Re: facts

[Diane Aoki <dkeikoa@hawaii.rr.com>]

Unbelievable, the responses you can come up with.
> 
> And after six consecutive years of failing to make AYP, maybe children will be
> better off in a restructured school.  And that is the whole point, isn't it?
> 
So you didn¹t get the point about all other targets being met, except for
those disabled students. Better off? After being in America¹s Choice for now
two years, those students make progress, yes (they were progressing  before
AC 
as well) but AC did not have the magic to have them make the proficiency
benchmarks.  
 
> What is astonishing about this, far more than the games being played around
> AYP, is the assertion that schools are being "penalized" by NCLB.

This shows how far removed from the reality of what is going on in the
public schools
 you are. And anyone so far removed should not make claims about what is and
is not so.
 ³Restructuring² is doublespeak for failure. It is what it is. A school in
restructuring is
 marked as a failure, and private companies such as AC, Edison and
ETS-Pulliam now have a
door open to them to perform their magic tricks and take home a hefty
paycheck.

 >This should have been the start of tremendous improvements to schools that
need it most. 

Should have been (yes should have been but was not). Improvements ( who is
to say what is 
and is not an improvement.) There were changes, there were workshops where
teachers were 
taken out of their classrooms for a week at a time, there were more
observations made by
all kinds of people, there were tests and tests and tests, but I don¹t know
about improvements.
Of course there was some good. As a professional you are always seeking new
knowledge
 and better ways of reaching your students. This happens whether or not you
are in restructuring.


 This pernicious myth,
> that schools are being "punished" or "penalized" by NCLB, as if schools lose
> when children benefit,

That is the bottom line isn¹t it? The fact that the children are the ones
losing out, missing out
on a high quality education because the only thing that matters now is how
they do on the tests,
 never mind that we don¹t have time for PE, or Art, or Music, or technology,
or Social Studies,
 or even Science. A well-rounded education and a love of learning, is not in
the restructuring plan.
 
 poisons discussion of what would most help parents and
> children and is one of the most unfortunate, irresponsible and reprehensible
> of the many distortions spread about NCLB on this list.
>  
> Art
> 
Poison? Reprehensible? Strong words, and the pot calling the kettle black.
My reality is not a distortion,
 it is a reality of my life as a public school teacher subject to the
reality of the poison that is NCLB.