Re: Fwd: Article from CongressNow on NCLB - mentions FEA- see below

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Secretary Spellings has spoken movingly on many occasions about committing American public education to erasing gaps between children in important knowledge and skills and about the importance of remaining faithful to that commitment.? Surely she can be excused for her imprecise language about all children achieving "grade level proficiency."

NCLB holds a very clear and direct vision for public education:? Set the same high standards for all children, test them with the same tests, and improve schools where children are falling behind.? That seems to me both bedrock common-sense? sound and consistent with where we've been going with civil rights in this country since the 50s and before.? I can make very little sense out of most of what FairTest and the FEA propose.? They seem completely unaware of what is actually in NCLB;? some of the things they propose as new have in fact been in NCLB from the start.? Be that as it may, if we're not making enough progress under NCLB, the reasons have very little to do with the tests or how they are being used, despite what FairTest and the FEA say and believe.? And federal education law is not the right vehicle for advancing the mishmash of things that FEA proposes? - all that would do would create a full employment act for professional development developers, teacher-directed assessment directors, capacity-building builders, parent-involvement involvers, and accountability-loophole loopholers.



 Art


-----Original Message-----
From: Tauna Rogiers <taunar@plateautel.net>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 6:22 pm
Subject: Re: [arn-l] Fwd: Article from CongressNow on NCLB - mentions FEA- see below









Please forgive me but I find Sec. Spellings response to the FEA's 
recommendations outrageous. But of course what should I have expected! See 
her press release I sent in separate post. Among other ridiculous things, 
she says,?
?

"As we work with Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, we 
must keep our eye on the ball: ensuring that all students achieve grade 
level proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Unfortunately, the report 
released today by the Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA) shifts the 
focus from results to excuses."?
?

She continues to demand that all students must achieve grade level 
proficiency iin reading and math by 2014. Is this woman that dumb/ignorant, 
or am I the one? Am I wrong that the concept of grade level is simply an 
average and that by definition, half of all students will be below grade 
level? And given that all measurable human attributes and abilities vary 
enormously and fall along a continuum, the only possible way to reach  100% 
proficiency is to define and set proficiency so low that it would be 
meaningless.?
?

Anyway, thanks for your tremendous efforts Monty, et al.  Being attacked by 
Spellings, Ed Trust, and Aspen is a compliment.?
?

Tauna?
?
 


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