No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out
Jim Arnold (Pelham City Schools)
A while back, I ran a piece from Jim Arnold, superintendent of Pelham City Schools in Mitchell County. Several of you commented that you wished you worked for such a straight-talking school chief.
I think that sentiment is going to be even stronger after this piece, which I plan to run on the Monday education page that I assemble for the AJC. But I can’t fit all of it in the newspaper, so here is the full version.
By Jim Arnold
We’ve done it now. Eleven years we had to educate the public, to register our protests and do everything in our power to warn people what was coming, and we blew it. We knew the moment would eventually come and we hem-hawed, looked at the ground, kicked at the dirt with our shoes and failed to look the opposition in the eye and face them down. All of us saw this coming, but very few took a stand and now we – and our students – are paying the price. We could have been prophets but failed the test.
We allowed the proponents of NCLB to control the discussion from the beginning. They wrote the language, sent out the media notices and explanations, wrote the definitions of AYP, Highly Qualified and leaned heavily on the fact that none of us would dare protest anything to do with a name that implies we would be providing a high quality education for every single child in America. They were right. We chose not to speak out, not to fight against a system we knew from the beginning would set us all up for failure, and instead, in our best Dudley DoRight impersonations we set about to change the way we taught and measured and tested and graded and thought.
We knew from the outset that NCLB and its goal of 100 percent – every child proficient in every area as determined by a single test on a single day each year – was patently, blatantly and insidiously absurd, but we took no concerted action. We knew Adequate Yearly Progress was a sham, and we literally and figuratively rolled over and tried our best to meet whatever impossible goals they set for us and our students. We knew that Federal law in NCLB was a violation of Federal law in IDEA but we went along with the insanity of testing Students with Disabilities based on chronological age rather than by IEP.
We learned very quickly and much to our chagrin that some student scores – usually the lowest ones – were counted not once, not twice, but often as many as three times, but we went along to get along. All of us were aware that Highly Qualified, for all the high rhetoric that went along with it, only served to make certification as much of a barrier as humanly possible for Special Education teachers regardless of degree or experience. It seems the teachers we needed most were subjected to the greatest roadblocks to reaching the nirvana of HiQ certification.
We tried our best to play the game but the game was rigged from the start. When the AMO’s were low it was pretty easy for most schools. When the AMO’s went up and more and more schools were labeled “failing” we looked around in a panic for help. Surely nobody believed a school deserved the failing label because two or three kids in a subgroup didn’t pass a test? Yes they did. Yes they still do. We let them make the definitions and apply the labels, even when we realized the absurdity of it all.
We actually pretended to believe that it was important for us to make sure that every child was tested on those all important test days so none could escape the trauma we inflicted upon them. We even learned in some places to game the system and hold back those kids we feared might not pass the test or might raise those student numbers to create a subgroup in areas we really didn’t want to see a subgroup or, God help us, to cheat or to make sure that we could hold out two or three or four of “those kids” on test days so their poor scores wouldn’t have a negative effect.
Oh sure, some of you stuck your necks out and said something to the effect of “NCLB forced us to take a closer look at ourselves, and we are better off for that” in spite of the fact that it was our students that were suffering the consequences. What balderdash. What hubris. Our kids were the ones whose education was stilted by our submission to the belief that one test could effectively distill and determine the depth and extent of an entire year of a child’s education. They are the ones whose time was wasted by “academic pep rallies” and “test prep” and by the subtle and insidious ways we told them the test was “important” and put pressure on them to “do their best because our school is counting on you.”
They were the ones that did without art and music and chorus and drama because we increased the amount of time they spent in ELA and Math. They were the ones that had time in their Social Studies and Science classes cut back more and more so schools could focus on the “really important areas” of ELA and Math. They were the ELL’s that couldn’t speak English but still had to take the test. Their teachers were the ones that were told “your grading of the children in your classes doesn’t count any more because standardization is more important to us that the individual grades you provide.” This told them in effect that their efforts at teaching were important but only if they taught using “this” methodology or “this” curriculum, then, when things started to go badly, they were the first to be blamed for the failure of public education. They were told to teach every child the same way with the same material but make sure to individualize while you’re at it. Hogwash.
