The true ugly face of NCLB seen in Florida now....turn failing schools into..well, something else.

[madfloridian]

There are 18 schools most likely facing great changes because they could not meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind program. There are no exceptions, no excuses, for not passing the standards set forth by the program voted in by Republicans and Democrats alike.

There are no exceptions for languages barriers, none for special learning problems except in very narrow circumstances (not even sure about that anymore). No understanding given that many of these areas are financially depressed. No exceptions.

Before I retired, the county was allocating more money to schools in some more affluent neighborhoods, schools of choice, magnet schools. Our school met none of those standards. Those schools had new textbooks, better supplies, more necessary equipment. I could not even get a much needed pull down wall map for my class. There was a pre-1991 map of Europe only, and that did not work too well.

But NCLB is now coming into its own...the real true face is coming out now of what it is all about.

It is about changing the public schools by restructuring them into something besides a public school. That is the bottom line. The options offered are all geared toward....wait for it..."privatizing" the public schools.

Here are the options given to these 18 schools if indeed they continue to meet the NCLB standards.

Schools face sanctions...18 in one county.

Restructuring a school is the most serious penalty for not meeting AYP, said Sherrie Nickell, the associate superintendent of learning.

Some restructuring options include the school becoming a charter school, replacement of staff or having a separate organization contract to run the school.

Rhonda Ashley, Polk's director of Title I schools, said for some schools the district would choose a fourth, more flexible option, which allows the district to control changes in the schools. Some of those options would include expanding or narrowing grade levels, or extending the school day or year.

See what I mean? Look at the options:

1. Becoming a charter school. Though they are start up funded with public money, they do not have to meet the regulations that public schools must meet. That is getting into some cloudy areas.

Charter schools do not have to keep students who do not perform to expectation and their standards. Correct me if some of that has changed. Where do you send those students then? Now they send them back to "public" schools whose funding is being taken away for "charter" schools.

2. Replacement of staff. So sad. Instead of providing support there are only penalties. There are so many good teachers at these 18 schools, laboring without proper tools and books.

3. Having a separate organization contract to run the school.This is the option that says "privatize" the most loudly. These schools whose funding has been sidetracked for private school vouchers and charter schools, and don't forget magnet schools which get all they need....these schools will now be turned over to a private contractor.

Many schools in Florida have already been "restructured." Very little about it in the news.

Whenever I post about education changes, many come along to tell me how beneficial all these changes are. Actually, all these changes come down to one thing....the destruction of the public school system in America.

Something Howard Dean said in 2003 really hit home. I believe we will be seeing more of these "restructured" schools.

2003 Howard Dean on NCLB... "every school in America by 2013 will be a failing school."

"The president's ultimate goal," said former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.), one of the Democrats who now harshly attacks NCLB, "is to make the public schools so awful, and starve them of money, just as he's starving all the other social programs, so that people give up on the public schools."

....."MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean on Sunday urged states to reject federal No Child Left Behind funding, and said he would if still governor of Vermont.

''It's going to cost them more in property taxes and other taxes than they are going to get out of it,'' Dean told The Associated Press following a campaign stop.

..."Every group, including special education kids, has to be at 100 percent to pass the tests,'' Dean said. ''No school system in America can do that. That ensures that every school will be a failing school.''

More from the Columbia Political Review. I have the quotes, but the link seems dated. It is called "Failing to fight failure".

So what can be done when states say they need more money, and the federal government says that they don’t? Unfortunately, the answer looks like nothing. The No Child Left Behind Act is a flawed and dangerously optimistic piece of legislation that simply cannot succeed anywhere near expectations. Worse, it actually has the potential to disrupt the successful programs that states have created by focusing on testing, and it ignores problems such as ballooning classroom size, under-funded English as a Second Language programs, and other basic needs. Even if the Bush administration poured billions more into NCLB to support its goals, the money and wishful thinking still wouldn’t help the education system evolve into a sound model for a decade. The Act is doomed to fail because it does not consider the needs of the states and the speed at which they can institute reform."

I remember teaching with math books that were still back in the last new system being taught. Our books were back in the old New Math, when other schools in richer areas had texts with the really new math system. I remember science books decades old and falling apart. I remember a teacher in a School of Choice which sent their rejects back to us....she laughed and said they had two sets of new texts. One for school and one for home so the children would not be inconvenienced.

This is 2008. Five years until 2013.

[annabanana]

1. They have ALWAYS aimed to shut down public education. It has been

on their "wish list" from the very beginning.

[madfloridian]

3. And look how long it has gone on...and how it is going on now

with congress almost speaking of it in hushed tones...nothing is done.

