Re: [arn-l Digest] Vol. 3 No. 235 Messages: 6

["Wilson Terry" <twilson@hays489.k12.ks.us>]

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frank----------Have you read it?  Any insights?

-----Original Message-----
From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org [mailto:arn-l-owner@interversity.org] 
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:23 AM
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: [arn-l Digest] Vol. 3 No. 235 Messages: 6

ARN-L Daily Digest 
Volume 3 : Issue 235 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  200609/25 : Re: another Chicago hero
    Monty Neill
  200609/26 : Re: another Chicago hero
    ABurke5054
  200609/27 : Re: another Chicago hero
    ABurke5054
  200609/29 : Re: another Chicago hero
    Csubstance
  200609/28 : Leave All Children Behind
    qcao009
  200609/30 : College Board's Math Doesn't Add Up -- Drop in Test Retaking Doesn't
 Explain SAT Score Decline
    Bob Schaeffer

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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:15:47 -0400
From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>
To: "ARN-L" <arn-l@interversity.org>
Subject: Re: another Chicago hero
Message-ID: <00f301c6d1c7$559fc930$8201a8c0@Monty>

McGrael was active in the successful opposition at Curie High to Chicago's horrendous CASE exams - the ones George Schmidt printed in Substance - the refusal at Curie to comply with the tests led to the abandonment by CPS of the tests - but not to reinstating George.

Why reply to Art? Well, actually, it did occur to me that the children turned away have to go somewhere... but Marty's refusal highlights how CPS fails to provide so many children with adequate learning opportunities (and Illinois deserves its share of blame for being probably the most unequal state in the nation in terms of funding)- but finds money for privatization, "Renaissance 2010," brain-dead "benchmark" tests and grade retention. It takes courage to be in a system and stand up to it - read Marty's quote and it is clear he knows what he is doing, exposing the malfeasance of a corrupt system. 

Monty


Monty Neill, Ed.D.
Executive Director
FairTest
342 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-864-4810    fax 617-497-2224
monty@fairtest.org
http://www.fairtest.org
Donate: https://secure.entango.com/servlet/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:14:15 EDT
From: ABurke5054@aol.com
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: another Chicago hero
Message-ID: <26a.4f1fa580.32303fc7@aol.com>

 
In a message dated 9/5/2006 7:28:25 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
jpbottini@adelphia.net writes:

Look at the practical for one time.
 
Those that urge 40 kids to a class are denying them their legal right to  a 
fair and equal opportunity for an education.
 
Attack them, not the result of their dumb mandates.
 



_________________________________________________________
Joe ... What is "practical" about turning away kids who have a  legal right 
to enroll?  Do you think the parents and kids who were  turned away think the 
principal's action was "practical" and that getting turned  away from the 
schoolhouse door somehow advanced their right to an  education?  For a principal to 
turn away children who have a legal  right to enroll is an outrage and 
invites all kinds of abuse.  You  should have learned that from the history of  
segregation.  Does it occur to you that after the children were  enrolled, the 
district might provide additional teachers or make other  arrangements to deal 
with the additional kids, or that maybe the kids and  teachers would cope with 
the larger classes and do fine, or that the  larger good of getting kids in 
school trumps the inconvenience of  enrolling more kids, and that all of these 
are practical and important  lessons in democracy?
 
I have read some ridiculous stuff in here, but to applaud barring the  doors 
of the public schools to children who have a legal right to enroll  absolutely 
takes the cake.
 
Art


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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:27:01 EDT
From: ABurke5054@aol.com
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: another Chicago hero
Message-ID: <518.3ca5f800.323042c5@aol.com>

 
In a message dated 9/6/2006 7:14:19 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
monty@fairtest.org writes:

Why reply to Art? Well, actually, it did occur to me  that the children 
turned away have to go somewhere... but Marty's refusal  highlights how CPS fails 
to provide so many children with adequate  learning opportunities (and Illinois 
deserves its share of blame for  being probably the most unequal state in the 
nation  in terms of funding)- but finds money for privatization,  
"Renaissance 2010," brain-dead "benchmark" tests and grade retention. It takes  courage 
to be in a system and stand up to it - read Marty's quote and it is  clear he 
knows what he is doing, exposing the malfeasance of a corrupt system.  



