Take Your "No Child Left Behind" Bonus and...
(click cartoon for larger) As a certified teacher myself, I can't tell you how angry NCLB makes me. High performance on standardized tests are an indication of the wealth and whiteness of a school district, and are NO indication of student learning.
And the states continue to push the lie: certain Fairbanks, Alaska teachers were given $2500.00 bonuses by the state not for teaching, but for increasing standardized test scores at their school. They refused the bonuses and donated the money to other schools or to non-profits.
Principal Mary Short said as a group the staff felt the cash bonuses were inappropriate.
"Most of the discussion was about how uncomfortable the incentive program made us feel," Short said, referring to a staff meeting she convened the week before school started.
At the meeting, the staff decided to donate the bonus money from the state to nonprofit organizations or to districtwide education initiatives.
"Most felt that (the money) should go to other schools," Short said.
She said reaction by staff ranged from embarrassment over being selected to anger that the state would assume a few thousand dollars would motivate the teachers to do a better job.
Glad to see that honor and integrity still reign in the US of A.
Unfortunately, it is not to be found in the government of the US of A.
By the time Reagan and Bush Senior got finished not even Clinton would salvage the wreck known as the U.S. Educational system.
Repeat this and shame the teachers in the Memphis School District, because those teachers are following NCLB to the letter and every child, especially Black and Latino children are not only being left behind, they can't even get to the starting gates to compete because of these standardized tests which have been proven time and time again, to be designed so that certain children pass, while a huge majority of others fail.
When I was in school, the teachers incorporated the test material into our learning curriculum, and that's how we passed, We were taught the test materials and could comprehend it on a test. These teachers are overwhelmed by over-crowded classrooms. outdated textbooks, no school supplies for teaching...I could go on, because I experienced this, teaching community college (which is basically remedial skills these students didn't get in high school), which made me the equivalent of a high school civics teacher.
Bravo that in Fairbanks, Alaska, people who are in teaching aren't in it for the money, and shame on our country for valuing dipshit lawmakers who haven't refused a raise in years, while it took them 10 years to increase the minimum wage.
And now it's in the hands of the Texas Mafia again...and overseen by the single biggest moron to ever attain a high education degree from an accredited U.S. university.
Bush = Leave No Child a Dime.
Lord Praise the dollar almighty.
And paying teachers like they're on welfare. What type of country do we have where teachers are treated with contempt, while scum-sucking SOBs like Larry Craig will continue to get a pension off a $170,000 a year salary as he trolled the men's bathroom's at airports looking for hot man-on-man action.
All the Republicans want from Education is for schools to churn out obedient workers and hopefully a few exceptional students will rise above the herd to display star athlete potential for the Pros.
What this Country needs is a National Teachers Strike-Walkout.
Teachers need to say we refuse to churn out ROBOTS and we're not going back to work until our demands for change are met.
NCLB was part of the PR blitz to make it seem like giving Dubya the Presidency was a good idea. Who woulda thought it had NO intrinsic merit?
Where can I get a hi-res image of that or better yet a print?
standardized test scores ?
Sounds like another way of saying "Groupthink".
The only way to deal with NCLB is to abolish it and start over again with an updated ESEA. But our legislators, democrats as well as republicans, lack the guts to do this. Of course, NCLB's ultimate goal is the privatization of public education, and so once again the heart and soul of America will ripped out and sold to the Wall St werewolves.
At a minimum, Geroge Mitchell and the House Committee on Education needs to get rid of Section 9528, and get the military to stop patrolling high school campuses trying to grab students to be bulletcatchers for ExxonMobil!
You mean NCLB is just another scheme by the Bush WH to siphon money from the poor and deliver it to the rich in a 24k gold plated box with a silk ribbon on top?
I'm shocked I tell ya... just shocked.
Not to mention teachers spend more time keeping the peace then they do teaching. Many schools have become nothing more detention centers during the work week.
The whole system needs a major overhaul. (What else is new)
We're really going to be paying the piper in the future. There is no escaping that. It's going to take a major miracle to turn the United States around and headed into the right direction.
