Anyone Up For an NCLB Rewrite?
| Wed Apr. 11, 2007 4:30 PM PDT
With No Child Left Behind up for a re-hash this year, dissident voices are gaining traction and even supporters are acknowledging that its language needs some tweaking.
The nonprofit Educator Roundtable, a division of the Vermont Society for the Study of Education, has collected nearly 30,000 signatures for a petition asking to completely dismantle NCLB. One blogger is inviting educators to picket the annual national school board conference on Saturday in San Francisco. An Education Week blogger was dumbfounded that only 20 states have tried to roll back all or parts of the law.
California Congressman George Miller, the Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee who helped author NCLB, told Tavis Smiley that after five years, the law is only in its "infancy" in terms of meeting the needs of poor and minority students.
According to reports, there have been successes. Total federal funding for No Child Left Behind rose 34% between 2001 and 2006. Funding for schools serving low-income students rose 45%. States and school districts also allegedly have unprecedented flexibility in how they use federal funds, in exchange for greater accountability for results.
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has a plan. She says we've learned some things "organically" over the years, and that now is the time for a growth model that charts progress over time with annual assessment systems. She also says it's time to turn attention to high schools, which are becoming increasingly "critical."
At this point what isn't critical when it comes to education reform?
—Gary Moskowitz
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Comments
Well...I never thought I would be commenting on Mother Jones, but I wanted to opt in on this discussion.
NCLB is definitely not the solution to our educational problems. In fact, it is part of the problem that has destroyed our educational system ? the idea that there should be a one size fits all education. Unfortunately, such idealistic thinking causes nothing more than large, expensive bureaucracies and lower performance. As someone who works with education officials and students daily, I am on the front lines of this debate. I see the students becoming more indifferent to learning as they continually fail to be engaged and challenged. I see the teachers who are more and more apathetic as they lose more and more control over their classrooms. I work with the leaders of the educational system who are growing more and more frustrated as they begin to feel even more disenfranchised. While the intent of NCLB was nice, it was also wishful thinking. Its implementation has been half-hearted (since many of those doing the implementation disagree with the legislation) and its results have shown how completely incapable it is of achieving its professed goals.
To echo Dr. Kovacs point, there is also a growing talent vacuum in education. The quality of our teachers is not increasing, but actually decreasing. Our brightest and most talented people are seeking careers in other fields. I personally know several people who have decided not to go into academia (or have left it) precisely because of the arbitrary mandates, politically influenced decisions (enter the teachers unions, stage left), and the growing evidence that the whole field is a complete failure. Who wants to get on (or stay on) a sinking ship? Now we can debate whether teachers are paid enough, but I don't know of anyone who has decided against teaching for that reason alone. Most of the people who like to teach have a passion for it, not a desire to retire wealthy. The main force keeping talented people out of the teaching field has nothing to do with pay and everything to do with how the schools are being run ? by the government.
So what is the solution? What can possibly be done to improve our education system? How can the most prosperous, successful nation in the history of the world provide its children with the absolute best education system in the world? Well, I think it can be achieved in the same way that we achieved our prosperity ? through liberty! We need to do away with the ever-increasing behemoth that is the education bureaucracy and implement a universal voucher system that allows parents to freely choose their children's schools. We need to end the monopoly that the government has on educating our children and give the power back to the people.
Everywhere that vouchers and school choice have been embraced educational performance ? for all children ? has increased. Giving people the ability to choose their child's school has not only increased student achievement levels, graduation rates, and college attendance rates (the percentage of students who graduate and go on to post-secondary school), but it has also increased parental involvement ? the one factor that most teachers at low performing schools identify as the source of low student achievement. Right now, the only people who can opt out of the failing public school system are wealthy citizens who can afford private school. Not surprisingly, school choice is widely supported by the public (69% in favor on a CBS/New York Times poll from 2001). An even higher percentage of minorities support school choice because it would help to empower them and give them a voice in the education of their children.
