Re: No Misconception Left Behind

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 The writer says that we're not doing enough for kids who can't read or do math. Seems like an argument for more NCLB, not less. In any event, the "fantasy" of all kids proficient makes perfect sense for a system that aims to improve schools. Improve schools so that they help all kids - you wouldn't think that this would be so confusing and you might think that this is something that everybody would go along with, but every day we have evidence in here that people just don't get it. Some of them, like the writer of this commentary, seem simply clueless, but what's so disappointing is that many people in public education are at war with this idea. That's the real story around NCLB.
 
 Art
 
   
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 From: bobschaeffer@earthlink.net
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 Sent: Thohu, 11 Jan 2007 6:47 AM
 Subject: [arn-l] No Misconception Left Behind
 
  NO MISCONCEPTION LEFT BEHIND 
 Palm Beach (FL) Post Editorial -- January 11, 2007 
 by Jac Wilder VerSteeg, Deputy Editorial Page Editor 
 
 If it's impolite to say that No Child Left Behind doesn't work because it's based on lies, let's just say that the federal law suffers from fantasy and wishful thinking. 
 
 The bedrock fantasy is that every child in America will be able to read and do math on grade level by 2014. Everybody knows that can't happen. Yet the federal law, which has its five-year anniversary this month, is set up to punish schools, districts and states that don't make "adequate yearly progress" toward that impossible goal. 
 
 In her speech this week marking the anniversary and advocating reauthorization of the law, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told the typical whoppers about No Child Left Behind. The most egregious was this: "Before this act became law, kids often moved from grade to grade, and nobody knew whether or not they had learned to read, write, add, or subtract. We invested billions of dollars and basically just hoped for the best." 
 
 Well, bull. When I went to public school in a small North Carolina town in the 1960s and early '70s, we all knew who could read well and who couldn't. Teachers tried to help the kids who couldn't. Some they could help, some they couldn't. Yes, lots of the kids they couldn't help got social promotions after repeating a grade or two. And lots of them dropped out of high school. For all the hoopla about No Child Left Behind and Florida's A+ Plan, which began in 1999 and misuses the FCAT to assign school grades, that's exactly what happens in schools to this day. 
 
 As the parent of a student who attended Florida public schools in the 1990s and 2000s, I also can attest that, well before No Child Left Behind came into existence, teachers regularly identified students who were having trouble reading or doing math and enrolled them in special programs that often worked. 
 
 It simply is not the case that, before No Child Left Behind and FCAT, "We invested billions of dollars and basically just hoped for the best." Before the FCAT and No Child Left Behind, most public schools tried their best to teach students to read and do math. Much of the time, they succeeded. 
 
 Still, there's this notion that schools just "hoped for the best." The claim that public schools just were winging it helped to sell the public on greater federal and state involvement. It justified taking decisions out of local hands. But the idea that public schools didn't work because they didn't try has turned out to be a big problem for No Child Left Behind and the A+ Plan. It created a false expectation that bringing order to the mess and improving the outcome would be a relatively easy thing. 
 
 All we have to do, reformers said, is give some tests, flunk some schools, put on the pressure, and schools will shape up. 
 
 In fact, that works only to a point. There is some low-hanging fruit. Intensive, small classes will work with some kids. So will tutors. And if FCAT grades and No Child Left Behind analyses got those things for more children who needed it, great. But it turns out that setting up a system to exhaustively identify and report all those who need help is not the same thing as actually helping all those who need it. That's why so many high school kids still can't pass the FCAT and graduate. That's why so many schools aren't meeting No Child Left Behind standards. 
 
 And speaking of those standards, they also are a fantasy. Every state got to decide for itself what constituted "adequate yearly progress." As Congress gets ready to debate reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, some groups are advocating for a national standard. Still other groups want even more flexibility for states to set their own. In the meantime, there's a lot of measuring going on, but what's getting measured and achieved isn't always clear. 
 
 Before No Child Left Behind, a small circle of people - teachers, parents, classmates - knew that a kid couldn't read. Now, the state and the feds have statistics out the wazoo about who can't read and do math. What to do about those kids? The answer still is elusive. 
 
 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/01/11/a22a_versteegcol_0111.html 
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