Re: [eddra] FairTest Reaction to State of the Union Proposals on No Child

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Clearly "college admission test scores" are of limited usefulness as indicators of the success of an elementary and secondary program enacted in 2001, particularly since influencing those scores was not the major purpose of the program in the first place. Dropout rates are a problem, particularly for minority students, but addressing persistence in school is really a secondary focus of NCLB. (It should have been of higher priority).
 
 There are in fact some optimistic signs in NAEP trends, but their association with NCLB is unproven. 
   
 For all its clunkiness, NCLB creates urgency around the need to improve schools to the direct benefit of children. The real test for suggestions to modify NCLB will be whether they maintain that urgency or whether they delay or dilute it. Particularly noxious and retrogressive would be changes that maintain the status quo at the expense of the best interests of parents and children. I believe that, unfortunately, the door is opening wider to this distressing possibility for many reasons, not the least of which is that NCLB conflates the metric of test scores with the metric of improving schools. President Bush's SOTU suggestions take a few steps towards making school improvement more specific -- for example, he suggests requiring staff and governance changes for restructuring schools -- but if there is one thing that public education is not going to embrace it is wholesale change to staff and governance. The door is open there to doing more harm than good. It would be wonderful if the definition of what an "improved school" is would come from within the profession, together with a more specific blueprint on how to get there, and not solely from the political process.
 
 Art
 
  -----Original Message-----
 From: monty@fairtest.org
 To: eddra@yahoogroups.com; arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com; arn-l@interversity.org; ARN-state@yahoogroups.com; ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com; RScriticalteach@lists.execpc.com; rethinkaccountdc@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 2:38 PM
 Subject: [eddra] FairTest Reaction to State of the Union Proposals on No Child Left Behind
 
       
    National Center for Fair & Open Testing  For further information: 
  Dr. Monty Neill (617) 864-4810 
    Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 
 
 REACTION OF DR. MONTY NEILL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 
 FAIRTEST: NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAIR & OPEN TESTING 
 TO PRES. BUSH’S STATE OF THE UNION PROPOSALS ON 
 THE “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND” LAW 
 President George Bush’s State of the Union proposals to escalate the failing test-and-punish strategy of the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law, as outlined by a White House policy memo (http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2007/initiatives/print/education.html), rest on misinformation and ideologically skewed assumptions, not evidence. Pres. Bush wants to continue pursuing dead-end policies that have not improved educational quality, particularly for our nation's most vulnerable children 
 
 The facts demonstrate that NCLB is not a success. Key independent indicators, including dropout rates, college admissions test scores, and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results are unchanged or only slightly improved. Narrowing of the racial achievement gap has slowed since NCLB was implemented. 
 
 Meanwhile, the law has turned many schools into test-coaching programs, denying students the well-rounded, rich education all the nation's children deserve. The Bush administration pretends that minor changes in test scores in a few subjects is an adequate substitute for real education. 
 
 Now, the Pres. Bush proposes that all states report their NAEP results along with scores on their local tests. But the NAEP definition of "proficiency" was deemed flawed and too high by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Education. Making states look bad by comparing them to an unreasonable standard will not improve education. 
 
 Outside the Bush Administration, a broad consensus on how to overhaul NCLB is emerging, as evidence by the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB, signed by more than 100 education, civil rights, religious, disability and civic groups, including FairTest. It says, "Overall, the law’s emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement."  
 
 The recommended changes to NCLB include:   
  - using multiple measures of student learning instead of single test scores; 
  - expecting rates of improvement actually attained by significant numbers of real schools, replacing the "adequate yearly progress" scheme; 
  - providing substantial support for building the capacity of schools to serve all students well, then holding them accountable for making improvements; and 
  - increasing funding to support improvement efforts and to enable all students eligible for Title I services to receive them.  
 
 The Forum on Educational Accountability, a group working to implement the Joint Statement, will release more detailed proposals on capacity-building, assessment and accountability in the coming months. The Joint Statement is available at www.fairtest.org and at www.edaccountability.org.      __._,_.___    Messages in this topic  (1)    Reply  (via web post)  |  Start a new topic    Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Calendar       
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