Re: 30K schools fail to make AYP

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Yes.? A funny thing happened to Monty and Bracey and Ohanian and teacherken and all the rest who claimed daily on this list that NCLB was dreamed up by schemers at the Business Roundtable and the Fordham Foundation as a stealth tool to privatize the public schools.? They ignored the truth:? Achievement gaps are real and pernicious and schools can do something about them and that for all its imperfect features NCLB grants parents and cbildren important rights and protection. This is precisely why Americas' civil-rightrs community argues for keeping NCLB's accountability requirements, the same reqjuirements that these others argue were designed only to destroy the public schools. 

I'm just sorry I didn't speak out stronger and more clearly against this nonsense sooner. ? 

Art


-----Original Message-----
From: George K Cunningham <gkc@louisville.edu>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 4:17 pm
Subject: Re: [arn-l] 30K schools fail to make AYP










This argument has been going on for a long time here.  Someone criticises  NCLB 
and Art replies that it is supported by the civil rights establishment.  Then 
there are other responses of incredulousness that this could be true.
 
This issue is addressed by Frederick Hess (a great favorite here of course) 
here:  
 
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.29112/pub_detail.asp 
 
Here is the crux of what he asserts in his argument that NCLB was distorted into 
an unworkable form.  The problem as he sees it is that it ended up to be just 
what these civil rights groups wanted.  
 
"The compromises that the administration struck, however, ultimately led Bush to 
champion a law that dramatically expanded the federal role in education; adopted 
an explicitly race-based conception of school accountability; focused on 
"closing achievement gaps" to the exclusion of all other objectives; proffered a 
pie-in-the-sky civil rights-oriented approach to school "accountability" (even 
for students with cognitive disabilities and English language learners); created 
a burdensome federal mandate around teacher qualifications that hampers outfits 
such as Teach For America; devised a compliance apparatus that is even more 
burdensome than the previous regime; and significantly increased federal 
spending on education. Add it up and it begins to look like he compromised on 
more than just "points."

Don't just trust us; ask the left. Robert Gordon, Democratic educational guru, 
has incisively explained in the pages of The New Republic, "Progressives are 
misled by the logic of their own Bush-hatred: Bush is for NCLB, so NCLB must be 
bad. . . . At its heart, [NCLB] is the sort of law liberals once dreamed about."
Unfortunately, neither the president nor the current leadership at the 
Department of Education ever seemed to realize how far they had drifted from the 
vision they initially espoused, or the degree to which they ultimately found 
themselves waging a bitter defense of progressive nostrums that originated 
within reform-minded civil-rights organizations such as the Education Trust and 
the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights.
Decades ago, Newt Gingrich ( http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.20/scholar.asp 
) and other reform-minded conservatives used to savage Bob Dole as a "tax 
collector for the welfare state"--arguing that "green eyeshade" Republicans were 
simply enabling Democrats who gleefully maneuvered the budget balancers into 
backing the tax increases needed to fund expansive programs. Democrats got the 
credit while Republicans got tagged as grim-faced disciplinarians. It is not too 
much of a stretch to suggest that Bush permitted himself to become the "hall 
monitor for the civil rights lobby"--taking the hits from angry suburbanites and 
the blame for an unpopular law, while civil rights groups basked in their new 
status and doubled down by pushing for new and more aggressive federal 
programs."
The idea that civil right groups support NCLB does not seem that far fetched.
 
 
 
George K. Cunningham
Professor, Ret. 
>>> <aburke5054@aol.com> 12/24/2008 12:15 PM >>>

You can say anything you want to, but that doesn't make it true, does it?

By identifying yourself as a teacher and by making accusations against Miller, 
Kennedy, Obama and the nation's civil rights establishment that are more and 
more ridiculous, you simply provide evidence that you are part of the problem 
instead of part of the solution. Good luck, along with Bracey amd Tauna, trying 
to convince La Raza and NAACP that poor children's brains are so warped that 
they can't do well in school and that it is oh so futile to try to improve 
schools that serve such children.? And you wonder why civil rights organizations 
support NCLB?