After a couple of years of this insanity, the “NI” status began to take its toll. Someone somewhere invented the term “failing schools” and, unsurprisingly, the label stuck. Students were given the opportunity to transfer to more test-successful schools, but at a price. Schools that did not meet AYP standards, oddly enough, were often those with high minority populations and high poverty. Nobody seemed to notice the zip code effect that left predominantly white schools meeting AYP standards and minority schools caught by the “failing” label. Oh surely, we reasoned, our government would not want to put public education in a situation it could not win………..or would they?
I struggled with the rest of you as to why NCLB would go to such great lengths to make public education appear to be such a failure, to set up a system that would guarantee failure for practically every public school as we advanced toward that magical 100 percent level and provide no tangible rewards for success and such punitive actions for not meeting arbitrary goals. On top of all of that, I failed to recognize why our nation’s legislators so nimbly avoided even the discussion of reauthorization to change what everyone knew was a failed policy. One day it finally hit me.
They didn’t want to change the policy, because the policy was designed in theory and in fact not to aid education but to create an image of a failed public school system in order to further the implementation of vouchers and the diversion of public education funds to private schools.
I am not usually a conspiracy theory guy, but this was no theory. These were cold hard facts slapping me in the face. We failed in our obligations to protect our students from one of the most destructive educational policies since “separate but equal.” We did not educate the public on the myth and misdirection of Adequate Yearly Progress, and we allowed closet segregationists to direct the implementation of policies that we knew would result in our being the guys in the black hats responsible for “the failure of public education.”
Now we are paying the price. AYP is here to stay in one form or another, and the vast majority of our parents and public really believe the propaganda that it actually measures a school’s educational progress. If we try to convince them otherwise we are “making excuses.”
Vouchers – especially for private and charter schools exempt from the same restrictive, destructive policies we are forced to endure – are a part of every legislative session in almost every state. High stakes testing for all public education students is considered a necessary reality and teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Student test scores will soon determine teacher pay in some places even with no data to support the correlation. Students that do not graduate high school in four years are labeled as dropouts, even if they graduate in nine or 10 semesters.
Only first-time test takers are considered in the grading system for schools regardless of how many students ultimately pass the test. It will take years to undo the damage done to science, social studies, fine arts, foreign languages and other academic electives. Generations will not be enough to rid ourselves and our students of the testing mania neuroses created by our attempts to quantify the unquantifiable.
I hope the generation of teachers and administrators that follows has learned something from the failure of our generation to ward off those determined to destroy public education. We didn’t stand up to be counted, we didn’t stand in the schoolhouse door and tell them they couldn’t do that to our kids, and we didn’t educate the public about what a gigantic failure another one size fits all education policy would be. In the words of that great educator and philosopher Jimmy Buffet: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.”
We have all been left behind.
– From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
339 comments Add your comment
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
12:31 pm
@Once Again, you crack me up!! Children won’t be helped by switching deck chairs on the Titanic! SOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE! Why don’t most people see this???? Guess it is just easier to believe, what one needs to believe to get through life! Did you see the commercial about the robot running the classroom due to cost cutting measures. The mom in the commerical says… well at least it’s free. It was a commercial about daycare.
HS Public Teacher
August 31st, 2011
12:31 pm
@BehindEnemyLines – Huh? What? Yeah, I thought that you said nothing….
Good Grief
August 31st, 2011
12:39 pm
“Now now there…let’s not start the Bush blaming. NCLB was a liberal idea brought forth by Ted Kennedy and the dems…foolishly, signed into law by GB. NCLB had unrealistic goals which made the writers of the bill feel good about themselves and their liberal worldview. This is a failure of LIBERALISM.”
Agree with this statement completely. Those can complain about Bush all you want, but the man tried his damnedest to be bi-partisan and take on this liberal policy. GWB did no such thing as to create NCLB to destroy public education, that couldn’t be further from the truth and you people know it.
NCLB has become another entitlement program and the masses of parents that have not been making good parental decisions are still using it to their advantage. Illegal immigrant children are using this to gain access to the better schools. We are destroying what remaining good public school we have left by keeping these ridiculous policies in tact.
This is something that Obama can undo, but he’ll just join the zombies out there and continue to blame the previous administration on everything incluing his dismal approval ratings.
irisheyes
August 31st, 2011
12:39 pm
@Good Mother, let me simplify this. In 2014 if ONE special education student (who may have an IQ of 70) fails the CRCT that is written on their chronological grade level, not their achievement level, then the entire school is labeled as failing. If ONE student who received free or reduced lunch (and may have had to get themselves up and off to school because mom was out all night doing drugs) fails, then the ENTIRE school is labeled as failing. If ONE student who arrived in this country in August not speaking any English fails, then the ENTIRE school is labeled as failing. Do you see the problem with this? Yes, schools need to be held accountable, and teachers need to be assessed to ensure that they ARE teaching and not just passing students (or showing movies), but is NCLB and a single standardized criterion test given over a couple of days in April the best way to do it? Is there a better way?