While studies continue to show that the public school system is failing and that NCLB is only adding to the problem, the opposite is true for school choice. Countless studies have shown that school choice works! Student achievement increases, graduation rates increase, and amazingly?here it comes?it is all done without increasing per pupil expenditures and often with less money per student than public schools. That's right! Vouchers are often worth less than the total per pupil allocation for the public schools, yet the students achieve better results. And don't take my word for it ? visit one of the countless sites that document all of the research (FriedmanFoundation.org and Heartland.org are among the best). So why don't we abandon the failing system in support of the one that has proven successful? The main reason is that the teachers unions use their power to keep it off the agenda. I guess not everyone likes the idea of having to do a good job to keep your job?
Oh and Dr. Kovacs, I am going to have audit one of your classes at UAH sometime. I would love to hear more of your ideas!
Glenn Clayton
President
Southern Educational Services
Well...I never thought I would be commenting on Mother Jones, but I wanted to opt in on this discussion.
NCLB is definitely not the solution to our educational problems. In fact, it is part of the problem that has destroyed our educational system ? the idea that there should be a one size fits all education. Unfortunately, such idealistic thinking causes nothing more than large, expensive bureaucracies and lower performance. As someone who works with education officials and students daily, I am on the front lines of this debate. I see the students becoming more indifferent to learning as they continually fail to be engaged and challenged. I see the teachers who are more and more apathetic as they lose more and more control over their classrooms. I work with the leaders of the educational system who are growing more and more frustrated as they begin to feel even more disenfranchised. While the intent of NCLB was nice, it was also wishful thinking. Its implementation has been half-hearted (since many of those doing the implementation disagree with the legislation) and its results have shown how completely incapable it is of achieving its professed goals.
To echo Dr. Kovacs point, there is also a growing talent vacuum in education. The quality of our teachers is not increasing, but actually decreasing. Our brightest and most talented people are seeking careers in other fields. I personally know several people who have decided not to go into academia (or have left it) precisely because of the arbitrary mandates, politically influenced decisions (enter the teachers unions, stage left), and the growing evidence that the whole field is a complete failure. Who wants to get on (or stay on) a sinking ship? Now we can debate whether teachers are paid enough, but I don't know of anyone who has decided against teaching for that reason alone. Most of the people who like to teach have a passion for it, not a desire to retire wealthy. The main force keeping talented people out of the teaching field has nothing to do with pay and everything to do with how the schools are being run ? by the government.
So what is the solution? What can possibly be done to improve our education system? How can the most prosperous, successful nation in the history of the world provide its children with the absolute best education system in the world? Well, I think it can be achieved in the same way that we achieved our prosperity ? through liberty! We need to do away with the ever-increasing behemoth that is the education bureaucracy and implement a universal voucher system that allows parents to freely choose their children's schools. We need to end the monopoly that the government has on educating our children and give the power back to the people.
Everywhere that vouchers and school choice have been embraced educational performance ? for all children ? has increased. Giving people the ability to choose their child's school has not only increased student achievement levels, graduation rates, and college attendance rates (the percentage of students who graduate and go on to post-secondary school), but it has also increased parental involvement ? the one factor that most teachers at low performing schools identify as the source of low student achievement. Right now, the only people who can opt out of the failing public school system are wealthy citizens who can afford private school. Not surprisingly, school choice is widely supported by the public (69% in favor on a CBS/New York Times poll from 2001). An even higher percentage of minorities support school choice because it would help to empower them and give them a voice in the education of their children.
While studies continue to show that the public school system is failing and that NCLB is only adding to the problem, the opposite is true for school choice. Countless studies have shown that school choice works! Student achievement increases, graduation rates increase, and amazingly?here it comes?it is all done without increasing per pupil expenditures and often with less money per student than public schools. That's right! Vouchers are often worth less than the total per pupil allocation for the public schools, yet the students achieve better results. And don't take my word for it ? visit one of the countless sites that document all of the research (FriedmanFoundation.org and Heartland.org are among the best). So why don't we abandon the failing system in support of the one that has proven successful? The main reason is that the teachers unions use their power to keep it off the agenda. I guess not everyone likes the idea of having to do a good job to keep your job?
Oh and Dr. Kovacs, I am going to have audit one of your classes at UAH sometime. I would love to hear more of your ideas!
