Re: Discontent with NCLB Grows

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

The problem here may be with the reporter/editor, not with the test 
critic. Ms. Bruni's comments in the NCLBGrassroots.org news release 
(excerpt below) collectively critiqued NCLB and Texas' twenth-year -old 
high-stakes exams.

> Superintendent of Schools Sylvia Bruni said: “This District has been 
> very assertive in its
> criticism of the rigid high-stakes approach to student accountability. 
> We see NCLB as
> the Big Brother of this type of unreasonable assessment of children's 
> learning. We have
> reason to be concerned. For the past twenty years, Texas public 
> schools have been
> holding their students accountable for their performance via a single, 
> high-stakes test …
> and the consequences have been increasingly more and more tragic, 
> especially for the
> growing number of minority students that make up a growing number of 
> students in our
> public schools.”



Nancy Patterson wrote:

> Art's right here.  It isn't NCLB that has created weak thinkers, weak problem solvers.  It is the watered down exectations, rote memorization, and aching boredom of traditional classroom.  Test prep has not make things any better.
>
> I'm all for bashing NCLB, but I'd like to see it done rationally.  NCLB isn't working, but we need to do a better job of showing the ways it isn't.
>
> Nancy
>
> Nancy Patterson, PhD
> Literacy Studies Program Chair
> College of Education
> Grand Valley State University 
> 920 Eberhard Center
> 301 W. Fulton
> Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
> 616-331-6226
> patterna@gvsu.edu
> http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna
>  
>
> > > > ABurke5054@aol.com 08/19/05 10:30 AM >>>
> > > >        
> In a message dated 8/19/2005 6:07:41 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
> bobschaeffer@earthlink.net writes:
>
> ...Ms.  Bruni says that one of the biggest indications of NCLB's failure 
> comes  from the business community, which has found that students are 
> "graduating  as poor communicators, really weak critical thinkers, weak 
> problem  solvers."
> _____________________________________________________
> The fact that 2005 12th graders have weak skills is the fault of a law  
> passed in 2001.  And we totally believe that the business community is  blaming 
> NCLB for this.  Right.  Spin city gone wild.
>
> Art
>
>
>
>
>
>