This Washington Post op-ed indicates that my biggest fear about the No Child Left Behind Act is coming true. When this phrase used to just show up in teachers' professional journals, I snickered at it. As I argued then, in a world where no child is left behind, no child gets ahead.
Then NCLB became official government policy -- in every state, no matter what. Leave it to the federal government to take public schools that already are struggling and find a way to make them worse. (Thanks to Kevin Drum for the link.)
UPDATE: Intelligent Discontent disagrees.
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13 comments:
Isnt this a "National" issue?
The rightwing agenda has ALWAYS been about destroying public education. PERIOD! For you see, there will always be nice private schools for the very wealthy. As I have said many, many times, if you want to see what a Bush vision of America is to look like, simply look to South America. No middle class, and a repressive fascist regime in charge. The wingers figure that they have perfected the techniques necessary to do the same thing here. I'm not so sure though. It's gonna be a lot tougher here. We are a much to diverse people to allow it to happen. Thank GOD for our diversity!
The alternative to NCLB is to keep producing kids that are barely literate.
Only a fool or a horse's ass would make such a statement! Because YOU, sir, are barely literate does NOT mean that Montana graduates are "barely literate"! Education bashers like yourself are simply cynical morons who know nothing of the educational system in Montana.
Call me an education basher, but I have watched kids fail their classes in elementary school, fail their classes in Jr. High, and then go on to High School, where they probably won't graduate. For some reason, the local school does not make kids take grades over again. Is flunking kids a thing of the past now? THAT is what I want NCLB to fix!
Anonymous,
Do you seriously think that Washington can do a better job of running Montana schools than Montanans could?
David, you are right about the effect that NCLB is having, but the battle over the law is obscuring what goes on behind the scenes. As you know, we hear that NCLB was a bi-partisan effort which conventional wisdom says must make it a good thing. After all, who can argue that we need to help all kids achieve. But when I hear of bi-partisan efforts I always smell the odor of lobbyists paying off both sides of the aisle. While most of us are familiar with the military-industrial complex that Ike warned us about, we rarely hear about the educational-industrial complex. This group is made up of text book companies, testing companies, tutoring centers (like Sylvan), and all manner of "consultants." Toss in the groups who want to see the public school system privatized, the food industry (school lunches), special-education advocates, and when you connect the dots you'll start to get an interesting picture. Where communism was the justification for building up the military-industrial complex, kids and accountability are rallying cry for the $500-billion dollars at stake.
On the surface, NCLB has some laudible goals, but if you were trying to raise the achievement level of low performing students, wouldn't it be interesting to compare those students to students who are achieving? If the system is failing, why is one group achieving and the is not? When the that question is answered, is NCLB a solution that addresses it? Is the problem something that a school system can even address? IMHO, it is not. Schools are being held accountable for situations created at the family level. At what point are parents EVER held accountable for their children's lack of performance?
I think Vince has a good point.
In observing my own kids, and their friends over the last couple of decades, I've noticed a trend.
The kids who do well in school have parents that take an interest in their schoolwork. A kid can get a good education in Montana if they want to right now, with no fixes.
And I've seen the other side of the arguement where a kid gets all F's and is still pushed up to the next grade, and the parent/parents/grandparents who are raising them don't seem to care.
Blogger Joanne Jacobs in her book Our School describes a California charter school that sent all its graduates on to college. They did it by creating a school culture that valued education. What is the culture of our public schools? Do they value good football teams? Are they concerned, as in NCLB, with inclusion? Must they worry about retention, keeping all kids in school? Usually education comes pretty far down the list of school values.
JUICY FRUIT???? Holy mackeral, maurice! I always thought that a juicy fruit was a queer with diarrhea! Which simply goes to show that we must be careful with the names we give our blogs!
We'll know that we've placed education on a par with football when we start applying NCLB standards to the football field -- don't coach the good players; they can take care of themselves. Spend all your resources on the worst players, and give them equal playing time.
As a recently retired teacher who has taught about an equal amount of time in both the U.S.A. and in Asia, I would say Vince is most correct. True (not complainers) parent involvement and support makes the real difference. NCLB is not only a joke but destructive. I have seen when this kind of pressure is applied, teachers resort to 'teaching to the test' and dropping the most valuable education that American education has traditionally provided--- CREATIVITY and CREATIVE THINKING. I think those that are supporting NCLB are after simplistic solutions and haven't a clue about educating kids.
Idiot said: blah blah blah blah blah.
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I was actually interested in reading what locals have to say about this subject, so please either stfu or contribute.
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