Re: NCLB on YouTube

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

Thanks Elsa.  In my feedback to the producers, I mentioned the "systems 
approach" comment, too.

Jerry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ElsaHaas" <ElsaHaas@si.rr.com>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 11:00 PM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] NCLB on YouTube


Jerry,

Overall, I liked it.

The sixth-grade girl pauses and looks off at someone/something on the side
for so long that it might look to some that she's getting a cue for what
she's going to say next.

I also think that you might need at least one kid who speaks about what it
feels like to be tested. Some kids throw up over testing. Could you find a
kid to talk about that, rather than just about whether testing is going to
prepare kids for the future? That ends up being a speculation (and one that
might have come to the kid from some adult). The strength of an interview
with a younger child lies in the "insider's view" they have of reality,
rather than theory.

You say that there will be more interviews of students in other versions, so
maybe this is already being thought about.

I also thought there was a mismatch at one point (near the beginning, just
after you were standing in front of that "little red schoolhouse" - a great
visual, I thought) between the words on the screen (about the goal of 100%
proficiency by 2014), and what you were saying at the same time (about the
goal being to eliminate the achievement gap by 2014). This was just after
you said something about NCLB being one of the weirdest laws ever.

I think it is truly weird that anyone would ever imagine that every single
child will be proficient by 2014. I think it's also weird that anyone would
ever imagine that there will be no more achievement gap by 2014. But the two
things are different, and I think the first one gets lost because of the
mismatch.

I especially liked what one woman said about imagining what's going to
happen when these kids who have grown up learning to fill in the bubbles
then have to face the real world and think outside of the bubble/box.

Last thing: there was a one-liner about NCLB not being a systems approach to
solving a systems problem. I don't think most people will know what that
means (I don't). Maybe what follows this statement explains it by example,
but I didn't get it.

Elsa Haas

-----Original Message-----
From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org [mailto:arn-l-owner@interversity.org] On
Behalf Of GERALD BRACEY
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 1:11 PM
To: eddra@yahoogroups.com; LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com;
arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: [arn-l] NCLB on YouTube

There is now a 9:25 video about NCLB at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTzLILQx3c
.  It was produced by a Fairfax County teacher, Katie Keier, and a
videographer friend, Joe Landreth.  Let us know what you think--I'm sure
constructive feedback will be welcome.  My initial understanding was that it
was to dispel ignorance about what the law actually said, and I spent my
time talking about the law's contents.  The video has me talking about AYP,
100% proficiency, and the choice option, but it seems to me it came out more
talking about the law's impacts which are not necessarily functions of the
law's provisions--e.g., test scores arriving late, high performing students
using the choice option, etc.

Other versions are anticipated which make more use of interviews with
students.  Katie and Joe are on the EDDRA list so they'll automatically see
anything that turns up there.  I can relay anything from LFA or ARN.

Jerry