Re: Information on NCLB

[ABurke5054@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/11/2004 6:00:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
gkc@louisville.edu writes:
I thought the members of this list might be interested in this useful
information about NCLB.  Many here have misconceptions about this law. ...

Years ago, the rules in effect at that time required a "committee of 
practitioners" in each district to set a goal for Title I students.  I was working as 
a techincal advisor to one such committee.  The Title I teachers comprising 
the committee voted to set the lowest possible goal for their kids because, they 
said, if they set a more ambitious goal, and the kids did not make it, they 
would be blamed for that.  There was no discussion about whether they really 
would be blamed, nor, blame or not, whether setting a low goal for the kids was 
the right thing to do for them.  The administrator chairing the meeting voiced 
no objections nor concerns.  I was astonished by the entire proceeding.  The 
only ripple on the event horizon occured when the minutes circulated.  (I 
wrote the minutes and I called it just as it happened).  The ripple was a small 
one:  a few committee members wanted to know who got to see the minutes.  That 
was all that came of that.   

This law, in its various incarnations, been on the books since 1965.  Over 
all these years,  when all the education establishment had to do was take the 
money and keep the doors closed, never once did anyone claim that the law was 
destroying childhood or undermining public education.  Now comes NCLB, which 
opens the door a bit on decisions that used to be kept secret, and the war is on. 
 
 
Art