Also, if parents are going to insist that AYP is the ONLY way to determine whether a school is good or not, then they should never complain when they lose art, music, or PE. If you’re going to use just reading and math to determine the success of a school, then when times get tough, schools are only going to focus on reading and math. Yes, it stinks, but these are the unintended consequences of NCLB. If you don’t like it, call you rep and INSIST that this law gets revised and re-written so that our children get the full spectrum of education. Otherwise, this is what you are going to continue to get.
Get rid of PC
August 31st, 2011
12:45 pm
In GCPS students are transfering into schools using AYP into schools that are not suppose to be taking permissing transfers! Wake the heck up people, even our best schools are being dumbed-down all in the name of diversity, fairness, and equal access to quality public education. Polical correctness is killing us!
NCLB
August 31st, 2011
12:47 pm
NCLB = No Cheater Left Behind
HS Public Teacher
August 31st, 2011
12:50 pm
@Good Grief – You are wrong. NCLB was born out of a Texas effort while Bush was Governor. There was no liberal influence there at all.
I don’t know where you get your info from, but it is wrong.
mathmom
August 31st, 2011
12:50 pm
I didn’t think it was a conspiracy to support vouchers. I thought it was a conspiracy to celebrate mediocrity and effectively ensure that the current generation of students would be too stupid to question the actions of the government. NCLB is patently unconstitutional, as are other federal “educational” programs, but this one is particularly vile.
Teacher Reader
August 31st, 2011
12:50 pm
Teachers, parents, and anyone who wants to understand education, needs to read The Leipzig Connection, by Paolo Lionni. It’s a short, very well written book that will describe why our schools are the way that they are. This is not about NCLB or standardized testing. It goes back to the psychology that is used for the majority of teaching strategies taught in schools of education today.
Look at the old McGuffey Readers for the grade level that your child is currently in, and then ask yourself if your child would be able to read them. They probably won’t be able to. We’ve dumbed down the vocabulary that we teach children, and the “new” math doesn’t prepare our children for much.
Parents need to understand that what has happened in our schools began at the turn of the 19th Century, with the formation of today’s psychology, and the millions upon millions of dollars that the Rockefeller’s have put into education to change a system that was working into one that works less and less.
Mac
August 31st, 2011
12:53 pm
@Pompano – “@Lil – and in order to address the differences in learning ability, the Public School Systems have dumbed down their product so that all kids think they are “winners”. The goal is not to lift kids up – it’s bringing all kids back to the lowest common denominator.”
You are correct – what you seem to miss is that this has happened due to NCLB. Pretty much what the writer was getting at – it was designed to create failure and mediocrity in the public school system. The irony is that people on both sides agree that public schools are struggling, what everyone needs to realize is that is mainly due to NCLB that this is happening. The people some of you are defending are the ones taking all your tax money – it isn’t the teachers, it is the consultants for ‘failing schools’ and the multitude of federal and state people assigned to advise and ‘fix’ the bad schools while being paid large salaries and the testing companies that are wasting our tax money – not the teachers. All NCLB has done is created a very large money sinkhole and standardize our kids.
Scott
August 31st, 2011
12:54 pm
“We increased the amount of time they spent in ELA and Math” – mission accomplished. Despite the absurdities of NCLB, something good has come out of it. If schools were holding kids accountable to learn, there would have been no need for the Feds to impose a one-size-fits-all solution. Maybe it’s time for states to show they can do it better. Because grade inflation while ignoring skill deficits hurts the kids much more than NCLB ever did.
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
12:59 pm
Can anyone tell me if they think a student that just met the standards in math, end of crct, not exceeds, should be placed into the accelerated math class? The levels would be, math, advanced math, accelerated math.
Dr NO aka Mr Sunshine
August 31st, 2011
1:00 pm
“More whining from another failure that fears the end of his feeding from the public trough. Nothing new to see here.”
Agreed…Mr Combover is afraid his gravy train may come to an end and he needs a good ole fashioned firing. Another misinformed govt slacker.
