the trash that the mainstream media and, often, their fundie church puts forth.

The republicans have WAGED class warfare in this country, and recruited those who are actually the PRISONERS of the underclass by programming through propaganda.

There needs to be an education revolution. And it needs to start NOW.

:kick::kick::kick:

[rman]

28. this needs kicks and recommendations

[Lerkfish]

29. actually, the trojan horse is to widen the divide between the aristocracy

and the rabble. Don't forget vouchers in the equation. The idea is to bankrupt public schools and hyperfund private elite schools.

(someone may have already pointed this out, I'm just responding to the opening posts without reading further)

[ClayZ]

30. K and R

[Horseradish]

31. K&R

for the kids who will have to live with privatized society if the tide doesn't turn.

[loudestchick]

33. My oldest (5th grade) is now in day 2 of a two week MAP testing period.

No new instruction for two weeks and they've spent 2 hrs/ day for the last two weeks preparing for the tests. WHy? Because Annual Yearly Progress is god. The day will come when it isn't possible to mainstream kids for their own benefit ...they must be kept apart to protect the schools. As for vouchers...Missouri has put them out on the table again. They'd offer 5k to students in KCMO and ST Louis schools, the catch is, I don't know of any private/parochial in Kansas City that costs less than 8k. Government funded two tiered education system! WOO HOO!

[centristo]

37. i disagree

NCLB does not explain the prevelance of dumb Americans 18 yrs old and over in the country today. The dumbing down of America has been going on for a LONG time.

[callous taoboy]

40. I agree with you, centristo-

I graduated from H.S. in the early 80's and in retrospect it was a very poor education that I received. It wasn't until college that I learned to think, study and inquire.

[Dunedain]

41. goals 2000

[Lone_Star_Dem]

38. Lots of interesting perspectives in this thread

Well worth a kick to keep this on the front of peoples minds.

[callous taoboy]

39. Lots of money to the testing industry as a whole:

I would bet my house that the people who publish and then score standardized tests are big-time MEpublican backers. In my state kids can take the test three times in one year- Cha-ching Cha-ching.