Reply #2: I'm so glad to hear Dean speak out about NCLB.

[LWolf]

It's an issue that needs to be dealt with. While I was glad to read his remarks, I don't like some of the language in the petition, so I didn't sign it.

Here is what the petition says:

I want real federal help for education, not rigid and unrealistic federal mandates.

This part is right on target.

I want education policies that will close achievement gaps, not lower standards.

This part is suspect. The whole "higher standards" dogma has been used to decimate public ed. Sort of like a war veteran with PTSD, when I and many teachers hear those words, the shields go up and we get ready to be assaulted. NCLB itself purports to legislate policies in order to close achievement gaps. Great words opening the doors to bad policy.

I do not want schools to “dumb down” their tests just so it can avoid federal penalties.

More key words sending up the shields: "dumb down" and "tests." I want teachers and schools to decide what tests they need to give when to best inform instruction. And I want the state and the feds to keep their non-educator noses and PAC donator pockets out of the whole thing.

I want someone to admit publicly that the "dumb down" rhetoric is full of shit. Pardon me, but it is. When you "raise" so called "standards" (really long laundry lists of isolated skills...not my definition of standards) a year or two higher than the current generations of adults had to achieve, then find out that kids are having trouble cramming in that much that fast, that's not "dumbing down." The only reason to "dumb down" a test is when the legislation behind the test is statistically impossible to achieve. A convenient choice of words.

I want Congress to reform the “No Child Left Behind” Act so that it helps teachers and school administrators, without undermining local control of education.

This is pretty good. "Helping," not "punishing." I personally want NCLB repealed in entirety. The helpful portions can be re-legislated under a new bill that doesn't carry the GWB contamination.