Re: LEAP to the Failure Abyss

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Katrina (no lady, that one) may have been the worst natural disaster in 
our nation's history.  It is sad that there were serious deficiencies 
in the response to Katrina by government at all levels and there may 
still be.  There is no easy answer to what form NCLBb accountability 
should take in a system where schools are still flooded out.  But 
looking beyond NO, it seems to me that the lesson of Katrina is that, 
if anything, parents and children need more protection, not less.  
Knowing what happened after Katrina, why would anyone want to weaken 
the protections that NCLB grants to parents and children?  Because 
those protections are inconvenient to schools?  Makes as much sense as 
arguing that victims of Katrina should not get relief because it is 
inconvenient to NO and LA government.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: PRISCILLA GUTIERREZ <pgutpgut@msn.com>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 7:24 am
Subject: Re: [arn-l] LEAP to the Failure Abyss


It would seem our buddy has forgotten a lady named Katrina who was no 
lady paid
a visit two years ago to Louisiana.  Our school nurse and his wife 
spent 2 weeks
down there recently volunteering their time and skills.  Upon his 
return, he
shared his utter shock and dismay at how little has actually been done 
to help
folks down there.  It's like visiting a third world country where the 
government
has conveniently forgotten their promises of help.  Many of the area's 
poor are
still not attending school because there is no place for them to go.  
And let's
not forget dear Margaret's insistence that Louisiana would still be 
held to
NCLB's accountability standards, regardless of the disaster and the 
lack of
resources being.  No one can accuse her of soft bigotry - just flat out
ignorance.Priscilla Gutierrez Outreach Specialist New Mexico School for 
the Deaf
...change is inevitable, growth is optional...> Subject: Re: [arn-l] 
LEAP to the
Failure Abyss> Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 08:25:21 -0400> From: 
jhorn@monmouth.edu>
To: arn-l@interversity.org> > idiot> > > -----Original Message-----> 
From:
arn-l-owner@interversity.org on behalf of aburke5054@aol.com> Sent: Wed 
8/8/2007
8:23 PM> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Subject: Re: [arn-l] LEAP to the 
Failure
Abyss> > If poor children had better schools, perhaps family income 
would be >
less> predictive of their achievement. In any event, working to improve 
>
schools is far more> constructive than the endless wringing of the 
hands about
how poor > children score> lower on achievement tests or running around 
saying
why bother to > improve> schools because it's all demographics anyway. 
Get on
Louisiana's case > to make> changes that need to be made in schools. 
Nobody
could be against that, > right?> > Art> > -----Original Message-----> 
From:
Horn, James <jhorn@monmouth.edu>> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Sent: 
Wed, 8 Aug
2007 7:51 am> Subject: [arn-l] LEAP to the Failure Abyss> > > The 
Louisiana
Department of Education is more practiced at bad new than > the> 
"folks" in the
White House. Of course, they have been at it longer. > Louisiana's> war 
against
the poor and the dark-skinned began in 1999 with the LEAP > (Louisiana>
Education Assessment Program). Yesterday the State put out a press > 
release>
puffing themselves up for the results on the big Summer of testing that 
>
followed> the big Spring of testing which followed the big Year of 
preparing for
> testing,> etc. Here's the opening to the Press Release:> > BATON 
ROUGE, La. -
More than 9,000 Louisiana 4th and 8th grade > students> succeeded in 
passing the
LEAP test after taking summer school courses > and> retaking at least a 
portion
of the test, according to results released > Monday.> About 25,000 4th 
and 8th
graders participated in the summer retest.> > And here is the way the 
Daily
Iberian reported it yesterday:> > Statewide numbers released Monday 
show about
9,000 students will > move on to> fifth or ninth grades after passing 
the LEAP
test this summer.> > Sounds great, doesn't it? What the LDE doesn't 
brag about
is down in > the pdf> files made available on Monday. The facst are 
that 10, 762
8th graders > will> repeat the eighth grade this coming year (if they 
don't drop
out), and > 8,177 4th> graders will repeat the fourth grade this coming 
year. So
while 9,000 > passed the> LEAP re-test this summer, 18,939 did not:> > 
* 10,762
Eighth Grade repeaters> > * 8,177 Fourth Grade repeaters> > The 
Graduate Exit
Exam (GEE) goes unmentioned in the text of Monday's > glowing> Press 
Release.
Good reason from a PR perspective. The results were even > more> 
devastating.
The GEE is given the first time in 10th grade, and > students must> 
pass
(Approacing Basic) math, reading, and either science or social > 
studies to>
earn a diploma.> > In Spring 2007 41,346 high schoolers took the Math 
part of
GEE and > 8,075 failed> it.> > Of the 8,075 failures, 5,303 took the 
Summer
retest, and 3,524 > youngsters failed> that. With the 2,772 who did not 
retake
the Math part and the 3,524 who > failed> the retest, there will be at 
least
6,296 students who failed the > mandatory Math> section of the GEE. 
Those 6,296
failures represents a 15% failure rate > among> 10th and 11th graders, 
and that
does not take into account the > thousands who> dropped out between 8th 
grade
and now.> > Bottom line: Louisiana has a total of 25,235 failures this 
year in >
grades 4, 8,> and 10-11 as a result of a single test that is 
oh-so-predictably >
correlated to> family income levels. This is how Louisiana is getting 
entirely >
color-blind in> the 21st Century.> 
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