Fwd: [LiteracyForAll] Outrageous and insulting

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Stephen Krashen <skrashen@yahoo.com>
> Date: Tue Jul 17, 2007  10:55:26 PM US/Pacific
> To: literacyForAll@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [LiteracyForAll] Outrageous and insulting
> Reply-To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
>
>
> Outrageous and Insulting
> Sent to Education Week, July 17
>
> Don Soifer (“Laying the foundation for a new
> segregation system,” July 17) assumes test scores have
> gone up for English learners under NCLB. They haven’t.
> Please see:
> “Selling NCLB: Would You Buy a Used Law From This
> Woman?” by James Crawford, available at
> www.elladvocates.org/nclb/spellings2.html.
>
> Soifer claims that English learners’ improvement
> (which didn’t happen, see above) is the result of
> standardized testing, because now English learner test
> scores “will be counted.” In other words, Soifer is
> saying that nobody cared about English learners before
> NCLB, an outrageous and insulting accusation.
>
> Stephen Krashen
>
>
> Laying the Foundation for a New Segregation System
>
> Education Week
> To the Editor:
>
> James Crawford’s latest rant against the federal No
> Child Left Behind Act ("A Diminished Vision of Civil
> Rights," Commentary, June 6, 2007) argues that
> increased accountability, a greater emphasis on
> reading and math, and better test scores for
> English-language learners are less important than
> other “opportunities,” such as field trips and chess
> clubs, that these children may miss out on.
>
> As a result of NCLB, all English-language learners are
> now taught to state standards, and know that their
> standardized-test scores will be counted along with
> other students’. Because their progress matters to
> schools, including progress toward English fluency,
> test scores and reclassification rates for this
> crucial population are beginning to improve across the
> nation.
>
> Relaxing accountability under No Child Left Behind for
> English-learners, as Mr. Crawford suggests, would lay
> a dangerous foundation for a new, federally sponsored
> segregation system.
>
> Don Soifer
> Executive Vice President
> Lexington Institute
> Arlington, Va.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LiteracyForAll/
>
> <*> Your email settings:
>     Individual Email | Traditional
>
> <*> To change settings online go to:
>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LiteracyForAll/join
>     (Yahoo! ID required)
>
> <*> To change settings via email:
>     mailto:LiteracyForAll-digest@yahoogroups.com
>     mailto:LiteracyForAll-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
>
> <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>     LiteracyForAll-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
>     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll
http://www.usalone.com/blogvoices.php?Cheney%20Impeachment%3F
Add this text to your own email and blog signatures!