Re: NCLB in Indian Country

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Here's a summary excerpt.

---

No Child Left Behind: Overview of Hearing Results

Witnesses agree that holding schools and school districts accountable  
for results is apositive aspect of No Child Left Behind. Some, noting  
the historic failure of schools, find this emphasis a welcomed change.  
These same witnesses however believe that the statute despite its title  
has not accomplished that result for a number of reasons and may in  
fact, contrary to its claim, leave Native children behind. Witnesses  
identified many areas of the statute that do not fit or respond to the  
unique situations of Native communities and schools, particularly those  
communities and schools located in rural areas of the country.

Many witness identified what could generally be labeled the unintended  
consequences of the statute that has resulted in major disruptions to  
the education systems, that may fundamentally alter the education  
potential of schools while significantly and coincidentally narrowing  
the broad public purposes of schools. This later concern is most  
directly related to the impacts of the statute upon culturally based  
education including the use of culturally appropriate pedagogy and  
curriculum that is connected to the social, cultural, and linguistic  
heritage of the children, the role of Tribal governments and Native  
communities and parents in determining the education purposes of  
schools and the role of teachers, parents and community members in the  
education lives of Native students.

This concern regarding the public purposes of education isn’t  
exclusively a Native language and culture concern, as a number of  
witnesses also noted that the impact of NCLB has also affected what is  
known as the liberal arts including such traditional subjects as music,  
literature, and the arts. The focus on testing and accountability  
combined with insufficient funding has in the opinion of witnesses  
eliminated the ability of schools to focus on the broader public  
purposes education.    Witnesses had varying opinions about why such an  
occurrence was negative. These areas of study have long been associated  
with providing an opportunity to connect education to the lives of  
students in their communities. Some witnesses felt that the focus on  
testing and little else had resulted in an educational environment that  
had become increasingly boring and disconnected from student lives and  
a sense of futureconnected to being in school. Other witnesses focused  
on the punitive and punishing environment created with in schools by  
the focus on testing and the NCLB system of accountability. Some  
identified how students were now the focus of blame for schools not  
accomplishing results. A tribal leader in this regardidentified a  
specific incident of how an individual student was caused to believe  
that he was the reason why the school had failed to Annual Yearly  
Progress (AYP). Some considered that even if achievement results were  
improved for a school, that the effect was to increase the drop out  
rate of students.

A similar effect is noted for teachers and education professionals.  
Witnesses either speaking on behalf of teachers and educators or on  
their own behalf felt that the effect of NCLB was driving teachers and  
educators out of the field increasing the teacher turnover rates. This  
was particularly harmful for schools with high percentages of Native  
students as they already have significantly high teacher turnover  
rates.

There was a congruent view between the curricular impacts of NCLB and  
how teachers were impacted. Consistent with the definition of Highly  
Qualified for teachers within the statute, witnesses expressed concern  
that teachers were not expected by the statute to be able to teach as a  
skill as an aspect of being highly qualified particularly as it  
affected teaching linguistic and culturally unique students. These  
specific concerns were linked by a few witnesses familiar with the most  
recent efforts at standards based school reform and saw in such prior  
efforts a sense of hope for improvement in schools particularly with  
the poor and linguistic and cultural minorities. Such witnesses viewed  
the combination of the NCLB accountability system and lack of funding  
as primarily undoing the successful progress and accomplishment of  
standards based reform over the past few years. Other aspects of  
standards based school reform that invest in improvement are viewed to  
be eliminated or deemphasizing the other aspects of standards based  
school reform that invested in improvement in favor of testing and the  
overall punitive approach of NCLB. Noting that the accountability  
system is flawed by focusing on year to year school results on  
standardized tests rather then focusing on individual student  
continuous progress and measuring schools accordingly a number of  
witnesses expressed dismay at the one size fits all approach and system  
that is not flexible and does not invest in improvement.


On Mar 7, 2006, at 10:06 AM, Bob Schaeffer wrote:

> The National Indian Education Association has released a preliminary  
> report on "No Child Left Behind in Indian Country," based on a series  
> of hearings around the country:
>
> http://www.niea.org/sa/uploads/policyissues/ 
> 29.23.NIEANCLBreport_final2.pdf
>
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