I suppose maybe the economists can create another bubble to replace the one thats currently popping into shambles. Wonderful another bubble thats all we need.
First time I've seen that anime/matrix/technofuture style in a political cartoon.
But yes, we are short changing our children.
apple pie @ 13:
Let's start by having an education President who is actually educated. Instead of some sophomoric imbecile who rode familial legacy to his degree, and probably hasn't cracked open a book since his mommy helped him finish his second grade reader.
It is not commonly known, but the seeds of our current fvcked up educational system were sown in the early 1900's. From an article by Russ Kick:
football
should keep them
pacified
they'll never miss the
liberal arts
heh...
I'm so glad my kids are out of school. What is happening now with NCLB is a crime. My oldest son is a college professor who teaches creative writing to college freshman and he says half of them don't know how to spell or don't even know how to put a sentence together. Bush poisons everything he puts his little peanut brain to. It makes me sick to even think about all the money going to this damn war and what that money could have been used for here.
Look at the Roaring 20's. Everything was hopping! Until the Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression hit.
For this administration, money is the only measure of success.
Just remember that when MOST of the Democratic candidates running for President talk about "merit pay" for teachers, THIS is EXACTLY what they're talking about.
It's a sham.
donkey @ 19:
Liberal arts or arts in general cultivates thinking, creativity, independence, and talent.
Thats the absolute last thing the to big to fail crowd wants.
This maladministration does not want children to think critically. If kids learn critical thinking, they also learn to make appropriate choices and not be a nation of sheep. In the 21st century, we don't want thinkers, we want doers, as in do as I say, not as I do.
SevenString @ 18:
Exactly. The government never gave two shits about having a smart population... it was all about producing a trained work force for the corporations that they wouldn't have to pay for. Now that all our jobs have been exported, there is no longer a need for such a work force, and therefore no longer a need for public education. Put two and two together and you will see why the education system has gone to shit in the past twenty years or so.
Diogenes @ 25:
You nailed it. Look at Britney, Paris, Lindsey. Look where they've ended up following the advise of their handlers and the "professionals".
Totally dysfunctional, incapable of contributing anything positive that benefits society when left to their own devises.
It's those kids at Lathrop High School lowering the scores on the tests. West Valley High still remains superior.
The man doesn't read intelligence reports for criminey's sake, and he's supposed to be a war president. The man can't string two sentences together, and he's in charge of setting direction for education. The man was governor of the execution state, and claims to be a man of god.
I mean geeeez...if it was so freakin' sad it'd be funny.
My kingdom for a bicycle, a really steep hill and a pretzel.
NCLB is to guarantee a stock of ignorant people as cannon-fodder for the mil-industrial complex.
Liberal AND Proud @ 29:
But he sure can bob his head, can't he?
Liberal AND Proud @ 1:
Well said, compadre! I'm proud of those teachers!!
Holy Hanna in a handbasket...more than another year of this ignoramus and his death dealing, megalomaniacal rantings.
Blue Buddha @ 26:
Absolutely! Corporate serfdom
Lets Face it... The goal of the Fundi-Right is to dumb down America. The smarter kids are the more the might "question authority".
They might even start to question some of the Cult like teachings about praying instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.
Hell, that would threaten the whole NeoCon PNAC agenda.
A lot of hard working people came to this continent for a chance at a better life. Then the rich pricks came over. You know. The ones who feel that it is ok to have a serf population or own another human being. Then we got lazy and these pricks got into power in our country. The most important question for all of us for the future is do we want our kids to have a future of serfdom like the original people who fled Europe? There is no where else to go. We have to give up this idea of fair play and respect for our government. It is time to admit where we are and get mean about it. The people we vote for in the future have to have only one qualification and we have to know that it is true. Are you on our side or theirs. No more bull shit political speeches. We want proof. You have to have dirt under your finger nails to get my vote. You have to want what I want. A good life for my kids.
Diogenes @ 25:
No thinkers - just believers = no brains.
Face it. This country can't go any lower. We're already up to our necks in SH*T.
The Political Junkie @ 7:
it takes big bucks to keep a repukes gums from getting jock rot!