__________________________________________________________
Nice that it occured to you that the children Marty turned away have to go  
somewhere.  I'm sure the parents and kids are rejoicing over that.   What is 
clear about this is that to you and "Marty" kids are just pawns in  a wacky war 
against "privatization, Renaissance 2010" and of  course tests.  Turning the 
kids away didn't help them and maybe it is  hurting them greatly.  Do you 
really expect us to believe that if your  children were turned away from the school 
because the principal didn't want the  bother of enrolling them, you would be 
applauding the principal for  "exposing the system"?  Silliest thing I have 
ever heard.  
 
Art



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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:28:09 EDT
From: Csubstance@aol.com
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: another Chicago hero
Message-ID: <c13.3c17e85.32306d39@aol.com>


In a message dated 9/6/06 9:14:19 AM, monty@fairtest.org writes:

<< Why reply to Art? Well, actually, it did occur to me that the children 
turned away have to go somewhere... but Marty's refusal highlights how CPS fails 
to provide so many children with adequate learning opportunities (and Illinois 
deserves its share of blame for being probably the most unequal state in the 
nation in terms of funding)- but finds money for privatization, "Renaissance 
2010," brain-dead "benchmark" tests and grade retention.  >>

September 6, 2006

By early next week, I should have the September issue of Substance mailed. 
The lead story will be about Gage Park High School and all of the adjacent 
schools, in context.

The schools that turn away Chicago public school students are the charter 
schools, small schools, and "college prep" magnet high schools -- all funded by 
the Chicago Board of Education -- which are allowed to set caps and quotas, and 
then force students to go to the city's remaining "general" high schools. 
Today, Chicago has two dozen public high schools that have begun classes and can 
turn away students, while more than 40 public high schools are being forced to 
take in students who arrive at any time. The people who are turning away 
students from public high schools in Chicago are not those who are trying to 
reduce the insanity of overcrowding, but those who -- with the blessings of Mayor 
Daley, the Chicago Board of Education, and the media cheerleaders for corporate 
"school reform" -- get to perpeatuate a system that deprives the majority of 
high school students (most of them, black and Hispanic) of the same privileges 
that are bestowed on the few. As this school year evolves, it's possible that 
some of my colleagues in the media will begin to take a closer look at the 
egregious inequities visited on the majority so that the "boutiques" can cater 
to a minority. But I doubt it, since Chicago is still living in the bubble of 
its own fantasy claims about the glories of "school reform" since Mayor Daley 
took over the school system in 1995. 

There has been no miracle in Chicago. The current blow up over the 
overcrowding of the general high schools is simply lifting the lid on a decade of 
hypocrisy and lies.

As those who have followed Chicago's machinations know, the creation of what 
the Tribune is now calling "boutique" public schools (mostly charter schools, 
but also a handful of magnet high schools that require high standardized test 
scores for admission) has led to increasing demographic pressure and 
scapegoating of the remaining general public high schools. The way it works in simple. 
While a minority of the city's public high schools (charters, "small schools", 
academic magnet college prep schools) are allowed to set a maximum enrollment 
and enforce it (thereby, turning away thousands every year), the remainder of 
the city's schools continue to function as true public high schools, taking 
in everyone. 

By tomorrow, Gage Park High School, at 56th and Rockwell in Chicago, will 
have an enrollment of a little under 2,000 students, in a building which (old) 
Board of Education reports say has a "capacity" of 1250 students, and which the 
new (cram 'em in) demographics claim has a "design capacity" of 1,400. Either 
way, Gage Park (and a number of surrounding general high schools, as opposed 
to boutique schools) will be furiously overcrowded.

Meanwhile, less than one and a half miles east and south of Gage Park High 
School, the "new" Lindblom College Prep High School (at 61st and Wolcott) will 
be running with fewer than 600 students. The Lindblom building will also house 
the 120 9th graders from the "Urban Prep Charter Academy", a new all-boys high 
school that's being hyped (among others) as part of Mayor Daley's 
"Renaissance 2010" reforms. The Lindblom building, which was recently rehabbed at a cost 
of more than $30 million, will house fewer than 1,000 students, and both 
"schools" inside the Lindblom building will fit comfortably inside. Both are also 
allowed to refuse admission to students above their cap.

According to the old capacity data, Lindblom was always able to house more 
than 2,000 students.

The issue that Marty McGreal was confronting directly was the simple one 
discussed regularly here: how some entities are getting privilege, while others 
are deprived. The Board of Education did not discipline Tim King (CEO of "Urban 
Prep" charter school, which is presently being hyped in the Chicago media, 
although it has just opened) or Alan Mather (principal of Lindblom) for refusing 
to take in additional students. 

