Re: Untested theories behind NCLB

[aburke5054@aol.com]

NCLB requires states to establish standards that apply to all children, examine children on their attainment of the standards, and take responsibility for improving schools where children are not meeting the standard for proficiency. The requirement that states improve their schools until all children -- including poor children, minority children, children with disabilities, and children learning English -- become proficient is indeed the heart of NCLB. According to you NCLB requires a heart transplant. If you want to argue that the goal of 100 percent proficiency doesn't make sense, or that states can't or haven't set reasonable standards, or that tests are worthless, or acting on "artificially important" test scores is wrong, more power to you. But NCLB's heart seems sound to me, even if not every part of the body it powers is working perfectly.
 
 Your "other four points" are really only one point: Bad things are happening and all because of testing. That's for you to deal with, not me. You said you have learned a lot from seventh graders over the years and that's great, but it seems to me that your outlook on NCLB is entirely junior-high.
 
 Art
 
 rOriginal Message-----
 From: shays@ccwebster.net
 To: arn-l@interversity.org
 Sent: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 6:08 AM
 Subject: Re: [arn-l] Untested theories behind NCLB
 
  On Jan 21, 2007, at 3:22 AM, aburke5054@aol.com wrote: 
 
 > If "ma" and "pa" like the schools the way they are, more power to > them. 
 > 
 > "Over-reliance" on testing can mean anything. For you it means > blaming tests because schools are doing silly things. It's that > simple. 
 
 Unfortunately, Art, this is not the question I asked you. Nice effort to weasel-word the response, a tactic we have come to expect (not just from you, but from practically everyone who tries to speak for the Man Behind the Curtain). However, patience is a trait thousands of seventh graders have given to me over the years, so I'll try one more time. 
 
 I said nothing about ma and pa "liking" their child's school the way it was. I asked you to tell us what evidence you would provide to those blissful parents suggesting that the school was not doing its job (that is, in need of improvement) and/or that the state was botching its job of improving their child's school. 
 
 This is not a hard question, Art. If I am not mistaken, it is at the very heart of NCLB. 
 
 I guess it is too much to ask, after answering that simple question, that you then go back and address the other four points of my post but who knows ... maybe you will be able to admit that it is not the tests that cause schools to do silly things, but the artificial importance attached to the test results. 
 
 "Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been." 
 - - Jimmy Buffett 
 
 Scott Hays 
 shays@ccwebster.net 
 
 
 
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