AP - 13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Consumers returned to the malls in July after taking a breather in June, although worries about the future could make the rebound short-lived.
July. What TF does July have to do with today?
Lets cherry pick some good news! Regardless if it's already obsolete. Or two months old.
Got to be some good news in that stack of paper some where!
I think the performance on standardized test scores is not a race-based indicator. There are many examples here in Texas of minority schools acquiring exempliary status. You are plainly wrong in this.
However, having clarified this, NCLB is destroying public education and denying basic rights to children. For example, reading, writing and math are taught rigorously according to the requirements of the tests (neither fully learned or retained) and social studies, art, music, science, etc have almost no instruction. Electives, (except for sports) are almost non-existent. Children are denied special education services as an economic expedient, because the schools lose money on special needs kids.
Please don't give racist gas-bags like Rush Limbaugh an excuse to say minority children are not as smart and cannot compete.
LD
This sums it all up, this is the type of student we should deify here in the USA.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-D77VDmMvsQ
My friends in the education biz call it
NCLU....
No Child Left Untested......
It has nothing to do with Education, just part and parcel of trying to undermine the Teachers Union, one of the legendary Left Wing Demon-evils of the Wingnuts.
L.A. Confidential @ 38:
actually, we have another year to ensure that it goes over our heads.
L.A. Confidential @ 40:
yep! and the surge is working with the help of NCLB.
If only our schools WERE trying to pump reading, writing and maths into kids' heads. Imagine how hard it is to score on tests (nevermind compete with better educated students being turned out by Europe to compete for skilled jobs) when your textbooks are all being written by illiterate fundamentalist Christian thugs in Bumfeck, Texas. If Bush's LNCB programme were actually accomplishing anything, I might be able to wince as liberal arts and phys ed programmes were gutted.
As it is, I've seen (and tutored) students being churned out by our system - cheated both by an education system that doesn't teach and a testing system that doesn't reflect a damned thing. Our universities are full of students who can't read a job application, wouldn't know a verb if it bit them, can't balance a chequebook, and thnk txt msgs is gr8 - some colleges are actually being forced to accept papers written in text!
Johnny can't read. And he can't think, either. The Marching Morons are not coming - they're here.
WashStateBlue @ 43:
by default, teaching is undermined. the real purpose is to force schools to hire booshCo consultants to verify the programs(for a large fee) and to provide curricula(for a fee) to assist your teachers in teaching the children to a test and not really educating them.
they just turned the educational system in this country into another money spigot.
When will the federal government FULLY fund IDEA
because those kids are being left behind and the cost burden on the districts and states is making it so the general population is behind.
When are these districts gonna stand up to the Feds instead of jipping kids with disabilities???
ROMAN TIMES
This morning as I breezed into Fivebucks for my cup of tea I noticed the two papers in the rack.
The New York Times and the Oregonian.
The New York Times had its usual WAR image on the front page and the Oregonian had a picture of a football game image on the front page.
Yes, as ROMAN'S we are reduced to WAR and SPORT as NEWS.
Pass me the grapes will you.
- JJ
After thirty plus years in the classroom, NCLB was one of the factors in retiring at 56. Unrealistic expectations for Spanish speakers on English language tests were impossible to meet. I had a monolingual child from Somalia in my 6th grade class and he had to take the test and was aggregated into my homeroom scores. What a crock of crap this micro-managing intrusion into our classroom is. Truly a thinly veiled attempt to undermine all of public education so our schools can be turned over to corporate powers and operated for profit. That I believe is their agenda to destroy public education in favor of private schools and charter operations run by corporations.
If politicians would talk to actual PEOPLE in the trenches instead of lobbiests maybe they would get a better handle on what's going on in education and health care and a better understanding of the nuts and bolts problems. Oh well... I can dream.
Blue gal, you must be from Washington state. Sadly we know the WASL intimately. My son is so sick of taking it he doesn't want to take the SAT because at least that is optional (or so his 16 year old brain thinks).
Given what teachers are paid, it tells you a lot about both the altitude of the teachers' principles and their selfless willingness to live by them. Can't say enough for them.
