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Fwd: George Miller
- To: arn-l@interversity.org
- Subject: Fwd: George Miller
- From: Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:39:32 -0700
Posted to the ca-resisters list...
From: Harold Berlak <hberlak@yahoo.com>
Betty Jones is president of Oakland Teachers Association
Begin forwarded message:
From: Betty Olson-Jones <bolsonjo@yahoo.com>
Date: September 9, 2007 10:08:57 PM PDT
To: Oakland Teachers <oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net>
Subject: George Miller
A few weeks ago I heard that George Miller would be
speaking at a luncheon in Concord. What piqued my
interest, other than perhaps having the opportunity to
question our NCLB champ in person, was that this event
was co-sponsored by KB Homes. KB Homes, in turn, was
founded by none other than Eli Broad... the "great
education philanthropist" and non-friend of labor.
So I went, on August 29th, to hear George speak to a
crowded room of business types and union
representatives at the Concord Council. His speech
will be televised on Channel 26 (CCTV) on September 10
and 12.
In a nutshell, George acknowledged that there has been
a great furor against the unfair mandates of NCLB, but
he insisted that most agree with its high
expectations, standards, assessment, and
accountability. Key points:
1) He acknowledged that you can't base success on one
test, and yet that's what has happened. So he's
proposing additional, multiple measures. Under the
current law, a school can make AYP and yet have a 40%
dropout rate, so he wants to insert graduation rates
(and said this was a project of the Business
Roundtable).
2) If a school fails massively, it needs severe
intervention. With others, there needs to be targeted,
smart intervention.
3) Regarding "highly qualified teachers," he
acknowledged that the teacher is the "center of the
universe" along with the principal. He wants some
linkage with unions and performance pay, as in Denver.
At this point, he noted that in New Orleans, the one
good thing to come out of Hurricane Katrina was that
it "got rid of the school district, and now we have
the greatest collection of public charter schools in
the country." (What?!?)
4) Money is a problem, so we need to invest in
public-private partnerships with business, to change
the dynamics of the American school system. Why? We've
been warned by global corporations that to keep the US
competitive, companies need workers who can work
across companies, cultures, countries -- they have to
do more collaboratively. "It's not about drill and
kill or memorization; the guiding word for education
is engagement." (And all this time, we've been told
that NCLB is about scripted learning and teaching to
the test!!!)
So after George talked at length about his intention
to make NCLB more flexible, he allowed a few
questions. I was able to ask him about "performance
pay." I said that there was strong opposition from
teachers across the country to receiving bonuses based
on student test scores, and I asked why he would
support putting money into measuring effectiveness by
test scores instead of supporting proven ways to
increase student learning, such as reduced class
sizes, increasing teacher collaboration time, fully
supporting classrooms with sufficient personnel, etc.
He responded very defensively, saying that he was
paying attention to all of those issues. Although
allowing that "performance pay" wouldn't work without
proper design, he said it was being done in a variety
of cities, and that only a small % was tied to student
scores. But he then went on to say that there's a new
coterie of teachers who are voting with their feet and
supporting performance pay, and that not everyone
"pulls their weight" in the classroom.
In summary, I think it's high time that CTA dropped
its support of George Miller as far as his stand on
NCLB goes. He's too tied to his original legislation,
and he doesn't get that this is harming our most needy
students.
Betty
Betty Olson-Jones
OEA President
(510) 763-4020 x15
272 E. 12th Street
Oakland, CA 94606
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