Glenn Clayton
President
Southern Educational Services
Submitted by Philip Kovacs (not verified) on Thu Apr. 12, 2007 5:01 PM PDT.
Thanks for the mention. We'd love to speak with any of your reporters about the money being made from this legislation...we'd even like to point to the donations made by employees from testing companies such as McGraw Hill and Pearson to George Miller, one of the loudest advocates for the legislation.
If you want to discuss democracy and public education, well, we have some things to say about that as well...
Dr. Philip Kovacs
Chair, Educator Roundtable
Submitted by Philip Kovacs (not verified) on Fri Apr. 13, 2007 5:51 AM PDT.
I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight to the rally you mention above, and since no one else is using this space....
In terms of "successes," it depends on how you define the term. If increasing funding, and then requiring states to use that funding on programs with little scientific support, but direct ties to Bush Family funders, then hell yes, the program is a huge success. (We document all of this on our website.)
If success means decreasing the "achievement gap," which is what the law was originally supposed to do, then the law is a categorical failure. Not only is there ample evidence that the achievement gap between whites and minorities is increasing, NCLB has led to an increase in dropout rates for minority students. (See the Harvard Civil Rights Project for more.)
If we care at all about democracy, and not, mind you, the democracy that we are trying to bomb into existence in various parts of the globe, then we really must take a closer look at the legislation.
Participatory democracy requires individuals who reflect on, engage with, and ultimately shape the world. If we want to develop a citizenry who understands why the Constitution should be protected, who can recognize when leaders lie to them, who can evalutate diverse arguments and make judgements based on both history and experience....then we need an education above and beyond standardized test scores.
When, exactly, did America sell its soul and become everything that it once fought?
Whose idea was it to make all children think the same way, about the same things, at the same time...and then force taxpayers to subsidize testing companies in order to make sure all children comply?
No child left behind from what, exactly?
From ethnic cleansing via a controlled curriculum?
From profiteering?
And now, Spellings (could the Sec. of Ed. have a better name?) wants to expand this control to high school students.
If I had fewer scruples than I do...I'm a former high school teacher who once had scruples, but now I study policy and policy makers and I am pretty sure I'll need a priest, a rabbi, and an Imam to cleanse me...if I had fewer scruples than I do, I'd be buying stock in the companies who make tests...
Finally, NCLB was also supposed to put a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, but it has not.
We might ask why.
1) If you were highly qualified, would you enter a "failing" business that wasn't going to reward you for your skill set?
2) If you have two unqualified parents, part of a larger unqualified family, is it likely that you are going to become highly qualified? (Perhaps a highly qualified failure...)
Bear with me, I'm getting somewhere....
Is Bush highly qualified?
How about the neocons who brough us "Enduring Freedom"?
What about Spellings?
The extent of Comptroller Spellings' classroom experience is...wait for it...a substitute teacher.
Now, would you let someone run the military whose only previous experience was a rent-a-cop?
Then what is she doing talking about how crucial it is that we extend these proffits...this law...to high school?
I'd write more, but I feel as if I am abusing this space, and I am really just trying to convince your editorial board that there is a story here, and the liberals who claim to be helping us regular folks out (hey...I drove a forklift before I earned my PhD) are just as complicit in this mess as the neocons, cons, and neoliberals who want to privatize the entire country.
SO, I am in search of progressive publicastions who are interested in realizing a participatory, pluralistic democratic social order that values human rights over spread-sheet growth.
Interested?
Phillip is 100% right. I'm merely a parent but I have spent some time in various classrooms as a sub and tutor. NCLB annoys upper middle class white kids and their families and schools. However, it is DEVASTATING to minorities, the poor and immigrants as well at the teachers and schools that teach them.
There are actually kindergartners in Title I schools where teachers are required to read from a script each day and train the children to read nonsense words using a DOG CLICKER (I kid you not). These children are treated like dogs - if that isn't the soft bigotry of low expectations, I don't know what is. If you don't believe me Google "Direct Instruction dog clicker."
