Re: MCLB "Anniversary?" Millions of children left

["gerald w. bracey" <gbracey@erols.com>]

Art,

Of course, if test scores don't go up, the kids will go away.  Or at least
have the option to.  No one I no of is attempting to deal with this issue of
pupil mobility.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Art Burke" <aburke@vansd.org>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] MCLB "Anniversary?" Millions of children left


> I have just completed a round of visits to four Vancouver schools that
> are implementing new approaches to helping struggling students.  While
> the changes grow to some degree out of programs already underway, the
> sole impetus for the extra attention to the needs of struggling students
> is NCLB.  The universal feeling in the four schools is that things are
> better now for struggling students than they were before and they will
> get even better as time goes on.  I suspect that there are many schools
> across the land that are doing many of the same things with the same
> degree of optimism. Whether these efforts and optimism will bear the
> fruit of higher test scores is another matter.  But even if test scores
> don't go up and even if NCLB goes away, staying the course I saw in our
> schools will clearly help a lot of kids.
>
> Art
> _____________
>
> >>> ShopMathEdu@aol.com 01/08/03 11:51AM >>>
> Dear ARN Folks:
>
> They are calling this the first "anniversary" of the NCLB (aka:
> MCLB....millions of children left behind) act.
>
> How can the one year mark of such an inhumane piece of legislation be
> called
> an anniversary?
>
> Is there to cause to celebrate the one year mark since the educational
>
> equivalent of martial law has been declared against students, teachers,
> and
> curriculum?
>
> For me, this day is more like a yarzheit, the Jewish tradition of
> marking the
> first year since the death of dear one.
>
> The NCLB leaves millions of children behind.  When children are left
> behind,
> their educational careers, inquisitiveness and enthusiasm for life
> becomes
> derailed.  Without education, people are doomed to a lifetime of
> servitude,
> uncertainty, insecurity and an early death.
>
> For me, this is a yarzheit, where we pause to reflect on the many
> wasted
> lives which NCLB will impose upon this land.  This is a tragic day of
> mourning for our community; a mourning for lives which have been lost,
> and
> for lives which shall be lost.
>
> We have seen the results of NCLB-esque practices here in Birmingham,
> and they
> are devastating.  Young people pushed out of school to raise test
> scores.
> Teachers and administrators acting like guards and wardens instead of
> student
> advocates.
>
> We have seen the blood stained sidewalks, and the fresh dirt shoveled
> onto a
> cement vault, containing a casket, which contains the cold body of a
> young
> person who sincerely believed they didn't have a future and whose
> dreams were
> deferred....deferred....and deferred once too many times.
>
> Please keep NCLB far far away from our students, our schools, and our
> land.
>
> Thank you, ARN folks, for all that you do to defend students and
> education.
>
> Warmest peacebuilding greetings,
>
> Steve Orel
> Birmingham, Alabama
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