And, as an educator, I can second, third, fourth, and thousandth, how much of a crock NCLB is.
As with all other Bush crime family slogans "No child left behind" is really "No child's behind left". This "law" has the teacher teaching to the test and not necessarily a well rounded education. It's most important aspect is to get the military unfetted access to children while in school so they can "sell" them on joining the military.
If Bush is involved, it is not good for America. Whatever he touches turns to crap.
There are many things wrong with NCLB. However, the one VERY good thing that has come from this is the start of educational accountability. I am a lifelong educator and as liberal as they come. There are some truly bad school systems out there AND truly wonderful ones. Way more good things are happening in education than bad, however, Reagan made sure that the "public education is bad" myth was solidified in the mass media.
Accountability is a good thing -- doing it by all standardized tests scores is not the best thing in the world. However, non-educators are used to easy quantitative measures such as profit and loss statements, which we do not have in education.
Rock on.
The Political Junkie @ 3:
Wow! Thanks for the backhand to the face for us po' foke who cudint affode to go straight to a 4 year university.
When the curriculum is structured to the lowest denominator and the rules are changed to reflect these results in the score we end up with a new game.
rrrmmm like BASKETBALL for example...
Now you just have to hit the board with the ball rather than get it through the hoop, so team A leads by 460 to 222 - sounds amazing doesn't it, ad some pop and redbull and wella, edicated crew.
So much easier to manage 350 million sheep than foxes.
rrmmm has anyone seen the flick IDIOCRACY
- JJ
Integrity still exists.
NotALLKnowing @ 54:
Don't see learning how to pass test to be a form of education. All you get is people who know how to regurgitate what their told in a standard way.
NCLB did benefit one group. Military recruiters who were given access to HS kids info without parents pre-approval. And also companies that create the standardized tests.
My children are out of school - but if at all possible - if I had school age children - I wouldn't have them in the public school system. I know this is not possible for most people and the trap of the system is horrible and unfair. However, it might help some to take advantage of other options if the school has them available.
My kids were finishing as NCLB became law. But they took advantage of options like Future Problem Solvers and Academic Team where they could practice and use their critical thinking skills. We made vast amounts of diverse reading material available to them which they did use - in part because we didn't allow television or video games in our home (because my kids had AD/HD).
In the meantime - we've encouraged our kids to leave the country and to plan on not ever coming back. As long as the US runs that military budget and is dedicated to warfare the world over - this country will stack the deck against ordinary citizens - they don't stand a chance. I hope they can make a life for themselves in another country and leave the nightmare of America behind them.
*
NCLB is hell on scholastic earth
It is in the best interests of the voucher/religious education proponents that we NOT have a functioning public education system. For that matter, it is also in the best interests of anti- big government for big government to fail miserably.... does this not paint the picture we are seeing? I think they are proving their point by making it so. (Sorta like the Armageddon theme that Bush is fulfilling as fast as he can.... Iran next...)
Why doesn't the Bush administration stop pretending? They should mandate that along with the tests - the kids are given a second document with all the test answers. Then they just fill in the blanks.
Better yet - they should issue the test with the correct answers already written in - the kids can put their names on them and hand them back. That's the best way to raise test scores and it would suit the purposes of the GOP.
It's not as if they really care about the "learning" part of it - everyone knows that. These are Regilicans we're talking about.
I really admire those teachers - they are true American heroes - standing up for what they believe in.
*
Okay - so if you don't have testing then how are you going to measure outcomes?
If you can't measure outcomes, how are you going to identify good or bad methods of teaching?
It may not be necessary to test every child every year, but you need data.
Where will you get the data from?
Mallard Fillmore hack Bruce Tinsley has been spending the past couple of weeks urinating on education in general and teachers in particular (and, as usual, fantasizing that they're comin' to git 'im to shut 'im up because they're deathly afraid of his awesome truth-telling abilities).
Think he'll mention this story?
Additional Mallard haters always welcome: http://duckcover.blogspot.com/
The average teacher, making diddly-squat, has more goddamned integrity and decency than all the assholes in this administration combined.
Adam @ 63:
When I went through school there was something called a report card. And parents used to be involved in their child's education.