Lilburn Lady
August 31st, 2011
1:01 pm
This guy is blatantly wrong, a whiner and an excuse maker. No Child Left Behind was instituted back in the 1980’s because our schools were failing our children. Kids were graduating from high school who could not read or write! The average 15-year-old 30 years ago had an average vocabulary of over 15,000 words. Now, a 15-year-old has less than half that many words in their vocabulary. You can blame too much tv and video games, lax parenting, behavioral issues, the explosion of non-english-speaking children in schools, but don’t blame a program who tried to instill some accountability and some way of truly measuring what kids were learning in school.
Teacher, administrators and most of all, teachers unions fought this program tooth and nail from the beginning. They didn’t want accountability, they wanted a free rein in schools to try out their new “teaching principles” such as teaching children things like “self esteem” and “moral values”. A consulting firm that reviewed the Cobb County schools a few years back was tasked with determining how the school system could raise reading scores. One of their conclusions was that perhaps the schools could use the time they were spending to teach “self esteem” in class and direct that time towards reading (duh). The result of that little experiment in self esteem has produced a crop of children who think very highly of themselves, so highly, in fact that they feel entitled to lie, cheat and plagiarize their way to a grade because “they deserve it”. Of course, I mean they don’t have any idea that hard work and accomplishments result in good self esteem, they were taught that they are all special simply because they are here.
I could go on and on, but basically, the teacher’s unions have perpetrated a massive fraud upon our nation, our children and upon the teachers themselves. The message they send is that teachers are not to blame, that teachers should not be held accountable, nor should school systems be responsible for the fact that since the 1960’s, our nations schools have been in a really scary slide. No matter how much money has been pumped into schools over the past 20 years, scores continue to drop, graduation rates are scandalously low and companies are having more and more difficulty finding Americans who have the skills and education to fill their jobs. You can blame a lot of things for this, but ultimately, you can’t blame it on No Child Left Behind because the slide began long before that.
To Kevin from Good Mother
August 31st, 2011
1:06 pm
Your childish name-calling says a lot more about you than it does about me.
@ lilburn lady
August 31st, 2011
1:11 pm
Considering that there are no teachers unions in the state of Georgia, where would you point the finger for perpetuating the “massive fraud” here?
To Lilburn Lady from Good Mother
August 31st, 2011
1:12 pm
Very well said. Applause. Applause. Applause.
Nurse from the past
August 31st, 2011
1:12 pm
Jim, what in the world can we as Amercians and taxpayer do to untangle this mess of NCLB?
We have been quiet too long. We never wanted to muddy the waters and now the water is like the Dead Sea.
Tell us Jim what we can do? I live in southwest ga and would really like some advice.
To @Lilburn Lady
August 31st, 2011
1:13 pm
The massive fraud is the belief that teachers should not be held accountable. The massive fraud is the belief by many, not all, teachers is that they have no influence on a child’s education but they should be paid anyway.
Good Mother
BRW
August 31st, 2011
1:14 pm
GW sure tried to take credit for NCLB, now he must take credit for it being a failure. That’s a typical CONSERVATIVE problem.
Teacher Reader
August 31st, 2011
1:15 pm
@ Scott, the amount of time may be increased, but is this time being used wisely? Do most teachers truly understand how children learn to read? Are most elementary teachers really prepared to teach math and reading, or is their knowledge purely that of the psychology behind the teaching?
You see our kids aren’t learning. Rockefeller, Jr spent much of Rockefeller’s money promoting these new teaching methods. You see our teachers are taught that our children are like animals, and are taught as such. Our children are being socialized in school, not educated. Even Rockefeller, Jr. who sent his own children to the newly formed schools using these methods of teaching, admitted that his children did not learn how to read or do math, and in fact they did not like to learn.
Our schools have changed slowly. This change happened in the South faster than the North, because things were a mess in the South after the Civil War.
Anyone thinking that NCLB is truly holding children accountable for learning, is so mistaken. Our kids know squat compared to those that were living at the same age 100 years ago. Our kids don’t know geography, literature, have smaller vocabularies, and math is simply frightening. No, our kids are being taught to be good socialize citizens and nothing more.
Jan
August 31st, 2011
1:16 pm
Superintendent Arnold is right on the mark. It helps me to retain my faith that are good, caring people who want to see the best for our children.
