A Single Question
In a post titled, «Time for Regime Change in Education», Dan Brown says there is a single question to be asked:
‘A single question cuts to the heart of America’s education dilemma:
’1. spend all of their class time on only reading and math test preparation?
’2. study a balanced diet of subjects including reading, writing, math, science, social studies and civics, music, the arts, health, and physical education?’
—The Huffington Post
He further writes, ‘Unfortunately where we stand now, No Child Left Behind and its attendant logic of fixating on standardized test scores have sucked the marrow and quality time out of school days.‘
I’d have to agree … to a point. As a teacher, NCLB and the mentality surrounding it threaten to suck the life and joy and quality out of teaching as well. ★
• 135 Words written by Steve @ 12:39 | 26-Jul-07 in NCLB & Society • Comment
Equipping Teachers to Fulfill Federal Tech Mandates
A little known portion of NCLB states that all students in the eighth grade must be technologically proficient by June 2006, some 6+ months from now.
In Oshkosh, WI, «teachers are finding enthusiasm for blogging», as well as general technology in the classroom:
‘The technology lessons are part of an effort to make sure all Oshkosh teachers are technologically proficient and able to help their students meet one of the lesser-known provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind education reform law. The NCLB law, which increased testing in reading and math for students in third- through eighth-grade, also includes a provision requiring all eighth-graders to be technology literate by June 2006. But as Oshkosh Technology Director Scott Colantonio works to help the district meet the new standards, it’s not the students he’s worried about. “They are so quick to do all this stuff. What I get concerned about is bringing the staff up to speed,’ Colantonio said.’
—The Northwestern
And that’s the interesting twist; ed tech represents a flip-flop in traditional roles since most students are very tech-savvy and most teachers are not. Teachers have to get tech proficient and districts have to make tech investments. And it’s the law. ★
• 202 Words written by Steve @ 01:19 | 20-Nov-05 in NCLB & Technology • Comment
The Fraud That is NCLB
Stan Karp, a Portland, OR, area teacher, wrote an essay on «why ‘No Child Left Behind’ is a hoax» almost a year ago, but I’ve just run across it today. It’s well worth quoting again:
‘1. The massive increase in testing that NCLB will impose on schools will hurt their educational performance, not improve it.<br />
‘2. The funding for NCLB does not come anywhere near the levels that would be needed to reach even the narrow and dubious goal of producing 100% passing rates on state tests for all students by 2014.
‘3. The mandate that NCLB imposes on schools to eliminate inequality in test scores among all student groups within 12 years is a mandate that is placed on no other social institution, and reflects the hypocrisy at the heart of the law.
‘4. The sanctions that NCLB imposes on schools that don’t meet its test score targets will hurt poor schools and poor communities most.
‘5. The transfer and choice provisions of NCLB will create chaos and produce greater inequality within the public system without increasing the capacity of receiving schools to deliver better educational services.
‘6. These same transfer and choice provisions will not give low-income parents any more control over school bureaucracies than food stamps give them over the supermarkets.
‘7. The provisions about using scientifically-based instructional practices are neither scientifically valid nor educationally sound and will harmfully impact classrooms in what may be the single most important instructional area, the teaching of reading.
‘8. The supplemental tutorial provisions of NCLB will channel public funds to private companies for ideological and political reasons, not sound educational ones.
‘9. NCLB is part of a larger political and ideological effort to privatize social programs, reduce the public sector, and ultimately replace local control of institutions like schools with marketplace reforms that substitute commercial relations between customers for democratic relations between citizens.
‘10. NCLB moves control over curriculum and instructional issues away from teachers, classrooms, schools and local districts where it should be, and puts it in the hands of state and federal education bureaucracies and politicians. It represents the single biggest assault on local control of schools in the history of federal education policy. …
‘11. NCLB includes provisions that try to push prayer, military recruiters, and homophobia into schools while pushing multiculturalism, teacher innovation, and creative curriculum reform out.’
—Portland Oregonian
Amen to all that. ★
• 391 Words written by Steve @ 22:17 | 24-Apr-05 in Culture & NCLB • Comment