FW: FairTest letter in response to Nation article

["Lisa Guisbond" <lisa.guisbond@verizon.net>]

Here's the letter FairTest submitted to the Nation in response to the cover
story on NCLB by Linda Darling-Hammond et el.

 

Lisa Guisbond

 

 

Would that Congress had consulted Linda Darling-Hammond, Pedro Noguera,
Velma Cobb and Deborah Meier when drafting No Child Left Behind ("Evaluating
'No Child Left Behind,' May 21). They lay out a powerful case for why NCLB
needs fundamental reform if it is to help us "pay off the educational debt
to disadvantaged students that has accrued over centuries of unequal access
to quality education." 

 

Darling-Hammond cites the work of the Forum on Educational Accountability
(FEA) in building a consensus for a new NCLB that would shift "the law's
emphasis . from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to
holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes
that improve student achievement." The Joint Statement on NCLB has been
signed by 121 education, civil rights, religious, disability and civic
organizations, a constituency of more than 50 million people. These voices
are beginning to be heard, but much more must be done. 

 

Already Congressional committees are starting to write legislation. Now is
the time to act. Contact your U.S. Senators and Representative today. Tell
them NCLB should not be reauthorized until its serious flaws are fixed. Ask
them to contact the Education Committee and press for adoption of the FEA's
legislative recommendations.

 Rather than just test and punish, the new federal law proposed by FEA
would:

 

.       Improve schools through high-quality professional development for
teachers and administrators. 

.     Involve parents more deeply in school improvement, and enable families
to better participate in their children's education.

.     Continue to assess and report student learning, but based on multiple
measures, not just test scores. Expectations for achievement would be
realistic, based on rates of improvement actually achieved by schools.
Targeted assistance would replace sanction.

 

More specifics and materials you can use are available at the FEA's web
site,  <http://www.edaccountability.org/> http://www.edaccountability.org.

 

Monty Neill, Ed.D.
Co-Executive Director
FairTest
342 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-864-4810    fax 617-497-2224
monty@fairtest.org
http://www.fairtest.org
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