Atlanta Mom
August 31st, 2011
1:16 pm
About 8 years ago, our middle school principal did a presentation about NCLB and the 100% goals for 2014. It was so absurd, I figured surely someone would come to his/her senses. I was wrong.
As for “..policy was designed in theory and in fact not to aid education but to create an image of a failed public school system in order to further the implementation of vouchers and the diversion of public education funds to private schools.” Mr. Arnold hits the nail on the head.
The T
August 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
Amen! As an educator, I agree with Mr. Arnold 100% and I have shared my sentiments whenver I could, with whomever I could. It hasn’t changed anything, but I and others can say that not all of us fell for this trick called NCLB. Although the school that I work at has made AYP, I know that it so often can boild down to 1 or 2 students on 1 or 2 days. NCLB does nothing to confirm or uphold the hard work done by educators every day. NCLB is a recipe for disaster, and all educators should have recognized that from the beginning.
historydawg
August 31st, 2011
1:32 pm
Standardized testing was invented to process recruits quickly during the First World War. Since then, they have oppressed American children. The best schools in Europe use an American model of public ed and have limited testing. Thanks for the great article. The willingness to accept blame for accepting NCLB is more effective than simply a rant of complaints.
Teacher Reader
August 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
@ Good Mother
Lilburn Lady is right on on what she says. I’ll take it a step further, that the General Education Board (began by Rockefeller) funded the National Teachers Association. So really, it’s the philanthropy efforts of the Rockefellers through changing the teachers colleges throughout the country via University of Chicago and Columbia’s Teachers College. It’s the “psychology” of Skinner, and others that teachers are taught.
Gates, the Baptist Priest who help Rockefeller Jr, spend Rockefeller Sr’s money wrote in the General Education’s Occasional Letter No. 1:
” In our dreams, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural fold. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians not lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of who we have ample supply.
The task we set before ourselves is very simple as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are. So we will organize our children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shops and on the farm.”
These people who began this movement, the “scientists” and the rich philanthropists wanted to change society, and they were successful in what they set out to do.
Education Insider
August 31st, 2011
1:39 pm
Having seen the turnover in principals at the elementary school in Pelham, a special ed director whose position is a lock since she makes sure students are appropriately labeled so their parents can get an SSI check for their “disability”, and an AP at the high school who encourages students whose scores would cause them not to make AYP to “withdraw” since they are already “so far behind”, which might be why they have a 65% graduation rate…52% if you are black, one would think Mr. Arnold would have more then enough to do cleaning up his own mess.
Testing doesn’t cause 1.2 million kids a year to drop out of school. It wasn’t NCLB that caused Pelham High School to land on the Johns Hopkins Dropout Factory list a few years back. It was a lack of accountability that got us into this mess. Did I miss the part where Mr. Arnold explains how it should be done? No, just whining and finger pointing…you are in the right profession Mr. Arnold.
Given that graduation rates have fallen, as has AYP results at the high school, perhaps the handwriting on the wall is that Mr. Arnold’s job with Pelham City Schools is in jeopardy. He is going to have lots of friends in the unemployment line…everyone Pelham City Schools failed to graduate.
to teach is to touch the future
August 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
I wish I had an hour to teach my students and/or prepare with my colleagues for every hour spent on test prep and the related meetings. I still have hope….. come on,all of us! We need to work for these children. They have only one childhood. We all are to blame for not standing up and saying the truth to power. I am as guilty as anyone.
Parent - D.H. Stanton
August 31st, 2011
1:42 pm
I wish this man could come lead the Atlanta Public Schools back to a district worthy of respect.
Teacher, but NOT in Dekalb
August 31st, 2011
1:42 pm
Thank you W! Woo that George Bush sure is something, isn’t he? He is the gift that keeps on giving and this piece of, er, legislation will continue to give for generations to come. What’s worse, and I agree with the author, is that no one spoke up. Where was the opposition from the Democrats? I have often compared NCLB and its implementation to “Obamacare” and it being “jammed through” Congress.
Dewitt118
August 31st, 2011
1:46 pm
Well stated Dr. Arnold! Great commentary!
William Casey
August 31st, 2011
1:48 pm
@GoodMother: Your sweeping generalizations are tiresome. Not every public school resembles the APS. My tests were reliable and much more difficult than any standardized test. Mr. Arnold is absolutely right. NCLB was designed to make every public school look bad. Don’t preach to me about “accountability.” Anyone receiving an “A” in my class EARNED it. And I’ll state the obvious: some children will ALWAYS be left behind regardless of what any politician says.