The only outcome standardized tests measure is the ability to take standardized tests.
I'm no fan of NCLB either, but saying that performing well on tests is a sign of "whiteness" is just despicable. What an ignorant comment. The fact is that affluent white communities have high scores because their PARENTS and COMMUNITIES encourage STUDYING and READING. Meanwhile teachers like you are "keeping it real"??? Unbelievably racist comment, even though I'm sure you think you are being some sort of progressive white guy.
@thing fish
How do you propose to compare grades across teachers, or across schools? I've had teachers at all levels of education who gave out A's because it was easier than justifying a lower grade to angry parents.
That comment about test is a sound bite - and a stupid one at that. Would you eliminate the boards that med students have to take? How about the bar exam?
Furthermore, what about "standardized" testing distinguishes it from other forms of testing (like finals, midterms, or pop quizzes)? Are you opposed to testing in general?
It disgusts me that the state would think they could spend money on something like this, money that could be much better spent elsewhere. Hooray for those honorable teachers!
My daughter's school still has art and music and computer classes, but WE, THE PARENTS, pay for these classes; the county doesn't. I consider it a crime that these fundamental classes aren't offered (and mandatory!) for schools with less parental money available to them.
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
We also have a society that's fascinated by these no-talent losers and then people wonder why we have a moron sitting in the white house. Completely fitting I say.
I teach at a high school in Seoul, S. Korea. This is how they study here, and "my kids" are disinterested zombies, but can solve math problems. They have no spark, no interest, no zeal, and little creativity. They're like dissatisfied robots. Is that what they want. Where is innovation to come from??
(Thank gawd my teachers were dirty f#$king hippies that lit a spark of interest in me, made me think, and encouraged creativity.)
Adam @ 68:
I argue against the annual NCLB test as an adequate measure of a child's learning. And then you claim I'm making a stupid sound bite by begging the question that I'm against all testing.
Please don't put words in my mouth. And it wouldn't hurt to leave out the insults. They're 2 things that make me think you're not interested in discussing the matter.
Here's an example of an Arizona standardized test for High School (PDF). I'd like to know how a dumbed down test, the only one that matters to teacher and student, is any different than grade inflation you implied was wide spread.
Herein lies the conflict between our system of education and the country at large.
Our country, far more than being a democratic republic, is based on capitalism. The market. The invisible hand. Etc.
Our school system is more or less socialist in nature.
Gee, which one represented a more ethical position in this scenario?
Perhaps someday we will put the final nail in the coffin of the Red Scare.
Edwin @ 71:
I'm pretty conservative, but I had to chuckle. Though stylistically this is 180 degrees from what I said above, in content we seem to be saying about the same thing.
Education needs to be liberal. It needs to be freeing and inspiring. It's much harder to scare and subdue enlightened people.
Oh, and I'm a high school teacher. Full and fair disclosure.
Adam @ 68:
I love the "Hey it's a bad system but it's the only one we've got" arguments. [sarcasm] They never come equipped with IDEAS, solutions, or leadership.
Anyone can quarterback from an easy chair.
Adam @ 63:
Let communities decide whether their children are well-served. Communities should run schools. that's the point of having local control. We do not need state and federal involvement. Period.
BlueKnuckle @ 76:
Oh, HELL no. Involvement, yes; control, very bad idea. I grew up in central Florida, and learning a second language was...frowned upon, to say the least. My history teacher ranted all day long about Hanoi Jane, allowed KKK materials to be brought to class, and informed us that America entered WWII for the express purpose of rescuing Europe. THAT's what you get with "local control" when your community is a pack of rednecks who see high school as football camp with a side of 4H.
What is WASL?
Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
Thank you!
Sorry, Joe, I have to disagree. When you look at the demographics, students from largely white and affluent neighborhoods tend to test higher. I have worked in a wide range of schools, from poor, largely Hispanic schools to rich 97% Caucasian schools and I've noticed that work ethic has little to do with this. Several of my students in the poor, highly diverse schools worked significantly harder than the students in the affluent white schools. Amounts of studying and reading provide no correlation. Teacher quality provides no correlation. The amount of money the community gives to the school does.
