Fwd: National Council of Churches conference on NCLB

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: James Crawford <jwcrawford@COMPUSERVE.COM>

  Date: Sun Mar 18, 2007 7:15:13 AM US/Pacific

  To: ELLADVOC@asu.edu

  Subject: National Council of Churches conference on NCLB

  Reply-To: James Crawford <jwcrawford@COMPUSERVE.COM>

  http://www.wfn.org/2007/03/msg00256.html

  Fixing No Child Left Behind Requires Flexibility

  By Daniel Webster

  NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

  WASHINGTON, March 16 -- The message from public education advocates to
  Washington lawmakers is clear: Fix No Child Left Behind.

  Advocates gathered here earlier this month (March 9) for an event sponsored
  by the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) Committee on Public Education
  and Literacy in conjunction with the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days, March
  9-12. Speakers urged participants to address the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
  act's shortcomings and work to change the act before it is reauthorized this
  year.

  The act was passed in 2001, and is the prevailing legislation related to
  primary and secondary schools in the United States.

  The NCC event featured speakers, including educators and education
  advocates--some of whom were also parents--working to repair this piece of
  education legislation, which sets standardized testing as the measure of
  schools' success. The event's 94 participants included members of local
  churches, grassroots advocates, parents, teachers and others from the faith
  community.

  The plight of American public schools under NCLB, the omnibus federal law is,
  "indifference, isolation, and invisibility." So said the Rev. Bernice Powell
  Jackson, president of the North American region of the World Council of
  Churches.

  "In the days of Ruby Bridges, those who supported school integration were in
  the streets. Those who opposed school integration were in the streets. Today,
  no one is in the streets," said the Rev. Jackson. "Schools labeled failing,
  face closure. No one in the streets...Good teachers burning out, buying
  supplies out of their own pockets. No one in the streets," she told nearly
  100 attendees at the event.

  "To get past the indifference, get past the isolation, get past the
  invisibility, we've got to wake up and dream...of new coalitions dedicated to
  taking back our public schools," said the Rev. Jackson. "We've got to wake up
  and dream of schools where children of all races and all incomes go to school
  together and thrive...where testing is but one way of measuring achievement."

  Justice in education

  Jan Resseger, representative of the United Church of Christ's Justice and
  Witness Ministries and the NCC committee's chair, acknowledged that NCLB "has
  helped clarify the magnitude of achievement gaps and proclaimed the lofty
  goal that our nation will quickly and finally close those gaps." But she
  challenged that, "the law's implementation has not lived up to its goal of
  rectifying injustice."

  In a formal statement on NCLB, "Ten Moral Concerns in the Implementaton of
  the No Child Left Behind Act," the NCC's education committee explains its
  interest in this federal law: "Christian faith speaks to public morality and
  demands, as a matter of justice and compassion, that we be concerned about
  public schools."

  Molly Hunter, managing director of the National Access Network at Teachers
  College, Columbia University, condemned NCLB's effects of blaming schools,
  when so many educational challenges grow from society's unwillingness to face
  up to its obligations to poor children as well as to the schools that serve
  them.

  "Children who suffer the ravages of poverty can best contend with the demands
  of school by having benefit of health care, stable housing, and safety that
  enable them to give their school work the attention it deserves," said
  Hunter. "When our schools do not receive funding adequate to meet what NCLB
  requires of them, we label them as 'failing' and demand more."

  Testing or Learning

  Monty Neill, director of FairTest and convener of 106 national organizations
  who have signed the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB (a group that
  includes the NCC and several of its member communions), condemned what he
  called the real effects of NCLB--reducing schooling to "test preparation,
  particularly for low-income and minority group students." NCLB "degrades the
  quality of education offered to the most needy and vulnerable students in the
  nation," Neill said.

  "In theory, NCLB has some admirable goals, namely raising the achievement of
  all students; making schools accountable for the progress of every student;
  providing every child with a qualified teacher; and requiring states to
  develop parental involvement policies and plans," said Monique Dixon, senior
  attorney at the Advancement Project, of the paradox NCLB presents. "In
  practice, however, NCLB's emphasis on high-stakes testing has caused schools
  to narrow their curricula. Some schools are pushing low-achieving students
  out of school. Sanctions imposed on schools that do not make adequate yearly
  progress apply only to schools receiving Title I funding," Dixon said.

  On the front lines

  Members of a follow-up panel shared their experiences as educators working
  inside schools under NCLB. Thirty-year educator and Chicago principal, Anita
  Harmon described her 70-hour-workweek to support teachers succeeding thus far
  in maintaining Adequate Yearly Progress in her elementary school that is
  majority poor and that experiences high student mobility.

  Sol Cotto, an administrator in the School District of Philadelphia, shared
  the changes she believes will be necessary for schools to support rather than
  undermine English Language Learners. Public school teacher, Daryl Gates
  recounted challenges for his special education students in a Shreveport, La.
  middle school.

  And Heather Dawn Thompson, from the National Congress of American Indians
  decried NCLB's narrowing of the curriculum to teaching to the tests in basic
  reading and math, at a time when her people fear they are losing hard won
  classes in American Indian languages and cultures. "We remember the forced
  assimilation of the boarding schools," Thompson told the panel.

  Changes needed

  George Wood, director of the Forum for Education and Democracy, in his
  keynote address offered the three most important principles he feels need to
  be addressed in the NCLB reauthorization.

  First, "America operates one of the most inequitable educational systems
  among industrialized nations...Any federal legislation must address this debt
  and insure that every child has access to equitable school resources,
  facilities, and quality teachers."

  Second, "our current reliance upon high-stakes standardized testing is
  designed not to educate, but to punish...Legislation should provide for a
  richer, more sophisticated view of what our children are learning."

  And third, "the appropriate federal role is to insure equity, not to run
  local schools. Reauthorization should insure that those closest to children,
  their parents and teachers, have the most to say about life in the
  classroom."

  All members of the Committee on Public Education and Literacy led sessions at
  the event including representatives of the African Methodist Episcopal
  Church; American Baptist Churches USA; Christian Church (Disciples of
  Christ); Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; The Episcopal Church;
  Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Presbyterian Church, USA; Progressive
  National Baptist Convention, Inc.; United Methodist Church General Board of
  Church and Society; United Methodist Church, Women's Division; and United
  Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.

  The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican,
  historic African American and traditional peace churches. These 35 communions
  have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.

  Contributing to this story was Barbara Wheeler, executive secretary for
  communications with the Women's Division of the United Methodist General
  Board of Global Ministries, New York, N.Y.

  NCC Public Education contact: Jan Resseger, 216.736.3711, ressegerj@ucc.org0000,0000,0000.
  NCC News contact: Dan Webster, 212.870.2252, NCCnews@ncccusa.org0000,0000,0000.
  Latest NCC News at www.councilofchurches.org0000,0000,0000.