The correct way
August 31st, 2011
1:50 pm
At the beginning of every school year a child should take a test. This test will be the basis of his education for that year. And at the mid to end of the year the same test will be given for comparison as to how that child did, did he know the difference between there, their, they’re as an example??? Did he improve himself? If so, how is he ready for the next level aka a test at the end of the year to determine if he can handle harder subject matter, this would be in conjunction with evaluating the first and second test.
The solution is to remove the barriers and titles of the advancing to the next grade as a general label and have it at the course level, therefore instead of being an 11th grader he would have a knowledge of a 10th grade science level vs while being in a college math level.
Upon graduating high school there should some minimums that must be met. You should be able to read and understand at a certain level while your math skills could be at another level.
Here’s the real problem we teach and tell our kids its important to learn what they are being taught however once we are out of school the vast majority of information is useless and or forgotten due to non use. Hence, the reason why few adults can name the 13th president or why they don’t know what the capital of Maine is.
A simple example would be to consider pre-k if the child knows before arriving at school his shapes why should the child sit though lesson of shapes, have that child move onto with advance shapes. If a 6 year old can do math of a 10 year old they should be in the same class instead of being held with the peers as the child may only be able to read with the rest of the 6 year olds.
EducationCEO
August 31st, 2011
1:51 pm
And none of Georgia’s Republicans can blame Obama because it was their buddy Bush who created this mess. And allowed his friends (who own/run textbook companies) to benefit.
MD '77
August 31st, 2011
1:54 pm
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard someone speak the unvarnished truth about what has occurred over the last two decades. We have been mislead in our thinking by a bunch of opportunistic demagogues, pandering to our ignorance.
Hats off to Jim Arnold
Mom of 3
August 31st, 2011
2:01 pm
Mr. Arnold is spot on! Everything he says is correct. I was a teacher before I had kids. My oldest child is in 7th grade. It is hard not to notice how public schools are imploding. I felt in my heart in order for my children to get a true well rounded education, we had to put them in private school last year. And I have not been disappointed for one day. There is no talk of CRCT, standards, or AYP. The teachers are allowed to be passionate about what they teach and have some autonomy. I told my husband “it feels like when we were growing up”. (and my husband and I both went to public schools)
To The Correct Way
August 31st, 2011
2:03 pm
Excellent thinking. I really appreciate your thoughts regarding testing the child at the beginning and giving the same test at the end.
I also appreciate your approach to learning subjects at different levels.
Good Mother
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
2:04 pm
…but it’s free!!! Can’t wait for free health care and free housing either! After all, if everyone is entitled to a free education, should everyone be entitled to everything else for free????
To William Casey
August 31st, 2011
2:05 pm
Why will some children ALWAYS be left behind?
I find that hard to swallow.
Good Mother.
atlmom1
August 31st, 2011
2:09 pm
but nowhere on the explanation does it indicate if a white kid doesn’t pass then the school is labeled a failure. Um, aren’t all kids important?
Also – it doesn’t matter how a teacher ‘knows how kids learn to read.’ If they actually READ, they will be better of than learning about self esteem. It’s that simple. Not so hard. They just read.
My kid sits and reads for hours EVERY DAY. some new books, some books he has already read. It doesn’t matter to us (I mean, it would be great if he read new stuff all the time, but I remember rereading books all the time as a kid). Reading is important, because it teaches kids how to read (duh), but it also teaches them about the world, about spelling, grammar, etc. etc…
To Irish Eyes from Good Mother
August 31st, 2011
2:10 pm
I dont’ need you to simplify anything for me. Your condescending attitude has little affect on me but if you’re a teacher, it has lasting and damaging effects on the children, so clean it up, will ya?
APS is not failing by ONE student. Your example minimizes parental concerns. APS schools are failing by thousands of students in all areas.
Your gross exaggeration is out of place and unhelpful.
Good Grief
August 31st, 2011
2:14 pm
Here’s an idea, why don’t you so called “educators” stop blogging (whining and complaining) for a change and actually SPEAK UP in unison. If the federal government keeps refusing to deport millions of illegal immigrants, then bets are if you put your foot down and demand changes you won’t be fired en masse.
You are no better than President Obama, blame Bush and anything else for than matter because you are to weak to defend yourselves!
Hands are for hugging - not hitting!