Art


-----Original Message-----
From: MONICALUCIDO@comcast.net 
To: arn-l@interversity.org 
Sent: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:17 am
Subject: Re: [arn-l] 30K schools fail to make AYP










What I would say is that in some ways there are children that have needed more 
help, but beyond the kind of help that more testing can provide. I would say 
that the civil rights groups, at heart, have been tired of being trampled upon 
by the wealthy and powerful. I would say that they would do anything to bring 
their cause into the light of day, even if that means signing on to an 
eventually devastating doctrine, such as NCLB. Some civil rights groups will do 
anything to get out of the rut that they have been stuck in, due to the greed 
and racism of some who are in power. They may believe that testing children to 
death is better than nothing at all, and so don't have the foresight or 
willingness  to listen to others that show there are many other ways of helping 
poverty stricken children of color. Instead of having a balanced discussion on 
the issue, radical decisions have been made by them that will INCREASE the 
likelihood that those children will get sick of school and drop
out, O
R EVEN WORSE, to graduate with  minimal real-world skills. And as Monty has 
stated before, there are many civil rights signers on the Joint Organizational 
Statement that don't agree with NCLB's insanity. Kennedy and Miller are corrupt, 

so spare me their names, and Obama believes in using testing for performance 
purposes-----another devastating pathway that will open which will separate 
teachers from each other and children. What a great plan.

Joe Lucido
EPATA/CalCARE
Fresno
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: aburke5054@aol.com 
> 
>  You don't seem to be catching on to the fact that the "pro-NCLB" crowd 
includes 
> not only liberal and progressive politicians and advocates but also America's 
> civil-rights establishment.? Claiming that Kennedy, Miller, Obama, La Raza, 
the 
> Urban League, and the NAACP are part of a "privatization conspiracy ideology" 
> against the public schools s simply bizarre.? 
> 
> Art
> 
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MONICALUCIDO@comcast.net 
> To: arn-l@interversity.org 
> Sent: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 9:46 pm
> Subject: Re: [arn-l] 30K schools fail to make AYP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...and even more will miss their targets this year with the AMO's rising by 
10%.  
> A perfect plan to make public schools  continue to look like crap. A job well 
> accomplished by the pro-NCLB crowd. Now, the pro-school closer Arne Duncan can 


> make even more cases as to why corporations should be used to "manage" other 
> need-to-be-closed schools. The whole privatization conspiracy ideology doesn't 


> seem that far fetched, now does it?
> 
> Joe Lucido
> Fresno
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>
> > 
> > According to Ed Week, nearly 30K schools failed to make AYP last school 
year, 
> > not including NY and 2 other states - so the numbers will be higher. That's 
a 
> > 13% jump from previous year. They don't say what percentage of US schools 
this 
> 
> > is, but says nearly 20% (will be over with NY, I assume) missed 2 years in a 


> > row. Also say that <3,559 schools-4 percent of all schools rated based on 
> their 
> > progress-are facing the law's more serious interventions in the current 
school 
> 
> > year.>
> > 
> > 
> > Report: 28% more schools missed NCLB targets in 2007-08 school year
> > During the 2007-08 school year, nearly 30,000 U.S. schools failed to make 
> > adequate yearly progress as defined by states under NCLB, according to 
> research 
> > findings published in Education Week that compile state results released 
> > throughout the year. Nearly 20% of all U.S. schools have missed their goals 
> for 
> > two or more years and now face federal sanctions. Education Week (premium 
> > article access compliments of Edweek.org) (12/19) 
> > 
> > 
> > Monty Neill, Ed.D.
> > Deputy Director
> > FairTest
> > monty@fairtest.org 
> > 857-350-8207 x 101; fax 857-350-8209
> > 15 Court Square, Ste 820
> > Boston, MA 02108-9939
> > http://www.fairtest.org 
> > Donate: 
> > 
> https://secure.entango.com/servlet/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk--------------------------- 

> > --------------------
> > Report list problems to listmom@interversity.net 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> ARN-L archives:
> http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives.html 
> 
> 
> 
>  
>