Fwd: [arn2-strategy] nclb - civil rights - wall street journal

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>

  Date: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:28:42 PM US/Eastern

  To: <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>, "ARN-L" <arn-l@interversity.org>,
  "arn2-strategy" <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>

  Subject: [arn2-strategy] nclb - civil rights - wall street journal

  Reply-To: arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com

  Here is Wall St Journal July 12 editorial defending NCLB. Note even they
  admit "None of these [civil rights] groups [that opposed Rep Graves' bill to
  suspend intensification of sanctions for one year] supports NCLB in toto."

  Indeed. 22 civil rights groups signed a letter last summer calling for
  changes to the assessment and accountability structure. Some 20 have signed
  the Joint Statement on NCLB.

  These groups want a strong federal role, they want accountability, they want
  disaggregated data. But they recognize that how NCLB does these needs a major
  overhaul because it is not supporting the kinds of educational improvements
  children of color and low-income students need. It is not to hard to figure
  out that CR groups want two things: to keep some clear accountability in NCLB
  (hence, defend the notion of accountability and oppose altering it without
  addressing the bill more fully) and want major changes in the structure and
  implementation of the law. Are there contradictions in these messages? To
  some extent. Are they complementary? Yes, in large part. Ways of accomplish
  both parts of this goal are found in the reports of the Forum on Educational
  Accountability (www.fairtest.org and www.edaccountability.org), the Forum for
  Education and Democracy, the NEA and more. These materials are quite
  complementary, with some differences which can be sorted out, as can
  differences over core issues of assessment and accountability be sorted out
  with most civil rights groups. Of course, some folks don't want that to
  happen, they want to pit civil rights against education in order to preserve
  the high-stakes testing (among other things).

  Monty

  The Wrong Education Fix

  July 12, 2008; Page A10

  President Bush has often spoken about education reform as a civil rights
  issue. So we're not entirely surprised to see civil rights groups now
  defending the No Child Left Behind law against attempts to gut its most
  effective provisions.

  Last month, Representative Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, introduced the
  NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act, which would essentially suspend the
  law's accountability provisions but not the funding. Under Mr. Graves's bill,
  schools would no longer have to file progress reports that expose achievement
  gaps between kids of different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic
  backgrounds.

  Since NCLB passed in 2002, minority parents in particular have come to rely
  on this information to find out if a school is serving the needs of their
  children. But apparently Mr. Graves and his co-sponsor, Democrat Timothy
  Waltz of Minnesota, believe that the problem with public education today is
  too much accountability. Not surprisingly, teachers unions like the National
  Education Association are supporting their efforts.

  What's heartening about this story is who has lined up to block this
  nonsense. The coalition includes the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, the
  NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the National Urban League, the
  Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and more than a dozen other
  liberal outfits.

  In a letter to House Members, the coalition said it opposed the proposal
  because "it would allow states, districts, and schools to receive federal
  funding under the No Child Left Behind Act with no accountability for
  complying with key provision of the law."

  None of these groups supports NCLB in toto. But they do realize that,
  whatever the law's problems, the accountability provisions are not among
  them. NCLB has forced schools to pay attention to the learning gap, and the
  result has been that poor and minority children are doing better. We are
  nowhere near closing that gap, but it is undeniable that the
  lowest-performing students have made significant gains on standardized tests
  in the NCLB era. Easing up on accountability would be a big step backward.

  Monty Neill, Ed.D.

  Deputy Director

  FairTest

  342 Broadway

  Cambridge, MA 02139

  617-864-4810 x 101;  fax 617-497-2224

  monty@fairtest.org

  http://www.fairtest.org

  Donate: https://secure.entango.com/servlet/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

  __._,_.___
  Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional

  Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)

  Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully
  Featured

  Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

  __,_._,___

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!