2007 NCLB Prospects Are Fading

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/07/11nclb.h27.html?tmp=1035975354

For all the discord over the No Child Left Behind Act, supporters and critics agree on one thing: It should be fixed, and quickly.

Now it’s looking increasingly likely that Congress won’t make much progress in addressing the law’s flaws this year, endangering the prospects that the task will be completed before President Bush leaves office.

Efforts to revise the law are mired in backroom negotiations in both the House and the Senate and show no signs of gaining the momentum necessary to ensure completion of the reauthorization in 2008.

(snip)
If such changes aren’t made soon, he and others predict, too many schools may be unfairly tagged under the federal law as needing improvement.

Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress in raising achievement in reading and mathematics, whether for students overall or certain subgroups, face increasingly tougher sanctions under the law.

Is delay a good thing, or a bad thing?

If they decide it right now, the way things have been going, it will be a cosmetic "fix" to pacify dissenters, without any fundamental changes in the philosophy and intent behind the law.

If it is delayed until a new administration comes in to clean up, are we more likely to see major changes?

I don't know what to think at this point.

Or, more correctly, I know what I think and what I want, but I don't have any faith in seeing it happen. I want federal mandates, tests, AYPs, and things like giving recruiters access to student information stricken from the law. Banned, abolished, gone.

Just my professional opinion, of course. ;)

My faith is low, let's just say. :)

is that this issue just does not resonate with the general public. Plenty are happy to bitch about it, but few are willing to make it a priority.

This thread is a perfect example. If Clinton were accusing Obama of keeping a secret harem off shore, or Obama were accusing Clinton of an illicit affair with GWB, it'd be at the top of the list on the front page.

Or if it were a thread reporting teacher atrocities, or blaming teachers for the state of the system, it would stay on the front page for days.

A thread about federal legislation harming the nation's public school system draws little attention. America truly doesn't much value education.

Kind of a pity, really.

5 trips to the top of the front page, and 2 DUers have time to consider it.

:(

Every year I have to test my disabled kids is a bad year. I have been led to believe that this is one of the first parts of NCLB they will change. It's a no-brainer. So waiting to change it is a very bad thing, IMO.

I think it is sad but true that even liberals don't give much of a damn about this.

:) :kick:

:kick:

:)

Maybe it's because I don't have kids.

Maybe the politicians ought to target the context of the issue to dummies like me.

I have friends who are teachers, and they are enormously frustrated by how tightly their hands are bound, in terms of "teaching to the test" and all of the other pressures to fit a mold.

One friend said she and otehr teachers were told not to concentrate on the low-achieving kids, or the high-achieving kids, but to focus on the ones close to the margin, so that they could be pushed up just enough to make the school come out better in performance reviews.

I don;t know if that's idiotic local and state policy or an offshoot of NCLB, however. Like I said. I'm a dummy about that issue. :dunce:

but to focus on the ones close to the margin, so that they could be pushed up just enough to make the school come out better in performance reviews.

In my experience, those are the kids who scored from 15 points below to 10 points above the "meets expectations" level on the previous year's tests. They're the ones who get all the massaging - tutoring, coaching, chickens and goats slain in their honor - while the advanced kids are largely ignored. The special needs kids they try to transfer or get to drop out if they're old enough.

You're not a dummy, Armstead. If it seems too bad to be true, you probably understand it perfectly.

Statistically it is a more realistic goal. And we no longer work on doing what is best for kids, we work on raising test scores.

Yes it sucks.

I call my congress rep at least monthly about NCLB. He has a great bill that says if it isn't funded, it isn't a mandate. But he can't get it through committee.

My principal told me Hoyer has a bill reforming NCLB that includes money for school based health clinics. Since we have a school based clinic at our school, we are watching Hoyer's bill.

and see what they have in mind when all American schoolchildren don't make the grade.

Interesting about the Hoyer bill...

It's like nothing will be done until disaster is knocking on the door, if even then.

NCLB requires all but a very small percentage of special ed kids take the same test as everyone else. This isn't a bad thing straight out of the box - I'm primarily an LD specialist and the majority of the LD, EBD and OHI kids I've taught *should* be held to that standard because they can meet it with help - but I've also had low-functioning kids with mild intellectual disabilities who couldn't reliably tell a 6 from a 9. Yet, I got in trouble if I tried to meet them where they were instead of working on pre-algebra. When they can't balance their checkbook in a few years, disaster will kick the door down.

Disaster is now a long-term resident in school buildings.

Disaster plans to stay until the goal is achieved, and the system is dead.

It's long past time to wake up and evict Disaster.

:kick:

It should be killed, quickly. Sadly, even Democrats are under the illusion that it can be fixed, despite all the evidence from the field that says this is a bad law that is ruining a generation of children.

At this point, I don't expect more than cosmetic changes, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.