No Child Left Behind? Are you sure?

The STAR TELEGRAM comments on the loopholes in the NCLB act calling for the Bush administration to be held accountable for its failure to meet its own goals. While I commented on this a few days ago, it is worthy of repeating. NCLB does not work at any level and needs to be removed from our national debate on education. I am afraid that won't happen given the power of the conservatives and the religious right in this country. NCLB, in spite of its lofty goals, is, in reality, a radical right ploy to destroy public education in this nation and replace it with private (code for faith based) schooling. Here is some of what the article offers:

The goal of No Child Left Behind is supposed to be the inclusion of every student, and there is agreement that the students most likely to be on the low side of the achievement gap are students of color, poor kids and those who come to school with English as their second language.

We need to know how these students are doing if we are ever going to help them get a better education.

But Texas reports no scores for all its 65,000 Asian students and none for its American Indian students. It has dropped 257,000 students from the second level of No Child Left Behind reporting. In California, that number is 400,000 students.

The United States is the wealthiest nation on Earth and should be able to provide better for all our students.

While I disagree with the premise that NCLB is about inclusion, I am in clear agreement with the last sentence here. We can and should do better. But then, I live in Illinois where the state is 48th in providing funds for K-12 education. That is 48th in the nation, a place traditionally held by states like Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The world has turned upside down.

Star-Telegram | 04/28/2006 | No Child Left Behind? Are you sure?

Zoundry

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, class, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, learning, performance, policy, politics, power, race, radical religion, standards, teaching

Glynn Educator Aims To Use Southern Charm To Improve Student Performance

What ever happened to parenting? Do Georgia students really need school to teach them manners? I don't know about you, but I find it amazing that schools feel the need to take on the role of parents because the parents have apparently failed so miserably to set limits for their children. I sound like some kind of a conservative nut case here but I don't think schools are in the "class" business. When Superintendent Bull announced that "class" is as important as chemistry or calculus he let the cat out of the bag. Just what does the superintendent mean by "class?" How is it to be defined? Is there a single offering for "class" or can there be multiple approaches to "class" in his lexicon? In this case, "class" sounds to me to be a lot like standards in a one size fits all model.

"Public education in Glynn County may soon be made up of reading, writing and respect, with manners possibly joining the curriculum beginning in the next school year.

"Superintendent Michael Bull said class is as important as chemistry or calculus, and he is pushing for an elective course for sixth-graders that would include topics like politeness, communication and respect.

"A two-week session on etiquette is already in session at Frederica Academy. The private school on St. Simons Island addresses good manners, making introductions, writing thank-you notes and occasion-appropriate clothing."

News4Jax.com - News 4 Georgia - Glynn Educator Aims To Use Southern Charm To Improve Student Performance

Zoundry

Technorati : class, critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, policy, politics, power, race, standards

Call to end testing 'obsession'

BBC NEWS | Education | Call to end testing 'obsession'

Finally, some degree of sanity gets reported in the press. The BBC highlighted remarks of Desmond Hammond as he argued for the ending of the "Testing obsession" in British schools. Here is some of what the BBC reported:

"Desmond Hamilton, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, also demanded that no class should exceed 30 pupils in size.

"Personalised teaching - not "tests for tots" - was needed, he told the NAHT's annual conference in Harrogate.

"Ministers say tests are essential for raising standards.

"Dr Hamilton told conference delegates: "There are no mistakes in schools, only lessons to be learnt.

""We are knowledge creators. What we do often remains invisible and intangible.

""Yet government has a continuing obsession with leaving no person under-tested.

""Those for whom classroom visits are occasional photo opportunities often reflect most enthusiasm for testing regimes - not classroom teachers."

"Dr Hamilton's call for smaller class sizes comes after government figures showed the number of five to seven-year-olds taught in groups of more than 30 pupils - the legal limit - had risen from 740 to 910 in a year. "

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, class, critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, learning, policy, politics, power, race, standards, stress, teaching, testing

Study Predicts that Most Great Lakes Schools will be FAILING by 2014

Study Predicts that Most Great Lakes Schools will be FAILING by 2014

"Most schools in the Great Lakes region will labeled "failing" by 2014, according to a study released by the Great Lakes Center for Educational Research and the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University.

"The Impact of the Adequate Yearly Progress Requirement of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act on the Great Lakes Region, is the first multi-state research to use actual state data to predict how schools will fare under the No Child Left Behind law's current Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements."

