Re: Linda Darling Hammond's article

["PRISCILLA GUTIERREZ" <pgutpgut@msn.com>]

If only the stinking feds would let them...



Priscilla Gutierrez
Outreach Specialist
New Mexico School for the Deaf

...change is inevitable, growth is optional...





> From: aburke5054@aol.com
> Reply-To: arn-l@interversity.org
> To: arn-l@interversity.org
> Subject: Re: [arn-l] Linda Darling Hammond's article
> Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 23:20:37 -0400
>
>  LDH has many things wrong, not the least of which is claiming that NCLB 
> is not about fundamental reform of the schools. The truth is that NCLB 
> assumes that the states will make the changes that the schools need. If 
> states aren't doing what they need to do, it's far more appropriate and 
> constructive to get on their case directly than more and more tweaking of 
> federal education law. Congress should not be the National School Board and 
> the executive branch should not be the National Superintendent of Schools. 
> Look closer to home for solutions.
>
>  Art
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: pgutpgut@msn.com
>  To: literacyforall@yahoogroups.com; arn-l@interversity.org; 
> roundtable@stu.ca
>  Sent: Tue, 15 May 2007 11:35 AM
>  Subject: [arn-l] Linda Darling Hammond's article
>
>   Below is the link to an article she wrote that will appear in the May 
> 21st edition of The Nation. It is an excellent summary of what we SHOULD be 
> doing to improve education in this country, and how woefully inadequate 
> NCLB is because it has misdefined what the problem with American education 
> is.
>
>  Darling Hammond talks about the need to focus on investing rather than 
> testing, following the example of high-achieving countries. These countries 
> focus their curricula on critical thinking and problem solving using exams 
> that require students to conduct research, solve complex real-world 
> problems or to defend their ideas orally and in writing. The assessments 
> are used to evaluate curricula and guide investments in learning rather 
> than to rank or punish schools or deny students a diploma â?? several 
> countries actually prohibit this industrial assembly line practice.
>
>  She recommends that the federal government assist states in developing 
> systems for evaluating student progress that are performance-based, 
> embedded in the curriculum and that provides information that can actually 
> improve teaching and learning rather than just improve test scores.
>  Standardized testing cannot evaluate a student's reasoning skills nor 
> their critical thinking skills - asking students to demonstrate how they 
> apply what they've learned provides a much more compelling picture of what 
> they have learned and WHAT THEY CAN DO WITH THE LEARNING.
>
>  Darling Hammond also talks how NCLB fails to address the profound 
> educational inequities that are found across the country. High-spending 
> schools outperform low-spending schools 3-1 in most states, and severe 
> poverty in this country is at a 33 year high. The result is that often 
> schools who serve the neediest and the neediest themselves in terms of 
> resources and support. Gloria Ladson-Billings is quoted as saying, â??the 
> problem we face is less an achievement gap than an educational debt that 
> has accumulated over centuries of denied access to education and 
> employment, reinforced by deepening poverty and resource inequalities in 
> schools.â??
>
>  This is POWERFUL reading and each of us should send the article to our 
> local legislators and policy makers in Washingtonâ?¦
>
>
>  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/darling-hammond
>
>
>
>  Priscilla Gutierrez
>  Outreach Specialist
>  New Mexico School for the Deaf
>
>  ...change is inevitable, growth is optional...
>
>
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