Kudos to those teachers in Alaska who refused to take the bribe. NCLB is the ultimate recipe for failure and it is slowly pushing out our best and brightest teachers. The number many of you will want to remember is 2014. That is the year when EVERY student in every public school will have to pass the state standardized test or the school will be penalized. Yes, that includes the severely disabled students in the life skills classes. Teachers know that every student can learn and that every person can be successful. However, we know that "success" is not always measured by a letter grade or a number on a test. Some of our best and brightest thinkers dropped out of school because it didn't meet their needs. Bill Gates dropped out of school. Should we consider him a failure?
The type of teaching that produces thinkers does not produce students who pass a state test every year. We as a country need to decide how we want to raise the next generation. Do we want adults who can't think without a formula to tell them how? Or, do we want adults who are non-conventional and innovative in thought?
If I thought of a future, I dreamt of one day founding a school in which young people could learn without boredom, and would be stimulated to pose problems and discuss them; a school in which no unwanted answers to unasked questions would have to be listened to; in which one did not study for the sake of passing examinations'. Karl Popper - Unended Quest.
Thanks - a good subject, and a great cartoon.
School in our area seems to start earlier and earlier each year, and the fine folks of TN are getting pissed. My 2nd grader started school on Aug. 6th this year; the last day is usually around May 15th if no days are missed due to bad weather.
Actually, for the longest time the earlier starting times were generally accepted for that very reason; not too long ago the county schools would miss up to 2 weeks of school due to bad winter weather. In addition to losing spring break, the last day of school would sometimes stretch into the first week of June. In the mid 1970's, during one or two school years I actually recall having to go to school a half a day on Saturdays to make up the lost time.
Now, however, in the local paper we have a recent article explaining why we have the earlier start times. It's not because of the threat of missed snow days (our changing weather patterns have pretty much taken care of that).
Why? To prepare the students for state-mandated tests by allowing extra instructional time. Yep...they are cramming more info into the children's brains so that they can score well on tests. Not because it will help them in later school years or better prepare them for life in the "real world" (well...that may be a side effect, I guess, but it certainly isn't listed by the city schools community relations coordinator as the MAIN reason).
The achilles heel of the public school under NCLB is special education. Not only are students with intellectual and emotional disabilities held to the same NCLB proficiency standards as their peers, but their teachers are suffering death by a thousand administrative paperwork cuts to document compliance with it. The point has already been reached where special education teachers are forced to sacrifice classroom teaching time to meet NCLB paperwork deadlines regarding confidential documentation that can only be done at school, further reducing the chances of their students "having an equal opportunity to succeed" in a game purposely rigged against them.
OK, so you don't like NCLB then answer the hard question then ... How do we OBJECTIVELY measure and hold accountable the students and parents to ensure that the children of the US are adequately trained to compete in the 21st century since teacher given grades are so subjective and unreliable.
I travel all over the world and I have noticed that other countries (China in particular) have much tougher curriculum and much higher standards. It is socially unacceptable for a student in many other countries to not learn and most parents do not want to suffer that humiliation, so make sure the students learn. Right now, many students in the US have no family pressure to learn, why is it OK in some parts of the US society to be dumber than a rock? The real problem isn't the teachers, but the families lack of desire for their kids to learn. Both my kids are college graduates because it was unacceptable in out family to not do well in school. As parents we set the tone and expected results. I do not see this resolve in many US families, especially many black and Hispanic families. That is not meant to be racist, but a valid observation. I realize that economically disadvantaged kids tend to go to schools with poorer quality teachers, but why is it that a small number of students in that situation go on to college regardless? Could it be that their parents value education and ensured they got the help they needed? The reality is there is tons of FREE help in every city that families could use to make sure their kids are educated, but few use them. Why is there such a lack of education WILL in so many families.
BTW - I stress families since at the end of the day, no matter how good or bad the teachers are, it is entirely up to the student to learn and many in the US choose to not learn, but instead join the gangs their parents do nothing to eradicate.
It is time to find an objective tools to force students to learn and not be disruptive in class.
