Re: Fwd: [oaklandteachers] NCLB Peppered by Corporate Critic

[MONICALUCIDO@comcast.net]

What she doesn't  say is that NCLB was designed to do all of this AND destroy the teacher's unions. It has already started to do that in some places that have sold out, like Denver and New York. They want us to be under the slavery of their corporate kingships.

Joe Lucido
Educators and Parents Against Test Abuse
Fresno
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>
> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> > From: Jim Mordecai <jim2812@yahoo.com>
> > Date: Sat Dec 29, 2007  11:43:53 PM US/Pacific
> > To: oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net
> > Subject: [oaklandteachers] NCLB Peppered by Corporate Critic
> > Reply-To: oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net
> >
> >
> > Friday
> > December 21, 2007
> >
> > Commentary: The Drive to Oust the Middle Class from Inner City Public 
> > Schools
> > By Margot Pepper (12-21-07)
> >
> >
> > No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law in 2001 by President 
> > George
> > Bush, backed by both Democrats and Republicans. The backbone of the 
> > program,
> > allegedly designed to hold schools accountable for academic failure, is
> > standardized state testing for students and educators. Rather than 
> > improve
> > public education, however, there is now ample evidence that NCLB 
> > testing is
> > part of a systematic effort to privatize diverse urban public schools 
> > in the
> > United States. The objectives of privatization have been threefold: 
> > first, to
> > divert taxpayer money from the public sector to the corporate sector; 
> > second,
> > to capture part of the market, which would otherwise be receiving free
> > education; and third, to drive out middle class accountability, 
> > leaving behind
> > a disposable population that won?t have a voice about the 
> > inappropriate use
> > of their tax dollars, nor the bleak outlook on their futures.
> >
> > ?As a for-profit venture, public education represents a market worth 
> > over
> > $600 billion,? notes Dr. Henry A. Giroux, in Z Magazine.
> >
> > ?The emergence of HMOs and hospital management companies created 
> > enormous
> > opportunities for investors. We believe the same pattern will occur in
> > education,? observes Mary Tanner, managing director of Lehman Brothers.
> >
> > ?Bush?s proposal for national standardized testing is helping to pave 
> > the
> > way for these EMO?s,? says Project Censored in their annual collection 
> > of
> > most censored stories. ?While the aptly named Educational Management
> > Organizations are being promoted as the new answer to impoverished 
> > school
> > districts and dilapidated classrooms, the real emphasis is on 
> > investment
> > returns rather than student welfare and educational development.?
> >
> > For over a century, norm-referenced test results have been 
> > misinterpreted in
> > the United States to support racist campaigns. IQ tests were used as an
> > argument against integration of schools, the passage of the Civil 
> > Rights Law of
> > 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1969, Arthur Jensen used 
> > his
> > so-called ?findings??that average African-American IQs were 
> > significantly
> > lower than those of Euro-American or white children?to attack 
> > educational
> > programs which benefit the poor, like Head Start.
> >
> > An influential study by Elizabeth Peal and Wallace Lambert in 1962 
> > found that
> > the higher the subjects? economic status, the higher scores would be on
> > norm-referenced tests. Similarly, higher achievement scores on the 
> > NCLB tests
> > have been predicted according to zip codes, used by economists to sort 
> > by
> > economic status.
> >
> > Randy L. Hoover and Kathy L. Shook note that a study of 593 Ohio School
> > Districts show the district?s high stakes tests ?to correlate with 
> > Social
> > Economic Status to such a high degree as to virtually mask any and all 
> > actual
> > academic achievement claimed to be measured by these tests.?
> >
> > They observe that students were ?visible victims of sorting by 
> > socio-economic
> > status? by high stakes tests that fail to meet recognized, scientific
> > standards of test validity.?
