Leading the Way

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Less than three years ago, some of the members of this list helped the 
National Education Association take its first steps to oppose the testing 
provisions in the Bush-Kennedy-Miller revision of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act. Now NEA has become so vocal about flaws in ESEA 
that standardistas sometimes treat all opposition as if it were inspired by 
the union. See, for example, today's New York Times editorial, for which 
Kevin Callahan posted the URL earlier 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/opinion/02TUE1.html?th>.

The first article in the March 2004 issue of NEA Today continues the 
union's criticism of the law.

*
Leading the Way
Broken Promises
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0403/leading.html

After two years, it's more clear than ever that 'No Child Left 
Behind'?without adequate funding?spells disaster for schools.

January brought the two-year anniversary of the revised Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act (ESEA)?dubbed "No Child Left Behind." But millions 
of teachers and education support professionals were in no mood for 
confetti and noisemakers.

NEA President Reg Weaver spent much of January hearing about?and commenting 
on?the damaging effects of ESEA, which has created a new layer of testing 
bureaucracy and resulted in thousands of schools being negatively labeled.

In Birmingham, Alabama, Weaver visited four Jefferson County schools. 
Educators there told a familiar story: ESEA has created new mandates for 
testing, accountability, and teacher quality, while local schools are 
struggling with increased budget shortfalls.

Afterward, noting that large numbers of Alabama teachers and support 
professionals may be laid off this spring, Weaver told reporters covering 
his visit that Alabama and other states are being hit with new ESEA 
mandates even as they're being socked by budget deficits. While emphasizing 
that NEA supports the goal of raising achievement for all children, Weaver 
said the federal government hasn't provided the support for school systems 
to successfully implement the new law.

"The problem with the so-called No Child Left Behind law is that it's 
difficult if not impossible to implement," Weaver said in the evening news 
broadcast on WVTM-13, Birmingham's NBC affiliate.

Returning home from Alabama, Weaver fired off an op-ed in response to a USA 
Today editorial that criticized NEA's stance on ESEA. "Voters worry about 
the law's one-size-fits-all testing requirements and the resulting 
bureaucracy and paperwork, which this law dumps on states and schools to 
historical highs," Weaver penned. "What it doesn't provide are funds for 
what will truly make a difference: small class sizes, quality teachers and 
support professionals, and up-to-date books and materials."

One day after his op-ed was published, Weaver kicked off a news briefing at 
NEA headquarters to release additional evidence of the public's backing for 
a stronger, more substantial federal role in supporting public school 
systems and schools.

In a bipartisan poll commissioned by NEA, two-thirds of voters said the 
federal government should be spending more on the nation's schools. The 
same poll, a survey of 1,005 registered voters, found that 81 percent said 
schools should be given more time to meet new ESEA standards if the federal 
government fails to provide the funds promised in the law.

Another NEA study released at the briefing found that nearly 60 percent of 
the 8.5 million children eligible for Title I-A programs in FY 2003 went 
unserved, because lawmakers have not come up with the necessary funds. 
Overall, ESEA federal spending fell $32.6 billion short of what was 
required to reach every child.

With Weaver at the briefing were seventh-grade English teacher Linda 
Hodgson of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Eastover, South Carolina, Principal 
Dorothy Ham. They gave reporters an earful about how ESEA has made things 
tougher?not better?for their students.

Hodgson said South Mountain Middle School, where she teaches, has carved 90 
minutes a week out of the curriculum to practice for tests. "I no longer 
get the time I'd like to teach Twain and Shakespeare to students." Truancy 
and violence at the school also are on the rise, Hodgson said, because of 
an influx of students being transferred in based on yet another provision 
of ESEA.

Allentown is a tough place to work, but Hodgson said, "It's where I'm 
needed the most, so it's where I'll stay."

Hodgson and other educators deserve greater support, however. Educators 
"need the flexibility and the resources to ensure that No Child Left Behind 
is more than empty rhetoric," Weaver said.

?John O'Neil

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. - Annie 
Sullivan