The findings here should not surprise anyone. The simple fact is that NCLB is a political solution to a non-political issue. Education is a complex social/cultural enterprise that is not about single test scores or national standards that assume a one-size-fits-all posture. Education, to be effective, must be understood as a local issue, based in the community that is served, in order to address the socio-cultural requirements of the given community. To assume that a child in rural Georgia and a child in Urban New York City have the same set of experiences is foolhardy. To assume that teaching the child from Georgia and New York in the same way, testing them with the same test, and holding them to the very same set of standards is counter to good educational practice. NCLB, rather than leveling the playing field, is so disruptive to local initiatives that the only option, in the end, is failure. The arbitrary nature of NCLB requirements, the fact that these requirements change on an annual basis, and that federal legislation trumps local decision making dooms the act to failure. The problem is that failure produces the loss of a generation of bright, curious children who are the future of our republic. I am afraid that the future looks bleak.

Zoundry

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, class, critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, learning, performance, politics, power, standards, teaching, testing

Judge rules new English-learning law doesn't meet orders!

Judge rules new English-learning law doesn't meet orders | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

"U.S. District Judge Raner Collins ruled that the law doesn't fulfill his earlier orders because it doesn't adequately fund English Language Learning programs, fails to spell out the costs of providing those programs and doesn't explain the basis for the funding that it does provide. Also, the state law violates federal law by requiring subtractions for federal funding and by imposing a two-year limit on funding for individual children, Collins said."

So why am I not surprised?

Ah the High Price for Privatization: District will pay the price for error

Reported in the Las Vegas SUN: District will pay the price for error, Clark County will probably have to eat nearly 2 million dollars of the 5 million it overpaid Edison Schools, a private contractor that is managing schools in a number of American cities.

The idea behind privatization is that by turning over management of schools to private corporations many of the bureaucratic restrictions placed on school districts by political bodies can be bypassed, union contracts can be avoided, and student performance will, in turn, increase as a result of administrative freedom to do as they please. The price of education on a per pupil basis is reduced so that the district, generally strapped for cash because schools, especially urban schools, are underfunded by the very politicians that create the expensive restrictions on those districts in the first place, can save money and still point to adequate education for students in the district.

But then, there must be competent oversight. My goodness, will the officials that signed the checks in Clark County pay a price for their lack of proper management? I somehow doubt it.

Zoundry

Technorati : education, performance, policy, politics, privatization

NCLB and Cheating? The Media Gets it Oh So Wrong--AGAIN!

Recently Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings bemoaned the fact that states "cheated" by not reporting all scores under the requirements of NCLB. She got it wrong and the media blindly followed. According to Debra Craig states were only following the law explicitly.

"News organizations around the nation condemned these states for "cheating" or "taking advantage of loop holes" when all they were doing is following the letter of the law that No Child Left Behind established!" says Debra Craig, an anti-NCLB crusader. "However this story is a perfect example showing not only the absurdity of NCLB, but the poor thinking and logic that went into creating this powerful legislation."

The fact is that NCLB is bad legislation on many counts not the least of which is that subsuming local responsibility for education under the umbrella of a national requirement undermines notions of diversity in the United States. One size never fits all; in fact, one size only fits an elite few.

To read more about what Debra Craig has to say go here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006510/4/prweb376231.htm:

Zoundry

English learners aren't getting enough help

The DesMoinesRegister.com reports that English Language Learners (ELLs) are supported for three years in ELL programs (bilingual and English as a second language both count as ELL). Research shows that in order to be proficient in academic English, the language needed for success in school, students that do not speak English as a first language require seven or more years of support. To provide three years only is a sure way to undercut the academic progress of young students as they try to learn to communicate in the dominant language of their adopted country. This problem is not limited to Des Moines, Iowa, rather it is an issue across the United States.

What occurs to me is that the policy of limiting resources for ELL classrooms or support to three years may be terribly short-sighted. I wonder what the cost differential to society is between what is a rather insignificant investment in the development of students, if only in terms of developing good citizens of this country, and the social costs of building prisons to house people who have little expertise to contribute in a positive manner to the nation of choice.

It occurs to me that the policy as currently construed limits the success of immigrant children, permanently attaching them to an economic underclass. Another case of political meddling rather than listening to those who have actually examined the problem.

Zoundry

For more perspectives on ELL you might want to look at this book.

Call Research Perspectives (Esl and Applied Linguistics Professional Series.) (Esl and Applied Linguistics Professional Series.)

