NCLB In Need of Repeal

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> rom: "Horn, James" <jhorn@monmouth.edu>
>
>
> If the U. S. Congress instituted a military 
> draft that included middle class children, the 
> War on Iraq would be over in a matter of months. 
> Parents and students just wouldn't accept it. We 
> will now see if the same holds true when it 
> comes to the war on public schools, as this 
> year's test scores bring suburban schools into 
> the mix of assured mass failure to meet the 
> unachievable goal of NCLB to have all children 
> at grade level in reading and math by 2014.
>
> So as school watch lists begin to include 
> suburban schools among the Federal failures, 
> rather than just the poor brown ones that didn't 
> warrant much of our attention during the past 
> four years, we will see if parents and students 
> are ready to say ENOUGH to the war on public 
> education that is claiming hundreds of thousands 
> of new casualties during each repeated testing campaign.
>
> Here is a story from the Star-Ledger that will 
> be repeated over and over and over again in 
> every state of the Union this Fall. In my own 
> adopted state of New Jersey, which has one of 
> the best public education systems in the 
> country, one in four schools failed in the last 
> round of testing to make Adequate Yearly 
> Progress under NCLB, a number that will increase 
> unless NCLB is ended next year:
>
>     One in four New Jersey public schools 
> failed last year to reach student test results 
> required under the federal No Child Left Behind 
> Act, with more than 50 schools now facing the 
> law's toughest sanctions yet, according to the state.
>
>     Released yesterday by the state Department 
> of Education, the 643 schools falling short in 
> 2005-06 are an improvement from the previous 
> year's total of more than 800 schools missing 
> the mark. But officials stressed any comparison 
> is difficult, due to technical changes in how the state identifies schools.
>
>     Either way, the law's sometimes-perplexing 
> rules require schools to have two successful 
> years to get off the lists, and that leaves 
> more than 1,000 New Jersey schools opening next 
> month with the unflattering label of either 
> being in "early warning" or "in need of improvement."
>
>     Many sit in urban and working class 
> districts that fare the worst under the law, 
> which requires students reach certain 
> proficiency levels each year. For instance, all 
> but five of Paterson's schools were tagged with one sanction or another.
>
>     Newark has 60 schools either on the list of 
> early warning or needing improvement, including 
> eight that must make major organizational 
> changes after six years of falling short, the law's penultimate penalty.
>
>     At least four of those are getting new 
> principals, and others will see new grade 
> structures or other reorganizations, district 
> officials said. The district's teachers union 
> has proposed taking one school under its own wing.
>
>     "In the last week, we've had lots of 
> conversations around these eight schools," said 
> superintendent Marion Bolden. "All of this is new to everybody."
>
>     Yet suburban districts are increasingly 
> dealing with the controversial law's 
> consequences as well, and those are sure to 
> continue as the law's requirements ramp higher in coming years.
>
>     Piscataway has three middle schools at 
> various junctures in the law's sanctions, two 
> on the "early warning" list after falling short 
> one year and one deemed in "need of 
> improvement" after four years of missing the mark.
>
>     In most cases, superintendent Robert 
> Copeland said that raising special education 
> scores continues to be the greatest challenge 
> under a law that demands students with 
> disabilities do just as well as those without.
>
>     Copeland said he applauds that aim, but 
> hopes the public looks beyond just the lists to 
> see the progress being made in the district. . .
>
> And the PDK/Gallup Poll show that, indeed, the 
> public beginning to understand that this war 
> against their schools is of the same type as the 
> one in Iraq: it is a war of choice rather than 
> necessity, one whose purpose is to impose a 
> right-wing conservative ideology that, in the 
> war against schools, will establish a 
> privatatized system and undercut the social 
> progress and cultural understanding to which 
> public school educators have contributed during past decades.
>
> As the public begins to have a closer look at a 
> policy that now theatens their own 
> neighborhoods, rather than the ones on the six 
> o'oclock news, the utter bankruptcy of this NCLB 
> failed policy of mandated manipulation will 
> become clearer and clearer. And yet, the 
> Secretary of ED, just like her boss, continues 
> in robot fashion to offer up bromides like this 
> one from yesterday's speech that simply 
> underscore the lost credibility of this entire Administration:
>
>     Thanks to this law [NCLB], we're now able 
> to fine-tune the system to make sure that every 
> child is learning?regardless of race, 
> income-level, background, or ZIP code. And it's working!
>
> And so is military adventure in Iraq.
>
> Support our Troops--Bring Them Home,
> Save our Schools--Leave The Testing Alone.
>
>
> --
> Posted by Jim Horn to Schools Matter at 8/24/2006 09:16:00 AM