[marmar]

11. Exactly.....Part of their war on the commons.

Anything that's not privatized CAN'T be good in their warped estimation. :mad:

[dbackjon]

2. That is their goal - no educated masses

Easier to control the ignorant.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. That and there is money to be made in privatization. It's an ugly, ugly scheme all the way around an

whoever the Dem president is needs to fix this mess ASAP

[dbackjon]

12. Yup = another reason why Hill or Barack are the absolute musts

[PapaWhale]

5. and recruiting--:wtf:

While NCLB keeps the kids ignorant and vulnerable it also
mandates that military recruiters be allowed in assemblies and
on campus. What a cynical and cruel way to get more cannon
fodder for the Empire's wars for oil and domination.

[madfloridian]

6. Nice post....Welcome to DU.

I think someone has to step up and stop this juggernaut. But I doubt they will.

[Reader Rabbit]

27. One of my former students is leaving for Iraq today.

High school "didn't work out" for him. Gosh, I wonder why? And I also wonder if he was targeted by in-house recruiters?

NCLB is nothing but a complex plan to create generations of cannon and corporate fodder for the elite few who run the American plutocracy. And one of the nicest, most decent kids I ever had the privilege to teach may be yet one more statistic in this government-sanctioned con game.

Fuck.

[jmowreader]

32. I don't agree about the cannon fodder

I work for a defense contractor, and right now we're camouflaging a cutting-edge tactical vehicle. It's sitting about seven feet from my desk.

This thing has three weapons control computers, aviation-grade differential GPS, computerized suspension, computerized transmission, a computerized engine, and a coffee pot. (I'm not kidding about the last one. It's behind the driver's seat.) The only thing on this vehicle that a high school dropout could either operate or fix is the coffee pot.

Look at the Paladin gun, too...the M109A6 self-propelled howitzer Donald Rumsfeld was pushing before he became part of DU's favorite joke. It has computerized everything too.

Cannon fodder can't be stupid anymore, and the military's needs for intelligent gun-bunnies and grunts may solve the NCLB problem.

[RaleighNCDUer]

39. That's just the thing - the kids, even the dropouts, are NOT stupid.

They are merely being deliberatly trained to fail in school.

The military loves to get their hands on bright, but uneductated, enlistees - they can then build them up the way they like, and ALL their success is from their military training. It helps in developing a lasting bond with the military "Before I enlisted I was a loser - but look at what I can do now."

You surely know that there is a training manual for absoluetly everything in the service. These dropouts, this generation of cannon fodder, get the only success of their lives by learning what the military is very good at teaching. That's how they still manage to get recruits, five years into a war that nobody likes.

[MadHound]

7. Yup, this has been the plan all along

Privatize the school system and keep the poor kids ignorant.

The only ray of light in this whole mess is that NCLB is still up for renewal, and hopefully our representatives will let NCLB die the death it deserves. I don't have much hope however, since I keep seeing Dems talking about "reforming" NCLB:eyes: You can't reform such bad legislation, you drive a stake through its heart and kill it.

[madfloridian]

9. Well, the goal of the DLC appears to be charter schools.

So I doubt they will do much against NCLB.

[MadHound]

10. Yeah, I know

And I keep wondering how long groups like the NEA and other teachers' organizations are going to keep supporting the Dems when the party keeps letting us down.

[tanyev]

8. We've had several stories here about charter schools suddenly going bankrupt

and shutting their doors. No accountability.

[knitter4democracy]

16. I've heard of some here in Michigan, too.

I once interviewed at a new charter school that was getting started in Cleveland. The supt. was so messed up and had absolutely no experience with elementary ed. None. I ran from that place, and then I read later how the bishop (they were in a former Catholic elementary school) cancelled their lease for multiple lease violations, and later, the school closed for good. When people complain about our public schools, they don't think about charter schools being run by just anyone, even people with zero experience.

[Reader Rabbit]

13. This teacher happy to give you Rec Number 5.

Tomorrow we are being forced to watch sample lessons by a "literacy expert." School money is being spent to pay this expert and the subs for those of us who will have to be out of our classrooms to watch said expert.

Pardon me while I now scream incoherently for several minutes.

[madfloridian]

14. If I were not retired....they would fire me for speaking out too much

:hi:

[knitter4democracy]

15. I remember first thinking that back in 2003.

They said that one of the local schools had failed to meet the standards. Well, there were a million reasons why, but the law doesn't give a crap about that. The local paper had a whole article detailing the consequences, and I sat there shaking and livid. That piece of crap law is all about privatizing public education, destroying public education. That's what it's all about.

