Re: NCLB Left Behind

Posted by to the annoyance.... on 1/30/05

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Is it your intention to SPAM the board by repeating your
diatribe ad nauseum? Not to mention you are misrepresenting
yourself as being from each state...ND Liberal, ID Rebel...
what's next, you are from Oklahoma too?

On 1/30/05, ID Rebel wrote:
> On 1/17/05, Sheila Read wrote: ...
> .......
> Concerning NCLB: The only way you're going to not leave a
> child behind is to lower the standards to the Lowest Common
> Denominator. OR eliminate all events which might leave a
> child behind, such as any competitive contest like the
> Spelling Bee, as explained in >>>
> http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?
> newsid=13834334&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=478996&rfi=6
> <<< . " ... The administrators’ decision to eliminate the
> bee wasn’t a difficult one, Newman said.
>
> "There was no debate at all. It was one of the easiest
> decisions," the assistant superintendent [... of a
> Woonsocket, R.I., school district] said because "there was
> no question among the administrators" that a spelling bee
> was "contrary to the expectations" of No Child Left
> Behind. "No Child Left Behind says all kids must reach high
> standards," Newman said. "It’s our responsibility to find as
> many ways as possible to accomplish this." [... reach the
> SAME standards?].
>
> The administrators agreed, Newman said, that a spelling bee
> doesn’t meet the criteria of all children reaching high
> standards -- because there can only be one winner, leaving
> all other students behind.
>
> "It’s about one kid winning, several making it to the top
> and leaving all others behind. That’s contrary to No Child
> Left Behind," Newman said. A spelling bee, she continued,
> is about "some kids being winners, some kids being
> losers." As a result, the spelling bee "sends a message
> that this isn’t an all-kids movement," Newman said. [...
> then what's the purpose of the Grading System?].
>
> Furthermore, professional organizations now frown on
> competition at the elementary school level and are urging
> participation in activities that avoid winners, Newman said.
> That’s why there are no sports teams at the elementary
> level, she said as an example. [... don't ALL kids compete,
> naturally?].
>
> The emphasis today, she said, is on building self-esteem
> in all students.
>
> "You have to build positive self-esteem for all kids, so
> they believe they’re all winners," she said. "You want to
> build positive self-esteem so that all kids can get to where
> they want to go."
> [ ... but what if a kid wants to be a "winner", to go to the
> top of the class?].
> If you want more stories about NCLB failures, go to >>>
> http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_stories.html <<< .
> Then click on an appropriate Link, such as : Atrocities
> , which partially says " ...The National Center for
> Education Statistics [ ... @ http://nces.ed.gov/ ], the
> collection arm of the Education Department, found that high-
> poverty schools, especially in the inner cities, lose more
> than one-fifth of their faculties each year [... 100&37; in
5
> yrs!]. Teachers say that they leave because they want to be
> teachers -- not parents, police or psychologists." .
> ... or an "Outrage" link which says; " ...The only way to
> ensure we remain a world economic power is by elevating our
> public schools -- particularly the teachers who lead them --
> to the top tier of American society. We have treated
> teaching as a second-rate profession for decades -- with sub-
> par compensation, antiquated training, and arcane systems of
> accountability."
> .. or another Link about "Ailing [... failing?] CA
> Schools" ; " ...268 California schools -- including 41 in
> the Bay Area -- that have failed to meet the standards of
> the No Child Left Behind education act for four years.
> Under the law, those schools have exhausted their chances to
> raise student scores through teacher training and programs
> designed to help students improve academically, such as
> tutoring.
>
> Having failed to raise scores high enough, these CA schools
> now have four final options: replacing all staff, reopening
> as an autonomous charter school or being taken over by an
> outside management company or by the state. The entire
> Oakland district is already under state stewardship. The
> superintendent was ousted last year, and the elected school
> board became advisory, after the schools went bankrupt on
> their watch.
> The teachers union opposes the closures and regards
> the school takeover plan with suspicion. "If they turn
> these 13 schools over to a (charter) company like Edison or
> Aspire, there would be a big outcry in Oakland," Visnick
> [Union president] said, because the companies are not
> unionized. "This could affect their [the teachers']
> retirement and health benefits." ... the teachers' union
> has scheduled a rally ."
> .......

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Idaho postcards available, 1/17/05, by Sheila Read.
• Re: NCLB Left Behind, 1/30/05, by ID Rebel.
• Re: NCLB Left Behind, 1/30/05, by to the annoyance.....
• Re: Idaho postcards available, 10/23/05, by Darlene Wells.