[IP] more on "NCLB: The Implausible Dream"
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 11, 2005 7:15:21 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, 'Ip ip' <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Brett Glass <brett@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [IP] "NCLB: The Implausible Dream"
I agree that there are lots of problems with the current approach and
we need a “do over”.
But blaming the parents is unfair – sure they are important but those
students who most need help either have parents who need help
themselves or may have neurological differences that are not amenable
to simply trying the old stuff “more”. If parents are to be part of
the solution then we need an education system that is more inclusive
and continuing.
I agree that too much burden is placed on the teachers – why is there
so little effort to take advantage of technology to make education
more available to those who want to learn on their own. Imagine if
text book and lecture content were available on the web so the
teachers could assist learning rather than being the gating factor.
I’m not talking about technology to make teaching more efficient but
to make education more available and effective. (Yes, I know, it’s
more complex than that)
Perhaps the bigger issue with these attempts to drag every child
along is that at a time when the premium is on the ability to be
adaptive and creative we are putting increasing emphasis on only what
is measurable. Some testing and level setting is helpful but it’s too
easy to standardize the approach and content rather. There is a
strong incentive to teach to the test and only to the test. Base
skills are a starting point not the goals in themselves.
It’s easy to find extreme examples of success and failure. It’s
harder measure lost opportunity. Where will the disruptive innovation
come from if everyone is tested on a scientific method premised on
the assumption that science is about discovering the one truth rather
than science as a means of questioning what we all “know” to be true.
The same simplistic approach can be found in nondiscretionary
sentencing and the failure to recognize neurological issues in
behavior. These align with the more general premise of a clockwork
universe into each everything has its place – a quaint 19th century
notion.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of David Farber
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 15:42
To: Ip ip
Subject: [IP] “NCLB: The Implausible Dream”
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brett Glass <brett@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 11, 2005 12:01:02 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: For IP: “NCLB: The Implausible Dream”
NCLB’s implausible dream
Jennifer Wilmetti
PERSPECTIVE
While the intent of the No Child Left Behind Act was praiseworthy,
the means put in place to achieve the goals are flawed in several ways.
1. This is an under-funded mandate. We are told to perform miracles
for every student with a lack of necessary resources. I am supposed
to make sure that all of my students read up to grade level, but yet
I can’t buy any books to help me do it!
2. We have been told “all means all.” In other words, when the act
said that 100 percent of students would have to be proficient by the
year 2013, they meant all. This includes students who have
disabilities that make this completely impossible. By simply enacting
a piece of legislation, it won’t get rid of the fact that we have
students with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol
syndrome, Down’s syndrome, etc., who are never going to be able to
achieve this. Period.
3. Many people have started to call this act “No Child Left
Untested,” as that seems to be the focus of our teaching these days.
How are we supposed to get these students up to proficiency when we
never have a chance to teach them because we spend so much time
testing them? We can test them until the cows come home but that
doesn’t change the fact that as it stands we haven’t increased the
amount of time that students spend in school. We have to find the
time to test them somewhere, and that time is coming from our
instructional time. Thus, we are teaching them even less than we were
before this act.
4. Finally, this act holds all school staff members accountable for
student achievement (or lack of student achievement). But we are
missing two key pieces of the puzzle: students and parents. Teachers
can do everything imaginable to increase learning but if neither of
these groups buys into the package, nothing will improve. In Wyoming,
none of the mandated tests are used to hold students accountable.
Students learn this very quickly and fail to take these tests
seriously. A couple of years ago, I was speaking with a class that
included the valedictorian at our high school about the WyCAS test.
When asked, the students, including the valedictorian, said that they
hadn’t taken the test seriously! If this young man, who was obviously
bright and driven, didn’t take it seriously, how many students did?
And yet, this is one of the measures of whether we as teachers are
doing our job or not!
As for the parents, if parents don’t care about education, students
usually don’t care either. Parents who don’t read to their children,
don’t attend school functions, don’t participate in parent/teacher
conferences, fail to provide safe home environments, etc., are not
doing their job as parents. The schools can try to educate them on
the need for these things, but sometimes there is just no reaching
them. Sometimes they are worried about making enough money to keep
food on the table. Others are caught up in a web of drug abuse.
The reasons are as numerous as the students who aren’t making
proficiency.
Because no lawmaker wants to try to enact a piece of legislation that
would hold parents accountable for their child’s achievement in
school, the law was passed that made the educators solely
accountable. This isn’t fair and it isn’t realistic. Education needs
to be seen as a table with four legs: teachers, school
administrators, parents and students. If any one of these legs
doesn’t hold up its weight, the table will fall over and there won’t
be a flat surface for the education to build on.
While I can agree that we do need to do something to reform U.S.
education, “No Child Left Behind” is not the tool to do it. Let’s
repeal this act and start fresh with realistic expectations. Let’s
include everyone in the conversation, not just lawmakers. And we need
to realize that we aren’t going to be able to reform society through
the schools. Reforming society as a whole is a different conversation.
Jennifer Wilmetti of Rock Springs is a teacher.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/06/11/editorial/forum/
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