Diatribune - no child left behind - Comments

Where are the Democrats on

Jacob Freeze — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:46:22 -0600

Where are the Democrats on No Child Left Behind? Here we have minority children crushed under a mind-mangling routine of drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, and more drills, drills, drills, drills, and more drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, and the Democrats are either supporting it or ignoring it.

Thanks again, Democratic stooges from Hell!

Kozol deserves a Nobel Prize for putting his life on the line to oppose this nightmare!

I didn't think

kerry — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:46:54 -0600

I didn't think that previous testing had put an end to social promotion in Texas though. Was I wrong about that? Did you have to pass in order to promote to the next grade and to graduate?

Not quite true.

Kidspeak — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:42:57 -0600

Texas began it's state-wide testing of kids in the late 70s - long before Bush II. I know, because I had just gotten through college and was a beginning teacher. The "Texas Assessment of Basic Skills" was imposed state-wide. It had much the same goals as its successor tests in Texas today. Not tied to any curriculum in particular (as it should have been. Good testing - found in some states - is well-done, unlike that test our students had to take.)

It was the first time that teachers and schools were judged for how their students were doing, and the suggestion was being made that money should follow success. The rest, I think, is history. . .

"Teach to Test" is loaded term.

Teach313 — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:25:22 -0600

"Teaching to test" implies all sort of horrors. It stifles imagination, crushes the life out students and teachers, etc. But if the test is a good test, what's the problem?

In theory, the system works like this. The "Test" is criterion based. The criteria are the state standards, a carefully considered list topics that sets out what should be mastered at each grade level. The next step is designing a curriculum that corresponds to the state standards.

If the criterion are well considered (the NCTM standards are an excellent example), the curriculum is aligned with the standards, and the test is well constructed, then the test will measure accurately how well the students have mastered the well-designed curriculum.

Nowhere in the progression from standards to test design is any teaching method spelled out. That's where we teachers bring in our expertise. I have at least five ways to teach multiplication for example and on any given day am using all five. Am I "teaching to the Test?" You bet. My students are learning multiplication. That's what's on the test for third graders.

If a district has bought drill-and-kill books that target the test, that is a failure of imagination on their part. If teachers use them, that is a failure of nerve on our part. If anyone wants my MEAP practice books, send me an email and I'll pull them out of the back of my closet, dust them off, and send you one. (I'll let you know what the postage is.)

The problem is that each state designs its own test and industries have formed around these tests. Also politicians, especially governors with aspirations of the Presidency, (that last bit is redundant), have too much control over the tests. Another problem is what is done with the results, (I'm talking about the punitive funding issue.) Those are only some of the problems facing teachers and students today. And they all are much more serious than teaching to the test.

NB: Sorry about the lapses into education-speak. NCTM = National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. MEAP = Michigan Educational Achievement Test. Educators do love their acronyms.

So little; yet so much

Betsy L. Angert — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:24:19 -0600

Dearest Kerry . . .

This assessment makes me smile. It does explain and expand much of what I read. Truly, the life of the super-rich is fascinating. So little effort affords great power.

Think about this

kerry — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:18:53 -0600

Gorge Bush never had a real job, never. He lived off of his father's name and connections while partying through life. So one day Karl Rove decides he should run for governor of Texas. I don't think he even lived in the state at the time. This was a problem. Plus as I said he never had a job. So, they got his friends to loan him the money to buy a baseball team so he could build a profile in Texas. He could have built a business with the money, but that would have been too much like work. So after a couple of years of living in Texas he sells his interest in the team pays off the loan? and pockets millions in profit and runs for governor. Are you kidding me? George Bush is the greatest living snow job in the history of the world. Karl Rove is the new P.T. Barnum and truly there really is a sucker born every minute and in America they actually vote.

President refuses "accountability" measurements

Betsy L. Angert — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:07:07 -0600

Dear [?] Kerry[?]. . .

I smile. I am forever fascinated that there are liberals such as you in Texas. Another illusion exposed.

This nation is fortunate. There are those that can remind us of the real Bush record on education. Sadly, now we experience it for ourselves throughout the country.

Do you not shake your head every time this President refuses to be "accountable" for the war effort or "punish" White House staffers for failing programs. Witness today's subpoenas.

Unfortunately

kerry — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:47:50 -0600

the Bush NCLB is all about test taking and statistics and nothing about learning. If you really want to see what NCLB does look at the disaster education has become in Texas, the first state to adopt it when W was Gov.

Do we continue to teach to tests?

Betsy L. Angert — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:37:31 -0600

Do we continue to teach to tests that only serve to fund schools, or . . .

Might we teach to children who could, if they love learning, create a better world.

Texas Seniors

kerry — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:27:25 -0600

I recently read a news article stating that the Texas Legislature is considering dropping the test required to graduate because so many seniors failed it this year. Texas was the first state to enact Bush's NCLB program and it is considered one of his great accomplishments.

The Art of Asking and Discovery

Betsy L. Angert — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:53:11 -0600

Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.
~ Albert Einstein [Physicist]

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
~ Albert Einstein [Physicist]

Please share your story . . .

Betsy L. Angert — Sat, 05 May 2007 14:28:00 -0600

As a boy, as a writer [male or female], do you feel free to express yourself?

As a student what was your experience of class work. Could you, would you tell your tales?

Mainstream coverage

Mandevilla — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:40:13 -0600

Thanks, Betsy.

I figure the mainstream media will pick up on the story in four or five years, well past Bush's present reign and well past any chance we might have had to correct the problem in mid-stream. It's sad to have so little confidence in the major media, but their track record leaves so little to hold up in honor, and there's no blood or sex in a story about long-standing cronyism and graft. It takes more than three minutes to tell this story and -- look! there goes Britney Spears!

I appreciate your reading the series. Feel free to share the links with friends, and invite them to cut and paste liberally.

I thank you for this enlightening series.

Betsy L. Angert — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:30:16 -0600

Dear Mandevilla . . .

When Big Business becomes public education or the schools serve industrialist and not students, we all suffer.

I thank you for this enlightening series.

The reporting is dense and perhaps that is the purpose. I need time to review this material in its totality; we all do. Perchance, those in power are hoping none of us will notice or bother to invest our energies in educating ourselves.