In fact, last Thursday, the Gage Park Local School Council asked that space 
be made available in the Lindblom building for the extra Gage Park students 
(some of whom live within easy walking distance of Lindblom). It is the Board of 
Education that is locking out the majority of students from boutique schools, 
thereby forcing the principals and teachers in the remaining schools to accept 
the remaining public school students. 

I don't read Art Burke's rantings, as everyone here knows. But if Art Burke 
said anything snotty or nasty about Marty McGreal's stand on behalf of the 
children of Gage Park, he's lucky he's not here in Chicago. 

The teachers, parents, and students of Gage Park all know they are being 
screwed, and they know who is doing it to them. While their school is being 
overcrowded deliberately by the policy of the Daley administration, other schools 
nearby, housing the privileged "schools" created under Mayor Daley's fantasy 
school programs, are wallowing in space. 

School is now heading into its third day here in Chicago, and while the Gage 
Park teachers and students are scrambling for desks and books, the children of 
the privileged (and media reported, such as "Urban Prep") have already begun 
their school year. The Board of Education will continue to pour extra kids 
into Gage Park, which is already bursting at the seams. It is the mayor and the 
principals of Urban Prep and Lindblom who should be disciplined for violating 
the ethics of public education. They are the ones who are establishing the 
boutique schools and then forcing the masses into what's left.

Marty McGreal deserves the praise he's receiving. As people here know, it's 
personal for me, too. I was fired by the Chicago Board of Education from my 
28-year teaching job six years ago (August 2000) for publishing the nonsensical 
Chicago CASE tests. A year later, Marty, then an English teacher at Curie High 
School, joined with others to refuse to administer the CASE tests, and instead 
of continuing the confrontation (and risking the public eventually reading 
those goofy tests), Arne Duncan abolished CASE. This was after CPS (under Paul 
Vallas and Arne Duncan) had wasted more than $10 million on the CASE program 
(production, materials, etc.) and untold hours forcing high school teachers and 
students to do CASE.

Chicago continues to be one of the worst examples in the nation of the evils 
of "standards and accountability", just as we've been saying here since before 
"No Child Left Behind" exported the horrors to everyone. The hypocrisy and 
mendacity that have led Chicago's version of corporate "school reform" continue. 
Once again, teachers, students and parents are resisting part of that stuff. 
What's unusual this year is that a principal has had the courage to help lead 
that resistance (and risk a six-figure job in the process). 

The sadness is that so many Chicago principals have surrendered their 
principles in order to keep those six-figure jobs. One of the conditions of their 
employment is that they look the other way when faced with the atrocities of 
Mayor Daley's school reform. Some are called upon to actively participate in the 
worst travesties. I could list here dozens who have told me, over the past six 
years, how much they respect and admire me for standing up to what they know 
to be wrong. But Marty McGreal is still alone in actually taking a public stand 
with his teachers, parents, and students against these educational 
malpractices and hypocrisies. What is sad today is that Clarice Berry (head of the 
Chicago Principals and Administrators Association) is not publicly supporting 
Marty, putting the weight of her organization behind him. Equally sad is that the 
Chicago Teachers Union, whose members picketed Gage Park last Thursday, has to 
date remained silent about this problem.

I understand that there is at least one person on this list who, in his usual 
ignorance of the facts and rabid biases, chooses to insult Marty McGreal. 
He's lucky he's not in Chicago this week. We'd take him out to Gage Park and, 
with the help of the parents whose children are being stuffed into the school and 
the teachers who were picketing there last week, kick his dumb ass. 

Count on that. 

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

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Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:23:11 -0400
From: qcao009@aol.com
To: arn-l@interversity.org, fcarforum@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Leave All Children Behind
Message-ID: <8C89FE7E173AB78-15FC-1957@mblk-d49.sysops.aol.com>


