Three Kids Left Behind

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

HERE ARE THREE KIDS "LEFT BEHIND"
BUSH HERE TO TOUT HIS LAW; BETTER HE SHOULD SEE ITS SAD IMPACT
Chicago Sun Times Editorial -- January 7, 2008

President Bush arrives in town today, primed to spread the gospel on one 
of his key policy initiatives, the No Child Left Behind Law.

The sweeping law expects all children, regardless of race, income or 
disability, to perform at grade level by 2014.

<http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/728707,CST-NWS-stein07.article>

The goals are lofty, but the reality is jarring. We thought the 
president should meet some of the children in Chicago who are left 
behind every day, especially in our high schools.

Meet Denise Ferrusquia, a junior at Kelly High School on the Southwest 
Side. Many of her classes have 35 students or more.

"There are so many kids that you can't really ask questions or express 
your opinion so you can learn," said Denise, who hopes to be the first 
in her family to go to college. "I feel I have to do learning on my own."

The hallways are so packed at Kelly that it's hard to move. "It's a very 
hostile setting," she said. "Everyone is just angry and trying to get to 
class."

Denise takes mostly honors classes and is on the student council and 
debate team. But she fears she can't compete.

"It's not fair to compare us to other schools where it's not 
overcrowded," she said. "There, the teachers can focus on them more."

Brad Johnson, a recent CPS grad, didn't realize how shortchanged he had 
been until he arrived at Loyola University Chicago last fall.

"Professors expect me to know a lot of things, and I just don't," said 
Brad, a 2007 Austin High School graduate. "I thought I had study skills, 
but now that I'm here, it's been hard. I got straight A's [in high 
school] without studying."

During his sophomore year, CPS began phasing out Austin, a chronically 
low-performing school. Two promising replacement schools have since 
opened at Austin as part of a new CPS-led effort to overhaul failing 
high schools, but Brad paid a price for sticking it out in a dying 
school. He couldn't even take an advanced placement class.

Finally, Bush should hear about David Wells, who dropped out of Morgan 
Park High School. He accepts some responsibility but also blames the 
school, where he says his teachers were distant.

"When people want you to succeed, that makes you want to succeed, but if 
you're just sitting in the classroom and kids are talking about smoking 
and drinking, the focus isn't on work," David said.

   http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/728730,CST-EDT-edit07.article#

David now goes to an alternative public school and is flourishing there. 
But seats at those schools are limited.

"NCLB doesn't do anything for the huge numbers of kids who have dropped 
out," said Jack Wuest, director of the Chicago Alternative Schools Network.

It has been six years since Bush signed the landmark No Child bill. 
Efforts to reauthorize it stalled last year, and he will likely be 
talking the law up today, touting its accomplishments.

He'll find little to brag about in Chicago high school test scores.

Since the No Child law passed, average state test scores for high 
schoolers haven't budged. In fact, reading scores for minority students 
and for poor students are lower than in 2003, a Sun-Times analysis 
found. There has been meaningful progress on the ACT since 2003, but 
white student gains outpaced gains made by black and Hispanic students.

Those numbers won't improve, many in Chicago's trenches say, unless the 
law is changed to address what stands in the way: inequitable funding, 
overcrowding, violence, truancy and the overwhelming effects of poverty.

"If they're not willing to take these problems seriously ... then NCLB 
is a waste of time," said Andrew Martinek, a teacher at Gage Park High 
School, which saw a spike in violence after it absorbed a record number 
of freshmen in 2006. "They're trying to force innovation without the tools."

Bush's proposals for a reauthorized law include a nod toward some of 
these problems, including targeted resources for schools most in need, 
more funding for high schools and more rigorous coursework. But so far, 
neither he nor Congress has delivered.

The president has argued against "the soft bigotry of low expectations." 
But setting high standards -- without the requisite help to get there -- 
isn't any better.

The president is scheduled to meet with business leaders today at the 
Union League Club.