Re: FEA letter to House re: ESEA/NCLB discussion draft

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Leaving aside the sleight-of-hand that makes it look like 50 million Americans support the wacky positions of the FEA, calling NCLB a "test and punish" law is pure propaganda.? NCLB requires states to improve their schools and a lot of the resistance to NCLB from within public education is coming from people who do not want their boats rocked.? For all the happy talk in the FEA proposals, anything that rocks the status quo is going to meet resistance. That's the real problem that has to be confronted - not fake ones about "local assessments."?? Ridiculous proposals like giving schools that are in the deepest trouble more time to "implement" improvement plans just shows how out-of-touch FEA is with educational realities and the needs of parents and children.? We should get going on these schools right away, not engage in the endless and superficial temporizing that the FEA wants to inflict on parents and children who need relief the most.? 
?


 Art


-----Original Message-----
From: Monty Neill <monty@fairtest.org>
To: care@yahoogroups.com; arn2-strategy <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>; ARN-L <arn-l@interversity.org>; ARN-state@yahoogroups.com; authenticaccountability <authenticaccountability@yahoogroups.com>; ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 8:02 am
Subject: [arn-l] FEA letter to House re: ESEA/NCLB discussion draft 










Forum on Educational Accountability
http://www.edaccountability.org
                                                                         for 
further information:
                                                                      Dr. Monty 
Neill            (617) 864-4810
                                                                         or Bob 
Schaeffer     (239) 395-6773 

            for release Wednesday, September 5, 2007
ASSESSMENT REFORMERS SEEK DEEPER "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" CHANGES;
HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE DRAFT PRAISED FOR "VALUABLE INITIATIVES" 
BUT REMAINS TOO MUCH "A TEST-AND-PUNISH LAW"


     The Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA) today called on the U.S. 
House Education Committee to make "more significant changes" in its rewrite of 
the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law so that it can "fulfill its goal 
of ensuring all children succeed in high-quality schools." FEA seeks to 
implement the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB, now signed by 139 national 
education, civil rights, religious, disability, parent, civic and labor groups 
with more than 50 million members.
    In a letter delivered to all members of the House of Representatives, FEA 
applauded the decision to circulate a discussion copy of proposed revisions and 
announced its support for several key provisions of the committee's draft, 
including:
     - authorizing states to use valid and reliable local assessments as part of 
their state assessment systems and a pilot project to help states develop such 
assessments;
     - allowing states to use indicators other than only reading and math scores 
in determining school and district progress; and
     - reforming the school improvement process to provide more assistance and 
give schools more time to implement necessary changes once they adopt an 
improvement plan.
    But FEA cited the recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll demonstrating that the 
U.S. public seeks fundamental reforms in NCLB, concluding, "The Committee draft 
falls short of that goal by:
     - overemphasizing testing at the expense of improving teaching and 
learning;
     - continuing to rely on sanctions that have no evidence they will be 
successful; and
     - paying too little attention to correcting NCLB's perverse incentives, 
which narrow curriculum and reduce education to test-prep, especially for the 
"left behind" groups."
    The FEA letter continued, "The law, while improved, would remain too much a 
test-and-punish law" and recommended a number of additional changes including:
     - Replacing the goal that nearly all students score "proficient" by 2014 
and the Adequate Year Progress mandate based on it - targets that nearly all 
experts agree are impossible to attain - with an accountability approach based 
on implementing systemic changes that will improve teaching and learning while 
holding schools accountable for improving at a strong but reasonable rate; 
    - Increasing the weight given to indicators other than reading and math 
tests, so that schools will be supported in providing a comprehensive curriculum 
to educate the whole child;
      - Giving schools sufficient time to implement improvement plans before 
more drastic steps are taken;
      - Allowing districts and states more flexibility to develop effective 
solutions for schools that have not turned around since there is no strong 
evidence to support any of the required options for "redesign;" and
      - Ensuring that sufficient funds are authorized so include all eligible 
children in Title I and to support the many improvement proposals in the law.             

      FEA will submit detailed proposals to implement these changes as well as 
improvements in provisions dealing with the assessment of students with 
disabilities and English language learners. 

- - 3 0 - -
* the letter to House Education Committee members, the Joint Statement on NCLB, 
a list of signers and other Forum on Educational Accountability documents are 
available online at www.edaccountabilty.org 






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