CALL Research Perspectives creates a foundation for the study and practice of computer-assisted language learning and provides an overview of ways to conceptualize and to conduct research in CALL. Its core assumptions are that all approaches to research have a place, and that researchers, teachers, and students all have a role to play in the study of computer-enhanced language learning.

This is not a how-to-do-research text. Written by top researchers in the field, it offers an open-ended view of what educators need to know and be able to do to answer questions that they have. It is intended to be easy to read, to provide resources for readers to explore the ideas further, and to be non-prescriptive in presenting suggestions for CALL research. The text explores problems with current CALL research and suggests ways that teachers and other researchers can avoid such problems; presents both commonly known and less explored theories that provide a foundation for CALL and language research; and addresses other issues and ideas that affect research outcomes.

An outstanding feature of CALL Research Perspectives is that it complements not only other CALL texts but also research texts of all kinds. The issues found in each chapter parallel the issues in other research texts, making this text useful for addressing the needs of teachers and researchers at different levels and in different contexts. In addition, the consistent format throughout makes it accessible to readers with a variety of backgrounds. Each chapter includes an introduction, a review of relevant literature, a set of examples and/or suggestions for conducting research in CALL, and conclusions. The consistent format is intended for ease of use, but the content of chapters varies according to the author. This is intentional; it is a strength of the book that readers can hear the voices of the authors and listen to their understandings of the perspectives presented. It is the editors' hope that they will be inspired to seek out other voices as well.

Technorati : class, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, politics, race, standards, teaching

Gwinnett Mom Battles Harry Potter

There is no accounting for stupidity. A Georgia mother is seeking to have Harry Potter novels banned from the Gwinnett County School libraries because it will lead to the practice of witchcraft. What troubles me about this kind of censorship initative is that many people have difficulty distinguishing fiction from reality. That a fictional character is a witch in no way can be mistaken for reality unless, of course, you don't have a clear grip on what is and is not real. That Harry Potter is able to conger up spells and ward off demons does not lead to the notion that middle school children will practice effective witchcraft. They may try to conger up demons but without a full blown Hollywood special effects team it is highly unlikely that they will meet with success. This level of ignorance stems from the same cauldron as fundamental's insistence that the earth and the universe were created in six days in spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. Now I don't much care if one chooses to not allow one's own children to read Harry Potter--that is a matter of parental control and authority. But when one forces one's beliefs on others through censorship, I believe the line is crossed. I read Harry Potter, I even dream of what it might be like to be able to cast a spell on my boss from time to time, but that doesn't mean I can or even would if I could. Get a grip. Read about it here--> 11Alive.com - Gwinnett Mom Battles Harry Potter

Zoundry

American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury

Technorati : censorship, critical pedagogy, culture, politics, power

Spellings to Examine 'No Child' Loophole

Spellings to Examine 'No Child' Loophole. This should come as no surprise to those following NCLB. Excluded from testing have traditionally been those who have some form of exceptionality, specifically those with moderate to severe learning disabilities, English language learners, and the like. To lump those children in with the normal population assumes that equal opportunity somehow equates with equal performance on standardized tests. Political meddling at its worst.

Zoundry

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, class, culture, education, learning, politics, power, race, standards, testing

Connecticut Senate Votes to Ban Soda Sales in the State's Schools

Now here's an idea for you. Connecticut Senate Votes to Ban Soda Sales in the State's Schools - New York Times. In an effort to address the issue of childhood obesity the Connecticut Senate bans soda sales in schools and provides more money for healthy school lunch programs. What is wrong with this picture? Plenty!

For starters, one of the causes of childhood obesity is not the food children eat, rather, it is the fact that kids get too little exercise--too little time to play. We are far too busy drilling isolated reading, writing, and math facts into kids heads to let them go out for recess. In Chicago, for example, most schools provide children with only one hour per week of physical education and no recess. Children are kept indoors all day long, held captive by the adult population in the school. They are not allowed to be children. This sad state of affairs is, at least in part a direct product of No Child Left Behind.

Additionally, anyone who has ever spent time in a school lunchroom knows that healthy food is, more often than not, wasted. What kids crave is pizza, hamburgers, fries, and hot dogs. Apples, oranges, and bananas go to waste. Will kids eat a healthy diet when they have been so conditioned as to think that McDonald's and Burger King provide healthy meals?

The Connecticut Senate's action points to one of the significant problems in American education--political meddling.