August 31st, 2011
2:19 pm
THANK YOU MR. ARNOLD!!! It’s about time someone stood up to these most ridiculous rules. I have never seen a system so over regulated and governed. Every child is different and every child is smart in one way or another. The rules are stacked against poor and under privileged children – doesn’t anyone find it interesting that the “failing schools” are predominantly in impoverished areas. If a child does not have a supportive adult in their life they are doomed to a substandard education. All schools should be equal in terms of facilities and classroom supplies. Children have no choice in who they are born to – so why are they being punished for this?
Rick
August 31st, 2011
2:26 pm
So why do we have a federal department of education? To tell the states and the parents how to educate kids that they have never met or that they care about.
The only thing positive that I can saw about NCLB is at least they tried something different. Ted Kennedy had good intentions with NCLB, but it did not work as planned.
Rick
August 31st, 2011
2:28 pm
EducationCEO – It was Ted Kennedy’s bill. Not Bush’s.
Another Get Schooled Hack Job
August 31st, 2011
2:28 pm
Once again, Downey partners with another “excuse maker” in Arnold, who instead of assigning the accountability of the failure of NCLB where it truly rests, that being with parents, teachers and administrators who didn’t put enough pressure on elected officials at all levels to properly formulate education legislation, he resorts to shameful public vs. private & voucher attacks. Also, let’s not forget about the fact that Arnold conveniently failed to assign the biggest blame on Jimmy Carter, a backslapping good ol’ Dem friend of Arnold’s from the same area of SW Georgia, who created the Federal Dept. of Education, where this mess all started by having the Feds stick their nose in education instead of leaving it to be managed most at the local level. For Arnold to say that this was a private vs. public school, voucher driven conspiracy theory is nothing short of libelous. For Downey to espouse this crap on this blog is similarly libelous but we have all come to expect nothing less from Maureen and her lockstep left-wing socialist AJC shoulder-patch bias. I agree with many of Arnold’s points about what parents, administrators and teachers allowed to occur with NCLB but to say this was a conspiracy theory is nothing short of ridiculous and outlandish, and really diminishes any credibility he gained with his tactical statements. At the end of the day, the majority of Georgians (82%) AND Americans (over 60%) believe the best educational system is one where options and full access to those options are readily available to all and that is the best system and base of solutions that will resolve any and all educational problems created by NCLB. Nice try, Jim Arnold, but do me a favor and stay down in Pelham City and keep your “community organizing” to your miserable, woe is me school district. Let’s let real educational leaders like Michelle Rhee who truly care about the kids (instead of the what system delivers the education and how it is funded) take center stage and get public education back on track.
CH
August 31st, 2011
2:31 pm
@EducationCEO
“And none of Georgia’s Republicans can blame Obama because it was their buddy Bush who created this mess. And allowed his friends (who own/run textbook companies) to benefit.”
Obama could have done something… having a supermajority in the house and senate but all he wanted to do was pass a healthcare bill…a bill that we had to pass in order to see what was in it!
Eyenstine
August 31st, 2011
2:34 pm
This coming from an Alabama educator whose state is currently ranked 43rd out of 50 states in the Best Educated Index, and has never been ranked higher than that. Ever. Georgia is ranked 40th, which is its highest ranking ever. At least both states can feel good about being ranked higher than Mississippi, ranked 49th.
We ain’t the sharpest knives in the drawer down her in Dixie, but the SEC is the best college football conference in the good ol’ US of A, so we got that goin’ for us. GO DAWGS!!!!
Hands are for hugging - not hitting!
August 31st, 2011
2:35 pm
To “Really amazed” – sounds as though you were a child who got left behind. You need to educate yourself instead of lapping up the nonsense you are being fed. Take a look at the other countries in this world – AMERICA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE G7 WITHOUT UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. They are also the only developed country in the world without maternity leave benefits – Canada has 12 months of paid leave, some countries much more – even Lebanon provides 7 weeks at 100% of pay. Don’t you think American kids deserve nurturing and healthcare? CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME.
November 6, 2012
August 31st, 2011
2:39 pm
@David
August 31st, 2011
12:28 pm
Seems to me that maybe we ought to stop looking for federal handouts, and instead let every community decide what a quality education means to them.
WOW, what a novel idea – “States Rights”, why didn’t I think of that?
To Dr. John R. Trotter – Dr. Trotter, please stop being so timid and tell us what’s really on your mind. Thanks!!!!!