Re: nclb and civil rights communities

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Here's an excerpt from a statement by groups that advocate for etnic 
and language-minority children opposing the recent attempt to limit 
NCLB accountability requirements, the same requirements that you claim 
constitute the "racist texture" of NCLB and that you claim are somehow 
trumped by the JOS:

"We believe that it is critical that the No Child Left Behind Act be 
improved through a full reauthorization process to do more to help the 
nation’s low-income and minority students achieve and graduate prepared 
for college and the workplace. However, it is also critical that as a 
nation we maintain focus on improving educational opportunities for 
low-income and minority students and not fall back into accepting the 
status quo for our nation’s schools. The NCLB Recess Until 
Reauthorization Act would render the goals of the No Child Left Behind 
Act and the nation’s commitment to achievement for all students 
meaningless by eviscerating accountability for improving—or even 
identifying—low-performing schools. It undermines those essential 
goals, as well as the legislative process, and, thus, it must be 
defeated."

Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Council of La Raza
Southeast Asian Resource Action Center
Alliance for Excellent Education
National Urban League

___________

Your anti-accountability ship rests with the Titanic, along with your 
pathetic claims that there is a "racist texture" t
o NCLB.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: pwmjoy@earthlink.net <pwmjoy@earthlink.net>
To: arn-l <arn-l@interversity.org>

Sent: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:12 am
Subject: [arn-l] nclb and civil rights communities


Civil Rights communities support NCLB for two reasons: firstly, that 
the
legislation has been argued to be legally within the civil rights 
domain and to
dump it is to set a precedent for dumping other civil rights 
legislation;
secondly, the core goal or value of NCLB is to even the playing field 
for all
kids.

Unfortunately, people who grab the NCLB debate and point at these two 
rationales
as proof that any  movement to dump NCLB is a form of racism, ethnic 
denial, and
disregard for the poor record schools have of dealing with minority 
group
educational needs are using the educationally needy as a front for 
their own
condescending world view in this regard.

Often such people pay no serious attention to the Joint Organizational 
Statement
now signed by 144 groups. That statement calls for major (not minor or
superficial) changes to NCLB. As soon as this fact is placed on the 
table, it is
dismissed by a focus  on the word, "accountability", which, in turn, 
directs the
argument back to standardized testing. It is that misrepresenting of 
the JOS
that reveals the ultimate fixation on standardized testing which the 
NAACP does
not share at all.

Who hears the call for essenti
al and deep rooted change in NCLB 
required by the
JOS? Certainly not people who, in effect, pretend the document does not 
exist,
does not call for fundamental changes in NCLB, and does not represent 
serious
criticism by black and Hispanic communities.

Dismantling NCLB as an insincere, propagandized attempt to address 
failure in
low income, urban communities, born from what we now know was a con job
regarding the so-called "Houston Miracle" is important for the civil 
rights
movement and does serve the civil rights communiites in our country. 
However, we
enter the world of semantics with the use of  the word, "dismantling", 
as if it
means "doing away with". The JOS goes  a long way toward  protecting 
the civil
rights communities by preserving the core of NCLB, its reference to
accountability. However, it also recognizes  the Trojan Horse of 
standardized
testing as destructive, and redirects "accountability" toward a variety 
of
methods by which  to track student accomplishments.

My own hope is that the JOS will eventually call for a serioous look at 
much of
the racist texture of NCLB, i.e., that NCLB can and already has become 
a means
of continuing what it claims to have been created to cure.




pwmjoy@earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.