Recess, music and art are long gone from these schools. New schools in these neighborhoods are built without playgrounds. NCLB does a beautiful job of making sure that our poor have little chance of changing the way this country works. This act ensures that children from poverty only learn the most rudimentary skills that will enable them to continue to provide low level labor to the establishment and soldiers to our endless wars. NCLB also ensures that these children will not have the critical thinking skills to realize that there is anything wrong with the way they are being treated or with the way our country treats the world.
It is a waste of money. The money should go to trade schools to teach a trade that is useful and practical. It is elitism to think that most kids should go to college. Using the bell curve, no more than 15% should go to college, like in Germany. This idea of everybody should go to college lowers the self esteem of too many students and leads to crime. The idea of too much academic education is for the benefit of the educational establishment.
Well...I never thought I would be commenting on Mother Jones, but I wanted to opt in on this discussion.
NCLB is definitely not the solution to our educational problems. In fact, it is part of the problem that has destroyed our educational system the idea that there should be a one size fits all education. Unfortunately, such idealistic thinking causes nothing more than large, expensive bureaucracies and lower performance. As someone who works with education officials and students daily, I am on the front lines of this debate. I see the students becoming more indifferent to learning as they continually fail to be engaged and challenged. I see the teachers who are more and more apathetic as they lose more and more control over their classrooms. I work with the leaders of the educational system who are growing more and more frustrated as they begin to feel even more disenfranchised. While the intent of NCLB was nice, it was also wishful thinking. Its implementation has been half-hearted (since many of those doing the implementation disagree with the legislation) and its results have shown how completely incapable it is of achieving its professed goals.
To echo Dr. Kovacs point, there is also a growing talent vacuum in education. The quality of our teachers is not increasing, but actually decreasing. Our brightest and most talented people are seeking careers in other fields. I personally know several people who have decided not to go into academia (or have left it) precisely because of the arbitrary mandates, politically influenced decisions (enter the teachers unions, stage left), and the growing evidence that the whole field is a complete failure. Who wants to get on (or stay on) a sinking ship? Now we can debate whether teachers are paid enough, but I don't know of anyone who has decided against teaching for that reason alone. Most of the people who like to teach have a passion for it, not a desire to retire wealthy. The main force keeping talented people out of the teaching field has nothing to do with pay and everything to do with how the schools are being run by the government.
So what is the solution? What can possibly be done to improve our education system? How can the most prosperous, successful nation in the history of the world provide its children with the absolute best education system in the world? Well, I think it can be achieved in the same way that we achieved our prosperity through liberty! We need to do away with the ever-increasing behemoth that is the education bureaucracy and implement a universal voucher system that allows parents to freely choose their children's schools. We need to end the monopoly that the government has on educating our children and give the power back to the people.
Everywhere that vouchers and school choice have been embraced educational performance for all children has increased. Giving people the ability to choose their child's school has not only increased student achievement levels, graduation rates, and college attendance rates (the percentage of students who graduate and go on to post-secondary school), but it has also increased parental involvement the one factor that most teachers at low performing schools identify as the source of low student achievement. Right now, the only people who can opt out of the failing public school system are wealthy citizens who can afford private school. Not surprisingly, school choice is widely supported by the public (69% in favor on a CBS/New York Times poll from 2001). An even higher percentage of minorities support school choice because it would help to empower them and give them a voice in the education of their children.
While studies continue to show that the public school system is failing and that NCLB is only adding to the problem, the opposite is true for school choice. Countless studies have shown that school choice works! Student achievement increases, graduation rates increase, and amazingly here it comes it is all done without increasing per pupil expenditures and often with less money per student than public schools. That's right! Vouchers are often worth less than the total per pupil allocation for the public schools, yet the students achieve better results. And don't take my word for it visit one of the countless sites that document all of the research (FriedmanFoundation.org and Heartland.org are among the best). So why don't we abandon the failing system in support of the one that has proven successful? The main reason is that the teachers unions use their power to keep it off the agenda. I guess not everyone likes the idea of having to do a good job to keep your job
Oh and Dr. Kovacs, I am going to have audit one of your classes at UAH sometime. I would love to hear more of your ideas!
Glenn Clayton
President
Southern Educational Services