> >
> > Now, the standardized tests that are part of the NCLB campaign are 
> > being used
> > to lend legitimacy to policies that lead to a cheap, uneducated labor 
> > pool and
> > increased profits in the private sector. The effect of NCLB has been to
> > dismantle public education by funneling public tax dollars directly to
> > corporations through penalties, private tutoring companies, and 
> > vouchers. Once
> > more, the populations paying for this policy are students of color and 
> > the
> > poor, since the poorest schools with limited resources comprised 
> > primarily of
> > such students perform the worst on the tests. The schools are then
> > reconstituted by the school district, outsourced to private companies 
> > like
> > Edison, or a portion of their federal funding is diverted to ?parental
> > choice? tutoring programs. According to Ben Clarke in a Corpwatch.org 
> > article
> > entitled ?Leaving Children Behind,? public school money was thus 
> > diverted
> > to the company Educate, which runs the Sylvan Learning Centers, whose 
> > revenues,
> > Clarke states, ?grew from $180 to $250 million in the past three years
> > [2001?04] and whose profits shot up 250 percent last year.? And, writes
> > Clarke, since the introduction of NCLB, sales of printed materials 
> > related to
> > standardized tests nearly tripled to $592 million, money that was 
> > drained from
> > the public schools, since Bush provided no funding for the increased 
> > costs.
> >
> >
> >
> > False Reports of NCLB Success
> >
> > A 2006 study by Harvard University Civil Rights Project found that the
> > successes reported by NCLB proponents ?simply do not show up on an
> > independent national test, the National Assessment of Educational 
> > Progress,
> > known as the ?nation?s report card.??
> >
> > A comparison of public high-school graduation rates over the course of 
> > the
> > implementation of NCLB seems to confirm that the policy is actually 
> > damaging
> > students of color. The public high school graduation rate for African 
> > Americans
> > and Latinos nationwide has sunk from 56 percent and 54 percent 
> > respectively in
> > 1998?before NCLB policies took their toll?to about 50 percent in 2005,
> > according to a March 2005 report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard
> > University. The authors, Dan Losen and Johanna Wald, point out that 
> > ?because
> > of misleading and inaccurate reporting of dropout and graduation 
> > rates, the
> > public remains unaware of this educational and civil rights crisis.?
> >
> > In California, looking at the inverse?or dropout rates?according to
> > statistics provided by the California Department of Education and 
> > published by
> > Ed-Data, from 2000 to 2005, the four-year dropout rate for California 
> > went from
> > 11.1 percent to 12.7 percent, with dropout rates for African Americans
> > increasing nearly four percentage points from 18.1 percent to 21.8 
> > percent.
> > Latino dropout rates also increased from 15.3 percent to 16.6 percent 
> > during
> > that same period.
> >
> >
> >
> > Middle Class Flee to Private Schools
> >
> > The dismantling of the public schools is forcing those who can afford 
> > to pay
> > for private schools to give up their right to free, equal education. 
> > Driving
> > the entitled middle class out of the public schools furthers yet 
> > another goal
> > of privatization, namely that of decreasing accountability, reports 
> > Dr. Giroux.
> >
> > Dr. Giroux points out, that while an increasing number of students of 
> > color may
> > not graduate under NCLB, their failing public schools are more than 
> > willing to
> > provide them with ?the appropriate attitudes for future work in 
> > low-skilled,
> > low-paying jobs.?12 Pat Wechsler reported in Business Week that thanks 
> > to
> > partnerships with businesses, such as McDonald?s, in under-funded 
> > schools,
> > students ?learned how a McDonald?s works, and how to apply and 
> > interview
> > for a job at McDonald?s.?
> >
> > It is no coincidence that one of the largest contributors to President 
> > Bush?s
> > drive to institute vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter schools 
> > is the
> > Walton family?founder of Wal-Mart?who has dedicated at least $250 
> > million
> > to such efforts over the past six years, according to USA Today. 
