Re: moratorium on sanctions?

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Certainly some dread working in a school that has been identified for 
improvement, although I don't  believe that identifying a school for 
improvement and making changes that need to be made in that school 
would strike most Americans as particularly dreadful.  I think it would 
be a hard sell to convince most Americans that, for instance, giving 
children easier access to transfers, or tutoring or some other form of 
supplemental services is "sanctioning" or "punishing" schools.  Nor do 
I think that most Americans would find dreadful the remedies that NCLB 
prescribes for schools that fail to make progress for longer periods:  
changing curriculum, additional training for teachers and 
administrators, replacing staff that need to be replaced, or even 
changing the governance structure of the school.  THard choices have to 
be made in many schools and some of those choices will rock the boats 
of people working in them - that is why there is so much propaganda 
from school employees that NCLB is "sanctioning" or "punishing" schools 
with nary an acknowledgment that NCLB is about improving them.  
Politics 101 and Human Nature 100.  But that's not what parents and 
children and schools need.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Tauna Rogers <taunar@plateautel.net>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 7:46 pm
Subject: Re: [arn-l] moratorium on sanctions?

No doubt you are right about Bush....


It seems to me the case for a moratorium might still be worth 
making...if
nothing else for the message being conveyed. How many of our nation's 
public
schools now find themselves on the dreaded "list"? About 25,000? And 
the
numbers will only increase. Based on an absurd accountability system, 
while
big money flows to private interests in the name of failing schools.


What rationale could Miller, et al supply for continuing to punish our
schools rather than help them? We know there is no research whatsoever
supporting the law's sanctions as school improvement mechanisms. And it
seems there is now ample data showing the law is not working, that 
private
schools and charter schools do not outperform public schools when
demographics are adjusted for, etc. I suspect the dropout rate is 
increasing
although I don't know the data on that


Just some thoughts...maybe flawed, ha!



----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth Bernstein" <kber@earthlink.net>

To: <arn-l@interversity.org>

Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 8:06 PM

Subject: Re: [arn-l] moratorium on sanctions?



> no chance the president would sign a bill that had a moratorium on
> sanctions.  And not clear you even get a majority of Dems to vote 
that
> way -  afraid of being demagogued as not willing to have strong 
standards
> for minority children.  I am quite sure Miller would never let 
something
> like that out of committee -  Monty, ump in if you think my 
assessment is
> wrong.

>

> Ken Bernstein

>

> Kenneth J. Bernstein

> -----------------------------------------------

> Report list problems to listmom@interversity.net

>


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