Re: Good NCLB Letter in Washington Post

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Feingold simply does not understand NCLB (and probably not public education, for that matter).? Following "Brown" neighborhood schools in many places were not falling all over themselves to admit African-American students and if it were up to them those students would still be marching down the road to their separate schools.? I was moved by Madeline Will's testimony before the NCLB Commission - she testified as a mother of a child with special needs and as an officer of an organization that advocates for children with special needs - and she said that schools are paying more attention to the education of children with special needs because of NCLB.? For much the same reasons La Raza supports NCLB for the education of linguistic minority children.? Sometimes some "top-down" is precisely what we need and this explains the considerable support for NCLB in many quarters.? 



 Art


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>; arn2-strategy <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>; rethinkaccountdc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 5:25 am
Subject: [arn-l] Good NCLB Letter in Washington Post









PUTTING "NEIGHBORHOOD" BACK IN SCHOOLS?
?

Washington Post Letters-to-the-Editor?

June 18, 2007?
?

I read with interest Education Secretary Margaret Spelling's June 9 
op-ed, "A National Test We Don't Need." Ms. Spellings was right that 
states and localities are the ones that design the curriculum and pay 
most of the education bills. She was also correct that states and local 
school districts have historically had the primary leadership role in 
public education. That's why it's so hard to understand why she keeps 
promoting the No Child Left Behind law's top-down approach to education.?
?

The law has hamstrung state and local decision making by establishing a 
federal accountability system that measures and punishes students and 
schools on the basis of, among other things, annual high-stakes 
standardized testing. This is the wrong approach, and the groundswell of 
opposition to the law -- from parents, educators and administrators 
alike -- shows just how flawed it is. As Congress prepares to consider 
reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, we should listen to Ms. Spellings 
when she says, "Neighborhood schools deserve neighborhood leadership, 
not dictates from bureaucrats thousands of miles away."?
?

Russ Feingold?

U.S. Senator (D-Wis.)?
?




 


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