Zoundry

Amazon.com

Technorati : NCLB, culture, curriculum, education, politics, power, snacks

When States -- and Mayors -- Take Over Schools

NPR : When States -- and Mayors -- Take Over Schools the results are not always what is hoped for. Often there is local resentment, caused by issues of race and class, that stand in the way of successful take-over by state or local officials.

"But no sooner did some of these states get into the business of running a messed-up school district than they sought to get out. As it turns out, it's not so easy to manage hundreds of employees and educate thousands of children from far away in the state capitol. And often, people in those schools didn't want them taken over. Residents of predominantly minority communities often resent what they perceive as meddling from legislatures dominated by white people.

"And though it sounds appealing to "clean house" by getting rid of principals, teachers and administrators, it's not as if there is a pool of talented people just sitting around waiting to replace those who were dismissed.

"As reporter Caroline Hendrie put it in an Education Week article in 1996, 'In case after case, when state administrators have tried to elbow out local officials and run a failing district themselves, improvements have come at the heavy cost of lawsuits, bitter media battles and confused and angry teachers and parents.'"

The simple fact is that schools are not simple places, they are complex social institutions that do not take well to quick-fix political solutions. To effectively change schools one must work at the local level directly with teachers and administrators as partners in change. Engaging teachers and administrators in effective professional development requires a multi-pronged approach that includes:

1. Large group professional development that will focus on best practices across content areas.
2. In class partnerships with professional development consultants (often university partners).
3. Frequent and sustained time for teachers to reflect on their practice in focused, rule-governed ways that are moderated by an unbiased third party.
4. Teachers opting for graduate education in fields like curriculum and instruction or a specific content area.
5. A committed administration at the school level that provides support for teachers as they make changes.
6. A well informed community of parents so that they understand the value of what is being done in the school.
7. A clear understanding of the cultural makeup of the school community by teachers and university partners.
8. A partnership with parents so that parents become a part of (rather than being apart from) the whole school community.

Without all of the above going on in a school, little effective change will take place.

Schools are local institutions. To try and manage them from afar by 'getting tough' on teachers and students is, in the long-run, counterproductive. While there may be some short-term apparant gains, these gains cannot and will not be sustained over the long term. Real change is a local affair that can be encouraged through distant initiatives but cannot be sustained unless there is the local committment to make effective change.

Zoundry

Amazon.com

Technorati : class, culture, education, history, learning, politics, power, race, standards

States await federal review on quality of their teachers

Once again NCLB raises its ugly head as States await federal review on quality of their teachers - The Boston Globe. "Skepticism remains over whether states have inflated their quality numbers by setting easy standards for veteran teachers. Some states have allowed teachers to qualify based on conferences attended, awards won, years taught, and other accumulated experience," according to the article. Why should anyone be surprised? When standards are created that are, at best, unreasoned then why should anyone even blink when some try to find ways around strict compliance. The fact is that, as in all professions, some teachers are better than others. To pretend that by passing a law that requires teachers to be 'highly qualified' that the quality of teaching will automatically increase is, at the very best, naive and, at the very worst, a cynical ploy to destroy public education in the United States. I think there is probably a bit of both going on. That some states have found ways around the existing regulations should come as no shock to an administration that lied about WMDs in Iraq, creates political leaks that violate Federal Law, and threaten to use nucluar weapons (I believe these qualify as WMDs) on Iran to keep them from developing nuclear weapons themselves. That we live in a climate of irony laced with immoral political behavior only makes the actions of states to insure compliance with a bad law by seeking the easy road, all the more believable.

Technorati : NCLB, culture, education, politics, power, standards, teaching, testing, training

American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury

American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury

So if you wonder why:

1. Omaha schools can divide along racial lines,
2. The United States made war on Iraq,
3. America may be on a decline in world power and influence

Then you must read this book. I found the book to be carefully crafted and skillfully argued by an author that was a senior strategic planner for the Nixon Whitehouse. It is far better when Republicans are critical of themsleves than when the Democrats are critical of the Republicans.

Zoundry

Technorati : Middle East, class, critical pedagogy, culture, debt, history, oil, race, radical religion

Omaha Schools Split Along Race Lines

As Omaha Schools Split Along Race Lines, I must ask the question, "What is going wrong with my country?" When a school district divides itself along lines of race or ethnicity the conclusions that follow are not in keeping with the principles and aspirations of American democracy. Since its founding as a secular union of diverse peoples, this nation has worked toward expanding the notion of equality and access. While not perfect by a long shot, the effort to include have been far greater than any efforts to exclude. By dividing the Omaha district into three racially distinct units, each with its own local control of schools, Nebraska has opted to go down a very slippery road. What is next? Shall Nebraska be the first state in the union to pass racial purity laws similar to those passed in Germany in the 1930's? Shall Nebraska move to ban Blacks and Hispanics from the voting booth, obtaining licences to drive automobiles, or shall they merely tax Blacks and Hispanics more than Whites? Oh, yes, what about Jews and Catholics, gay people, handicapped people, the homeless and oh my the list could go on for a long time? During the past several years of the Bush administration I have felt less safe, less optomistic and far less a part of the America I thought I knew.

