Don't tell me, the goal of 100 percent proficiency is to bamboozle
Americans into thinking that the public schools are failing, which will
send them into a frenzy of paying for private schools for the offspring of
the Busniness Roundtable. How could I not have seen that? Art
-----Original Message-----
From: gbracey1@verizon.net
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] "Zero Percent Chance" to Reach NCLB Target
Sometimes I think there's only one person who doesn't get it.
----- Original Message ----- From: <aburke5054@aol.com>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] "Zero Percent Chance" to Reach NCLB Target
> It's amazing how many people still don't get it. The goal of 100 percent
> > proficiency is not simply a rhetorical flourish or an inspirational
> appeal > to a generalized American can-doism. The goal of 100 percent
> proficiency > is supposed to spur states to improve their schools. Many
> people seem > unable to see the forest of school improvement for the
> trees of students' > test scores.
>
> Art
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bobschaeffer@earthlink.net
> To: arn-l@interversity.org; arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 4:56 AM
> Subject: [arn-l] "Zero Percent Chance" to Reach NCLB Target
>
> "NO CHILD" TARGET IS CALLED OUT OF REACH
>
> GOAL OF 100% PROFICIENCY DEBATED AS CONGRESS WEIGHS RENEWAL
> Washington Post -- March 14, 2007 -- Page One
> by Amit R. Paley
>
> No Child Left Behind, the landmark federal education law, sets a lofty >
> standard: that all students tested in reading and math will reach grade
> > level by 2014. Even when the law was enacted five years ago, almost no
> one > believed that standard was realistic.
>
> But now, as Congress begins to debate renewing the law, lawmakers and >
> education officials are confronting the reality of the approaching >
> deadline and the difficult political choice between sticking with the >
> vision of universal proficiency or backing away from it.
>
> "There is a zero percent chance that we will ever reach a 100 percent >
> target," said Robert L. Linn, co-director of the National Center for >
> Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA. "But >
> because the title of the law is so rhetorically brilliant, politicians
> are > afraid to change this completely unrealistic standard. They don't
> want to > be accused of leaving some children behind."
>
> The debate over the perfection standard encapsulates the key arguments
> for > and against No Child Left Behind.
>
> Critics, including some teachers unions and many testing experts, view
> the > law as a forced march toward an impossible education nirvana. They
> are > lobbying Congress to reduce the 100 percent target and delay the
> 2014 > deadline. They are also pushing for the elimination of
> sanctions -- which > can cost millions of dollars and result in school
> takeovers -- that school > systems face for failing to make yearly
> progress toward the goal.
>
> But critics face an uphill challenge because of the rhetorical power of
> > the argument for a universal proficiency target and a deadline.
> Anything > less, advocates say, will hurt children, especially society's
> most > vulnerable: poor and minority students.
>
> "We need to stay the course," U.S. Deputy Education Secretary Raymond >
> Simon said. "The mission is doable, and we don't need to back off that >
> right now."
>
> President Bush is pushing this year for reauthorization of one of his
> top > domestic programs. In a joint House-Senate hearing yesterday,
> senior > Democrats and Republicans said they would work toward renewal
> of the law. > But in interviews in the days before the hearing, some key
> lawmakers said > that universal proficiency is all but impossible to
> meet.
>
> "The idea of 100 percent is, in any legislation, not achievable," said >
> Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate education >
> committee. "There isn't a member of Congress or a parent or a student
> that > doesn't understand that."
>
> Kennedy added that the law's universal proficiency standard served to >
> inspire students and teachers. But "it's too early in the process to >
> predict whether we'll consider changes" to the 2014 deadline, he said.
>
> Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. education secretary and >
> supporter of the law, said Americans don't want politicians to lower >
> standards.
>
> "Are we going to rewrite the Declaration of Independence and say only 85
> > percent of men are created equal?" Alexander asked. "Most of our
> politics > in America is about the disappointment of not meeting the
> high goals we > set for ourselves."
>
> Foes and supporters alike praise the law for drawing attention to
> student > achievement gaps. The law requires testing for all students in
> reading and > math from grades 3 through 8 and once in high school; it
> also requires > reporting of scores for groups of students including
> racial and ethnic > minorities, those from low-income families, those
> with limited English > skills and those with disabilities who receive
> special education.
>
> But testing experts say there are vast academic differences among
> children > of the same racial or socioeconomic background. Countries
> with far less > racial diversity than the United States still find wide
> variations in > student performance. Even in relatively homogenous
> Singapore, for example, > a world leader in science and math tests, a
> quarter of the students tested > are not proficient in math, and 49
> percent fall short in science.
>
> "Most people are afraid that once you acknowledge this variation, then
> you > have to tolerate major inequities between black and white
> students," said > Daniel Koretz, a Harvard University education
> professor. "That's not > necessarily true, but that's why the political
> world does not really > address the issue."
>
> Although no major school system is known to have reached 100 percent >
> proficiency, Education Department officials pointed to individual
> schools > across the country that have reached the standard as evidence
> that it is > possible. In Virginia, schools have achieved universal
> proficiency on > reading and math tests 45 times since 2002, officials
> said.
>
> The only school they cited in the Washington region as having met that >
> mark was the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in
> > Fairfax County, a regional school with selective admissions. Principal
> > Evan M. Glazer said his school, which has an elite reputation, was
> hardly > a representative example. On whether the nation can replicate
> that > success, Glazer said: "I don't think it's very realistic."
>
> Fairfax County School Superintendent Jack D. Dale said it was "absurd"
> to > expect total proficiency, especially when federal officials require
> > immigrant children who have been in U.S. schools for little more than
> a > year to meet the standard. His 164,000-student system, the largest
> in the > Washington region, is sparring with the Education Department
> over the > immigrant testing rule.
>
> Dale and other critics of the law have called for No Child Left Behind
> to > measure the growth of students from year to year instead of
> expecting them > to meet fixed benchmarks. But Dale said he understood
> why federal > officials and lawmakers take a different view.
>
> "How can you publicly state it's okay to have some children not meet >
> standards?" Dale said. "Politically, you're committing suicide if you
> say > it."
>
> Some experts predict that states will weaken their definition of >
> proficiency to make it appear that all students are on track. The law >
> requires students to meet "challenging academic standards" but allows
> each > state to define proficiency on its own terms and design its own
> tests.
>
> Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who voted against the law in 2001 and >
> remains a leading critic, derided the universal proficiency standard. >
> "It's just like a communist country saying that they used to have 100 >
> percent participation in elections," Hoekstra said. "You knew it wasn't
> > true, but a bureaucrat could come up with that answer. And that's what
> > will happen here."
>
> Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), ranking Republican on the House
> > education committee, said the 2014 deadline forces educators to pay >
> attention to each student. He said he is open to slight changes in the
> law > to exempt certain students with disabilities from the proficiency
> > requirement. But he said he won't back down from the law's core ideal,
> > citing his own six children and 28 grandchildren. "Which one of them
> would > I like to leave behind?" McKeon asked.
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301781_2.html
>
> ------------------------------------------------ > Direct list questions
> to listmom@interversity.net
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free >
> from AOL at AOL.com.
>
------------------------------------------------
Direct list questions to listmom@interversity.net
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.