Repealing that has to be one of the first jobs of the new president. Not fixing it, getting rid of it.

[madfloridian]

17. They don't care why.

They have been taking away here from the schools that need things the most and giving it to the schools in wealthier communities.

[knitter4democracy]

18. Which is just plain wrong.

Well, Katrina showed us what they think of the poor, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Grrrr!

[LWolf]

19. I oppose the privatization of public education,

and I've opposed NCLB since it became law.

:kick:

[Ilsa]

20. My son will be taking a modified test in a few weeks. He won't be

able to pass the regular test because of his ADD and other language issues (sort of like autism spectrum stuff). The good news is that this is a new test and the standard hasn't been set. He'll probably pass it. The NCLB rules here in Texas appear to change every year or so.

My brother-in-law used to teach at a dirt-poor school district in East Texas. No decent resources. The kids came to school dirty every day. Families terribly poor. I guess Rick Perry is going to shut them down also.

[madfloridian]

21. Special-needs kids struggling with NCLB

You can not make the minds of all children the same. It is just so wrong to try. I really disagree with one sentence though, and I will bold it.

http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/320795.html

"One of Katina Brown's students has a difficult time following sequences. By the time Brown gets to steps three and four, the boy is still focused on the first two steps. And as hard as he tries, and for all the tears he cries, his brain still cannot take in all that information.

He's just one of the students Brown teaches as a sixth-grade special-needs teacher at Leestown Middle School. Aside from making sure her students learn the lessons of the day, she's also required to make sure students take and pass state math and reading tests, just like their peers with regular needs.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools that are unable to get their special-needs students to meet these targets are punished. Leestown is one of six Fayette County schools that failed to meet NCLB goals last year in both reading and math in part because of their special-needs students. Nationally, schools are struggling to help special-needs students meet NCLB learning goals; in the past, educators weren't held accountable by federal standards for the achievement of these students.

Many educators agree with the theory behind the NCLB law, that schools should be held accountable for the learning and achievement of all students regardless of barriers. But it's the execution of the law that is troublesome, they say. Expecting students with learning difficulties to take and pass one-size-fits-all math and reading exams like students without disabilities is unfair and unrealistic."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That is simply not true. Most "educators" believe that children are unique and learn in different ways. In fact I never had a professor in any course, nor have I ever heard a real professional educator say that schools should be held accountable for all students regardless of barriers.

I have heard lawmakers say it. I have heard right wing demogogues say it, but not educators who truly understand that all do not learn the same way. You can not test some children with learning problems. You simply can not. You can measure progress in some ways.

[mpendragon]

34. Texas miracle

One problem with NCLB that might have carried over from the Texas plan it was based on is that poorly performing students were classified as special needs regardless of an actual assessment identifying a learning disability. This dramatically improved test scores in the 2nd round because the population of students being tested had changed and bloated special education programs with students that didn't belong in them.

This sort of thing wasted instruction resources and hurt kids. I'm not familiar enough with NCLB to say if this is now a national problem but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.

[teacher gal]

22. thank you for this post

will try to help keep it up there

[madfloridian]

23. I appreciate that. Congress needs to get off their butts and do something

about this.

[teacher gal]

24. I'm convinced many

of those people in Congress know very well that NCLB is a disaster, wreaking havoc and destruction, but they voted for this horribly misnamed monster and now they're making efforts to save face...

[classykaren]

25. didn't Bush say the teachers union is a terrorist organization?

[teacher gal]

41. That was Rod Paige

...Bush's first Secretary of Education

[Sancho]

26. Gerald Bracey has some of the best discussions of NCLB:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/things-fall-apart-no-chi_b_35935.html

http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/

http://nochildleft.com/2004/oct04absurd.html

http://ednews.org/articles/20198/1/An-Interview-with-Gerald-Bracey-The-War-Against-Americas-Public-Schools--Five-Years-Later/Page1.html



:dem:

[madfloridian]

29. Thanks, will take a look.

:hi:

[pattmarty]

28. Were this to continue (Republican Pres & congress for the .....

.... next eight years and beyond) the US would rank "right up there" with nations like Haiti. Third world here we come.

[pacalo]

30. K&R.

[defendandprotect]

31. This is simply about totally destroying American schools . . .

and making some $ for the Bush family along the way ---
one of the programs required if you are a failing school in NJ is ...

C.O.W. which is a Neal Bush product --

and stands for "Curiculum on Wheels" ---

A teacher friend in NJ asked me, "Do you think they're laughing at us?"

