Re: Erase, rewrite, reauthorize

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Since Monty/FEA/FairTest/NEA is on the wrong side of an important 
civil-rights issue, we should thank heaven that it does not look good 
for the "substantial changes" this granfalloon wants.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Aoki <dkeikoa@hawaii.rr.com>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:01 pm
Subject: Re: [arn-l] Erase, rewrite, reauthorize


I saw, heard, met Monty at NEA where he was a guest speaker sponsored 
by the
Peace and Justice Caucus, and though he said they were still trying to 
push
forward the FEA agenda, I came away with an impression that it doesn't 
look
good for substantial changes. So where does that leave us? I told my 
faculty
to put me on suicide watch if nothing changes (I said I was kidding and 
I am
- I love life more than I hate NCLB). But what happens, if we still are
test-focused, and 100% by 2014 driven? What can we do if we can't 
change the
law? Do we keep trying to push the rock up the hill, as Quan says. To 
what
end? What is at the top of that hill? How do we know it's worth 
pushing? I
guess we could push for changes at the state level and at the board 
level
and commit to reaching and engaging kids in meaningful ways. As long as 
we
do that, connect to kids, find ways to bring out the best in them, find 
ways
for them to know they are capable and wonderful, find ways to teach with
heart, find ways to ignore the BS and not let the turkeys get you down
(that's the hard one), as long as we do that, let them do their
"restructuring", their labeling, their fidelity, their rigor, their 
scripts,
their standards, their walkthroughs, their whatevers , as long as I can
connect to kids, I should be okay.
Diane


On 7/28/07 11:33 AM, "Kenneth Bernstein" <kber@earthlink.net> wrote:

> all three of the Senators that George Sheridan quotes in his letter 
are on the
> Senate HELP (Health education, Labor Pensions) Committee under 
Kennedy that
> has authorization for the reauthorization.  And although I have in 
what
> contact I have had with their staff and staff on the House side seen 
some
> movement, the basic architecture of the bill is going to remain - 
there will
> still be disaggregation, there will still be AYP even if measured by
> individual growth scores (which actually could make things worse if 
measured
> June to JUne rather than Sept to June), and the 100% proficiency by 
2014 seems
> likely to remain in the law, even if the approach to punitive 
measures becomes
> somewhat more "measured."  Monty, who has spent more time in Hill
> conversations than have I, may choose to add some more comments.  I 
do not see
> the actions by those 3 Senators as matching the words they offered to 
the
> delegates at the union conference.   Just saying.
>
> teacherken aka ken bernstein
>
> Kenneth J. Bernstein


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