Technorati : class, culture, education, instruction, politics, power, race

The Fall of the Standard-Bearers

While I rarely agree with Diane Ravitch, I think she hit the nail on the head on this one. In The Fall of the Standard-Bearers, Ravitch bemoans the fact that the standards movement has disintegrated to the point of being only about skills and not about authentic learning so as to prepare students for continuing or life-long learning.

The problem, as I see it, is that there is no other place for a standards movement to go but to disolve into its lowest common denominator; to reduce to the level of skills and skills alone. This is the obvious consequence of the categorization of what counts as important as skills represent that which is most easily measured in scientific terms.

Twinkies invented on April 6. 1930

While it doesn't have a direct impact on education, the Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930-- Twinkie - encyclopedia article about Twinkie. On second thought, perhaps the Twinkie, a favorite lunch box snack for generations, may have had (and still may have) an impact on educational performance of students. After all, the energy burst released after the consumption of just one Twinkie, if put to academic use, would assure high test scores and no child, therefore, left behind. Hurry and call the White House, perhaps a Twinkie initiative will boost the President's ratings.

Zoundry

Technorati : NCLB, food, humor, snacks

Books by Alfie Kohn the Recommend

Here are two books by Alfie Kohn that I recommend.

What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?: And More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies

The Schools Our Children Deserve : Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"

The Trouble with Rubrics

In his article, The Trouble with Rubrics, Alfie Kohn writes:

Rubrics are, above all, a tool to promote standardization, to turn teachers into grading machines or at least allow them to pretend that what they're doing is exact and objective. Frankly, I'm amazed by the number of educators whose opposition to standardized tests and standardized curricula mysteriously fails to extend to standardized in-class assessments.

My take on rubrics is similar to Kohn's. I take my objections a step further and argue that rubrics tend to 'dumb down' education by creating a condition of establishing minimum criterion for success, a condition leading to minimum effort and performance at the level of desired achievement. The rubric suggests that all one needs to do to achieve is what is listed on the rubric for performance rather than working to extend one's own engagement in an inquiry to untried, challenging levels. Addressing this point, Kohn writes:

Just as standardizing assessment for teachers may compromise the quality of teaching, so standardizing assessment for learners may compromise the learning. Mindy Nathan, a Michigan teacher and former school board member told me that she began "resisting the rubric temptation" the day "one particularly uninterested student raised his hand and asked if I was going to give the class a rubric for this assignment." She realized that her students, presumably grown accustomed to rubrics in other classrooms, now seemed "unable to function unless every required item is spelled out for them in a grid and assigned a point value. Worse than that," she added, "they do not have confidence in their thinking or writing skills and seem unwilling to really take risks."

In the end we are quickly becoming a society that requires instructions for everything. Is this the result of trying too hard to make education "scientific?"

Zoundry

Amazon.com

Technorati : assessment, critical pedagogy, curriculum, education, instruction, learning, standards, teaching

Few Students Seek Free Tutoring or Transfers From Failing Schools - New York Times

Delivering her speech in a church basement and making biblical references to a "day of reckoning," Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings once again links the Bush administration with the private use of public funds. In making not so subtle threats to local schools and school districts, Ms. Spellings makes it clear that the intent of No Child Left Behind is to transfer public tax dollars into private hands. The effect of this policy is to effectively separate Americans into Balkanized factions that seek to protect their own interests at the expense of the common good of the people of the United States. We, as a nation, from the beginning of our Constitutional government have adhered to the principle that what we are guided by is a spirit of We The People--a plural construction--e pluribus unum--from many, one--and, Novus Ordo Seclorum--the new secular order. The policy of official separation (as opposed to the separation of the establishment clause of the first amendment), of distinction, is one that leads to a collapse of cooperation and ultimately to anarchy. We need to rethink how we can recapture the spirit of We or we risk leaving all children behind in the chaos that follows.

Few Students Seek Free Tutoring or Transfers From Failing Schools - New York Times