[treehuggnlibrul]

33. Like cars in a parking lot.

Rafe Esquith, who wrote, "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire," was once asked what he would say to proponents of NCLB. He said (I'm paraphrasing a bit), "I would tell them that children are like cars in a parking lot. It takes a different key to start each car. And children don't all learn the same way."

My 9-year-old daughter (we're in Colorado) has dyslexia and anxiety (probably the result of the immense pressure of testing). Her school has no program for kids with dyslexia. In fact, the district told a gathering of special ed teachers this past summer they were not to "mention dyslexia to parents, not to discuss dyslexia, or even suggest testing for it." It does not exist and does not qualify as a learning disability.

No child left behind? Except for kids who learn differently, or kids who aren't in an affluent district, or kids who need special education. A dyslexia tutor is expensive, and we're fortunate to be able to pay for it. But what about kids whose parents can't afford it? How many kids are going undiagnosed, or aren't being taught in a way that meets their learning style?

Our elementary school is in the top 8 percent in the state and met 97 percent of the criteria, but still doesn't qualify. Affluent schools qualify and get funding. Schools that need the help? Well, they're left behind.

PS -- House Bill 1223 in Colorado will provide dyslexia training for teachers. If anyone is reading this and in CO, please contact your rep and ask them to support it.

[cachukis]

35. The curriculum here in Florida is under modification as well

Both English and Reading teachers (don't know about others) are scheduled to follow cookie cutter formats to ease in new teachers. I'm in my second year of this program and while it makes planning easier to contend with the new Sunshine State Standards, it makes it difficult to bring in contemporary issues and their inherent extrapolations.

I sense that the system is evolving into THE System.

[madfloridian]

37. It was starting before I retired....the scripting.

It was weird.

[katty]

36. Dean is correct - starve and privatize - painfully obvious

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. Note that affluent Republicans who send their children to private schools get

1. Small classes (yet they claim that class size doesn't matter)

2. Up-to-date equipment and buildings (yet they claim that this is irrelevant)

3. A curriculum that is NOT based on constant testing (yet they claim that public schools need this)

4. Lots of guidance in preparing for college

[Deny and Shred]

40. When I taught in S. Bronx, and NCLB was instituted, I had a long

conversation with another teacher who was quite familiar. His father was a Chancellor of Schools of a US city. This teacher said his father at one point was inundated with calls from well-heeled business groups looking to set up charter schools in his city.
What this guy told me was once a public school "fails," the students must choose another option, among them charter schools. Charter schools are free of the normal public rules, including not having to hire teachers who are licensed, less restrictions on class size, less choice in the curriculum, among many others. The charter schools STILL GOT THE SAME AMOUNT of $$$ per student as public schools from the Federal government.
His take was these businesses would open schools with the intention of cutting every financial corner, hiring Lord knows who for min. wage or below, offering few classes, and stuffing in as many as possible. If the kids cut school most of the time, even better. They get paid for no shows.

He said Wackenhut, the Security and Prison Company, was among those pushing to get in early.
We agreed this was a way for Bush cronies to feed at the Public trough, yet again. This was like 2003.

[madfloridian]

42. You are right. They get public money, but are really not public schools.

I get argued with here when I have said that, but they just are not public schools. They don't have to meet the same regulations at all.

[JohnyCanuck]

43. What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?
Finland's teens score extraordinarily high on an international test. American educators are trying to figure out why.
By ELLEN GAMERMAN
February 29, 2008; Page W1

Helsinki, Finland

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7.

Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they're way ahead in math, science and reading -- on track to keeping Finns among the world's most productive workers.

The Finns won attention with their performances in triennial tests sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group funded by 30 countries that monitors social and economic trends. In the most recent test, which focused on science, Finland's students placed first in science and near the top in math and reading, according to results released late last year. An unofficial tally of Finland's combined scores puts it in first place overall, says Andreas Schleicher, who directs the OECD's test, known as the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The U.S. placed in the middle of the pack in math and science; its reading scores were tossed because of a glitch. About 400,000 students around the world answered multiple-choice questions and essays on the test that measured critical thinking and the application of knowledge. A typical subject: Discuss the artistic value of graffiti.

The academic prowess of Finland's students has lured educators from more than 50 countries in recent years to learn the country's secret, including an official from the U.S. Department of Education. What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students. "We don't have oil or other riches. Knowledge is the thing Finnish people have," says Hannele Frantsi, a school principal.


http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

[teacher gal]

44. I agree there is much we could learn

from Finland, much indeed. However, it really isn't fair to compare test scores between a country like the United States and Finland. Finland is a tiny relatively homogeneous nation while the U.S. is the most ethnically and racially diverse nation on earth - not to mention we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of all the wealthy nations.