The GOP's School Daze
Robert L. Borosage
September 06, 2006
Robert L. Borosage is co-director of the Campaign For America's Future.
Ideas have consequences. Perhaps the most important advice for students as they enter college this fall is to take ideas seriously. For proof, they need only to look at their own pocketbooks as their families struggle to pay for their college costs. Ideas—specifically, conservative ideas—put into practice are pricing college out of the reach of more and more working families.
The facts are not in dispute. Faced with rising costs and tight budgets, states across the country are cutting back on support for public universities and colleges. Colleges pass the costs onto students—tuitions are up an average of 40 percent since George W. Bush took office in 2000. College aid hasn’t kept up. The president has broken his campaign pledge to increase the size of Pell Grants, the basic federal scholarship program. More and more students are forced to go into debt to pay for college. Graduates of four-year schools this year will be burdened by an average of $23,600 in student loans and $2,000 in credit card debt. Yet, the conservative majority in Congress voted to cut $12 billion out of the student loan program this year, even as Congress hiked interest rates on college loans to students and parents. Costs are going up, even as hundreds of thousands of students are forced to forego college or drop out because they cannot afford the education that they need
  and have earned.
Conservatives—who dominate all branches of the federal government and many of the states—have contributed directly to this reality. They champion “smaller government and lower taxes.” Tax cuts—which primarily reward the wealthy—lower revenue and force cuts in government. But conservatives believe in a strong military, won’t dare touch entrenched corporate welfare programs that waste billions and can’t take on popular retirement programs like Medicare and Social Security. So the spending cuts come from domestic programs that benefit working and poor Americans—in education, the environment, child care, housing, schools or transportation.
Consider the fight over the FY2006 federal budget. Faced with record deficits—largely a result of tax cuts and rising military expenditures—conservatives called for more tax breaks for the very wealthy, including eliminating the estate tax that comes from the richest 8,000 families in America. At the same time they pushed cuts in domestic spending, with the largest single chunk being $12 billion slashed from the student loan program even as interest rates were hiked on college loans for parents or students.
Conservatives also champion privatization—arguing that markets work better than public programs. Their principles in this regard are fortified by their interests—as corporate lobbies lavish support on those legislators who defend their privileges. The current conservative majority—under the leadership of now disgraced Majority Leader Tom DeLay—drove the corruptions of pay-to-play politics to obscene levels. In the student loan program, this costs the country and students billions every year. The Clinton administration demonstrated that if the federal government provided loans directly to students, it could save more than $7 for every $100 loaned out, money that now goes to private banks that provide loans to students while enjoying a federal guarantee against default.
Banks mobilized against the threat of a rational public loan program, spending millions on lobbyists and campaign contributions. Educational lending institutions have contributed $3.5 million to legislators since the 2004 election, with more than 75 percent going to the Republican majority. More than $600,000 alone went to two men—Rep. John Boehner, the chair of the House education subcommittee and his successor, Rep. Buck McKeon. When student loan reauthorization came last year, Boehner, now the Republican House Majority leader, met with the Consumer Bankers Association and told them to “relax, stay calm, know that I have all of you in my two trusted hands.” Not surprisingly, direct public funding went nowhere, the banks’ position was protected, and interest rates were hiked on parents and students.
Ideas have consequences. America, which prospered while leading the world in public education, now is falling behind. Other advanced nations are pouring resources into providing the next generation with the education so vital to their futures. America no longer leads the world in providing higher education to its citizens. It ranks 13th in college affordability and 4th in accessibility among industrial countries.
The conservative mantra—lower taxes, smaller government, strong military, free markets—is poll-tested to appeal. But in translation the reality of that mantra brings us tax breaks for the wealthy, soaring college costs for the rest of us, and a crony capitalism that lavishes public benefit on corporate lobbies. The conservative ideology is now depriving thousands of students of the college education that they have earned, and weakening this country by serving a privileged class of corporate cronies. Meanwhile, we're failing to invest in the education of the next generation so vital for citizens in a modern democracy and for workers in a global economy.   
 
 
Quan
________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.


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Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:45:18 -0400
From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>
Subject: College Board's Math Doesn't Add Up -- Drop in Test Retaking Doesn't
 Explain SAT Score Decline
Message-ID: <44FF173E.205@earthlink.net>

At last week's news conference announcing annual SAT scores, the College 
Board issued a news release stating, "Much of the score difference this 
year can be attributed to this decline in the number of students 
retaking the test and gaining the advantage of a score increase."

That message was repeatedly echoed in published comments from Gaston 
Caperton, Wayne Camara, Caren Scoropanos and other senior College Board 
officials.

These statements are all demonstrably false.

This morning, College Board President Gaston Caperton received a letter 
from FairTest, which uses basic math to show that the reduction in the 
number of students taking the test multiple times does not account for 
even one point of this year's SAT score decline, let alone seven. You 
can check out the argument at:
                                        
                 
http://www.fairtest.org/univ/Score_Release_2006/Caperton_lttr_release.html

Once again, it appears that the College Board has failed to give 
counselors, admissions officers, the media and test-takers accurate 
information about serious problems with scores from the "new" SAT.

The real reasons for this year's SAT score decline have yet to be 
credibly explained.

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing


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End of [arn-l Digest] Vol. 3 No. 235 Messages: 6
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