BEWARE of GEORGE MILLER...
We really have to fix this education problem. Our kids are really suffering because of this unfunded No child left behind crap.
Dame you Bush
You know, I don't get this argument.
First we are told that "equality" is the standard. Then people object saying "High performance on standardized tests are an indication of the wealth and whiteness of a school district, and are NO indication of student learning."
If all people are "equal" than why are standardized tests not so? I would imagine that any segment of the population given a "standardized test" should be able to give a "standardized" answer if there is indeed this theory of "equality." The argument presented above just assumes the blatant racism that only "wealth and whiteness'" can achieve the "high performance" on standardized tests.
The add-on about "student learning" just emphasizes the argument that non-white students are not "equal" to white students who have greater success in standardized tests. I understand that folks will argue that the wealth and the "whiteness" of a school district makes all the difference but I will argue against that point. I myself went to very racially integrated schools, from grade school to high school to University -- I am proud to say that I have never received any grade less than a "c" with mostly "A" and sometimes "B." My classmates varied in their success. Few of us were "wealthy" and there was a great mix of "white" and non-white. Those who succeeded in good grades were diverse in their racial background -- the difference was the dedication to education and the dedication to screwing around.
I understand that "No Child left Behind" is a failed program. I believe its central flaw is the concept of "equality." Those who emphasize the fact that it is a measure of "whiteness" just accentuate the inequality of the non-whites as failures to "standardized" tests.
The fact is, there is NO equality -- even among races. Every child has gifts and limitations. I believe the goal should be to raise all children to the "standard" of acceptable educational levels -- no matter the race. "Standards" are not the problem -- politics is. With NCLB we are finding educators who are passing students just to satisfy goals.
Once we do away with the argument of "equality" we will go along way to appreciating "individuality." Then we can do away with this false argument of "wealth and whiteness" and get down to an educational system that works for all people.
Under NCLB, by 2014, one hundred percent of students in public schools will be required to pass end of course standardized tests or similar assessments if they are not to be classified as failing schools and thus trigger a process of federal defunding. Such idiocy not only ignores the natural distribution of aptitude within a population, regardless of other variables, but by definition such a pass rate must be targeted at the lowest percentile ranks of aptitude and achievement if perfect pass rates are to be realized, thus invalidating the tests as a measures of general achievement along a normal distribution curve. This is what passes for high standards of accountability and achievement under NCLB. One solution would be to abandon the present criterion reference system that sets an arbitrary pass rate by state and return to a national norm reference system like the Stanford 9 that measures scores on a distribution curve by subject and allows comparison between school systems nationally. Schools with high percentages of students scoring in the lower percentile ranks could then be accurately targeted for increased aid rather than being punished for it as they will be under NCLB . The present NCLB regime couldn't be more screwed up if had happened by accident.
One big difference between European and US education is that there's this deeply-ingrained, deeply-entrenched belief in the US that everybody has to go to college or university or they're a loser. The US preaches the rhetoric that it's "honorable" to be a hardworking cab driver, maid, trash collector, et al. However, in the same breath, it uses those same "honorable" professions as an example of something to "overcome" so that one can proceed to higher education. (Subtext: get a degree so you can work less and earn more than those other poor saps.) The US idolizes the myth of "the working man" but at the same time, works to undermine the same. It's a bizarre, contradictory way of thinking, an internal battle between a Calvinistic work ethic and the message that a truly smart (read: good) person knows how to get rich by getting others to do their work for them.
I'm sure everybody's heard the old saying that the average French garbageman knows more about art than the average middle class American. While that's probably a generalization, I don't think it's too far off the mark.
All this makes one wonder as to the true purpose of an American education.
I'm all in favor of teachers getting bonuses, just not based on standardized test scores.
I spend a few hundred dollars a year on supplemental math instruction for my child outside of school, because for various complex and interrelated reasons, she does not receive much benefit from the 2 hours 15 minutes per week of instruction time she is exposed to in the classroom. Because of this, I feel as if we parents should maybe get some of this bonus money, as reimbursment for our child's basic education expenses.
Comments are closed on this entry