> > Wal-Mart is
> > the largest private employer in the United States, with more than one 
> > million
> > workers. Wal-Mart?s wages and benefits are significantly below retail
> > industry standards, according to a report entitled, ?The Hidden Cost of
> > Wal-Mart Jobs,? by Dr. Arindrajit Dube, Ph.D. and Ken Jacobs. 
> > According to
> > Anthony Bianco, who wrote a 2006 biography of the man, Walton 
> > ?preferred
> > uneducated workers.? Such workers are unlikely to question low pay, or
> > unionize.
> >
> > School failure is a product of ?the political, economic, and social 
> > dynamics
> > of poverty, joblessness, sexism, race and class discrimination, unequal
> > funding, or a diminished tax base,? summarizes Dr. Giroux.
> >
> >
> >
> > NCLB Requirments Lower Quality of Education
> >
> > An illustration of class and race discrimination leading to school 
> > failure is
> > the use of McGraw-Hill?s Open Court program by schools afraid of NCLB
> > penalties, even though the phonics program has been proven to damage 
> > students.
> > According to a study by Margaret Moustafa and Robert E. Land at 
> > California
> > State University in Los Angeles, ?schools using Open Court are 
> > significantly
> > more likely to be in the bottom quartile of the SAT 9 [state] 
> > assessment than
> > comparable schools using non-scripted programs.?
> >
> > The president?s educational program mandates any district wishing to 
> > qualify
> > for government funding to implement ?approved? reading curricula. It 
> > is not
> > surprising that McGraw-Hill?s Open Court has a majority of these 
> > contracts,
> > given the fact that the McGraw-Hill and Bush family connections go 
> > back three
> > generations, notes Stephen Metcalf in the Nation: ?The McGraws are old 
> > Bush
> > friends, dating back to the 1930s, when Joseph and Permelia Pryor Reed 
> > began to
> > establish Jupiter Island, a barrier island off the coast of Florida, 
> > as a haven
> > for the Northeast wealthy.?
> >
> > Similarly, Neil Bush, George W.?s brother, also used his political 
> > influence
> > to solicit contributions for his educational software company, Ignite. 
> > ?In
> > February 2004, the Houston school board unanimously agreed to accept 
> > $115,000
> > in charitable donations from businesses and individuals who insisted 
> > the money
> > be spent on Ignite. The deal raised conflict of interest concerns,? 
> > reported
> > Cynthia Leonor Garza in the Houston Chronicle. More recently, former 
> > first lady
> > Barbara Bush donated to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, with specific
> > instructions that the money be spent on Ignite.
> >
> > Perhaps a more apt name for Bush?s NCLB is, No Corporation Left Behind,
> > particularly if that corporation has strong ties to the Bush 
> > family?though we
> > must be careful not to confuse the Bush ?dynasty? with a long-term,
> > systemic illness. Ronald Bailey, a former fellow at the W. E. B. Du 
> > Bois
> > Institute for African and African American Research, and Chicano 
> > Scholar
> > Guillermo Flores have identified these deliberate historic campaigns 
> > to exclude
> > people of color from the political and educational system as a product 
> > of
> > ?internal colonialism.?
> >
> > ?Internal colonialism,? they write, ?is nothing more than the domestic
> > face of world imperialism.... The use of racial minorities brought 
> > surpluses to
> > white society that contributed to the growth of monopoly capitalism.? 
> > In
> > other words, cheap labor and raw materials led to huge profits for 
> > monopolistic
> > firms, which today have become supra-national corporations. These 
> > larger forces
> > are the real source of legislation like NCLB. Educators and activists 
> > who want
> > real change must recognize and address this fundamental reality if 
> > they are
> > serious about winning equal access to education for all.
> >
> >
> >
> > Margot Pepper is a Mexican-born writer published frequently in 
> > journals such as
> > Utne Reader, Monthly Review, Z-net, Counterpunch, and the San 
> > Francisco Bay
> > Guardian. You can find links at www.margotpepper.com.
> >
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