NCLB must be a great law because both the Far Right and Far Left seem to HATE it... Checkout the comments here. MP NCLB Update And here is one I just added there.
"I think you should do more research and listen to the Union and Bureaucracy folks less.
I have no hate for the Unions or the Education Bureaucracy, they are just doing what normal capitalistic people strive to do. They fight tooth and nail for higher wages, more job security, more benefits, more control, more work rules, more vacation, more autonomy, etc. The problem is that these goals are at odds with what is needed to operate a highly effective and efficient customer (ie student) focused organization.
Kennedy realized this and wanted to find out just how bad it was, where it was bad, and to try to force change/improvement. So he fought for NCLB which simply requires States to test and grade their schools to a somewhat common standard and report the results publicly. Teachers test kids to determine if they are learning / performing, so it only makes sense to grade the school systems in a similar manner.
Now if you are part of a system that is leaving a large percentage of unlucky kids (ie poor with questionably capable parent(s)) behind, and someone starts shining a bright spot light on your poor results, what will you say about the test/process? Please remember that no one told them how to teach. They only demanded that they report the results of their efforts once per year.
By the way, NO Child Left Behind had two primary flaws. It had HIGH / unrealistic expectations in that they wanted even special ed, ELL, and other late arrivals to be proficient. It assumed that the School Bureaucracy would strive to improve and change once the light went on which did not happen. Instead the system spent 10 years pointing at the tests and each other. Remember the "Not Me" character in Family Circus... :-)" G2A
5 comments:
I think you have mischaracterized the left.
"If the bill proceeds, then, those most likely to be disappointed are those on the left who want a strong federal government role in setting accountability mechanisms"
and you are clueless as to how hard schools strive to raise achievement. At my school teachers work very long hours, and spend a lot of their own money trying to help their students learn. Also, I hear pretty much zero complaints about the MCAs, even though they have been used to identify us as a failing school and are likely to lead to our school being shut down in a few years. We just keep plugging away.
Laurie,
Your school like HCZ is the answer, not the problem. You just need some more of the funding that the status quo publics are keeping to themselves...
I acknowledge that there are some Liberals who do want to put the kids before the unions and bureaucrats. Remember that I vcted for Terri Bonoff for just that reason...
You left out one of the most important features of the NCLB law, the one requiring that schools failing to make average yearly progress to offer kids (parents) what would essentially be a voucher to attend another school. That was very quickly gutted by the liberal education cartel. Unfortunately that was the only thing that might "get the attention" of the educracy.
Sorry, I meant "adequate" yearly progress. Unrealistic, perhaps, but at least an all-important measure designed to Leave No Child Behind.
House will vote on the replacement bill today, passage expected.
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