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
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339 comments Add your comment
Good Mother
August 31st, 2011
10:17 am
Jim Arnold, you’re wrong. Standardized testing is not a conspiracy. It’s accountability.
I graduated from a high school with others who received a diploma and they could not read. This is why we need standardized testing — because the “grades” teachers give are not accurate.
There are failing schools just as there are failing businessnes. There are lousey teachers just as there are lousey auto mechanics. They both need to go.
Bring on the standardized tests but not the CRCT. Bring on a national standardized test like the Iowa tests and put some teeth in it. If you can’t pass the test, you can’t pass to the next grade.
We need standardized tests to root out lousey teachers. My child’s APS teacher cannot speak or write a coherent sentence. She needs to go.
We need accountability in education.
quantivious's mama
August 31st, 2011
10:30 am
wow, maureen, that is an interesting letter. makes me glad my child is grown. the problem is, this generation is still growing and they need to be nurtured. i like the letter of accountability from pelham, wish all educators felt that way. i grew up with standardized tests, and the sat is a standardized test- honestly the only thing these tests show is… how well one takes a test. i will not argue for or against standardized testing as i only know that it did not hurt me. i will argue against No Child Left Behind and wonder if ex prez bush even touched it in his book. @”‘good’??? mother” a good mother would never let her child stay in a classroom with such a teacher. take the child out of that class, take it up with the board of ed if necessary and if that does not work, take that child out of that school. i homeschooled my child for a while to get him away from a foolish teacher. good mothers do that which is best for their children. they do not complain anonymously in the newspaper.
November 6, 2012
August 31st, 2011
10:31 am
@Good Mother
August 31st, 2011
10:17 am
There are lousey teachers just as there are lousey auto mechanics. They both need to go.
Examples of “LOUSY”
She got “lousy” grades in high school
Susan Curtis
August 31st, 2011
10:34 am
Mr. Arnold is exactly right. I am a former teacher, and it is a shame what we are doing to our children and our educational system. We as a country are better than this. I wish we would act like it.
Inman Park Boy
August 31st, 2011
10:35 am
Yeah, right.
Dr. John Trotter
August 31st, 2011
10:37 am
“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.”
Jim, I applaud your willingness to speak out against this fraud. But, please remember that not all of “us” ever bought into the bullsh-t. From the very beginning, “we” at MACE spoke about against this nonsense perpetrated by Ted Kennedy and Georgia W. Bush, two private school rich kids who didn’t/don’t know crap about public education. We have been railing against the mania of standardized tests, cookie-cooker approaches to teaching, and asinine and inane prescripted curricula. But, then again, we did not work for the man, so to speak. We have the independence to be able to speak out. But, trust me, when I did indeed work for “the man,” I still spoke out against stupidity, and that is why I did not stay in the system. My parents did not raise a fool, and I like to look at myself straight in the mirror when I shave in the morning.
Again, I do applaud you, Jim, for your very spirited candor! Didn’t we have classes together at UGA over 30 years ago?
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
http://www.georgiateachersspeakout.com
Wondering
August 31st, 2011
10:38 am
Good Mother: I disagree with your first and fifth paragraphs.
Standardized testing has been around for a long time. The Iowas and others have been used to measure students against norms, but that is the point. They measure the person taking the test, the student. The fact that they might also be used as a measure of the teacher is also true but only as a minor indicator.
The fact that your child’s teacher cannot speak of write a coherent sentence should not be measured by the CRCT. That requires an in class room evaluation by someone who knows how to evaluate the teacher. Put a poor teacher in a classroom of driven students with strong parental support, the that teacher’s students will do well on the CRCT. Does that make the poor teacher all of a sudden superior? No. Teachers don’t pick their students and they don’t control them outside the classroom.
If you want to use the CRCT to measure a teacher, maybe it should be by correlating the students’ grades with their success on the CRCT. A good teacher would fail those that fail the CRCT, etc. But of course that would be too difficult to explain to the parent of the failing child.
Any program that has the inability to control its inputs yet demands 100% success will fail. That’s why I have a stack of resumes on my desk for my one open position. I get to control most of my inputs, and staff selection is critical. I don’t simply give them a knowledge test. They are reviewed based on the key indicators of success for the position. Was your child’s teacher given this ability to select?
Charter schools and private schools have always had the ability to ’steer’ students back to the public schools. They do this to control their inputs. Their criteria is often based on the home environment and parental involvement. Do the public schools get to do the same?
We need accountability in education but using the CRCT as the sole measure of a teacher’s performance is a dull tool used by dull people. There is no data supporting its use. As such, using it opens school systems to law suits. Is this where we want to spend our educational dollars?
jeff
August 31st, 2011
10:42 am
We need alternatives besides the public system. Mr. Arnold’s excuses just amplify that.
Flim Flam
August 31st, 2011
10:52 am
We need two types of schools: one for smart kids, those headed off to college to become productive citizens, and the other school for the rest. The rest will be destined for fast food, general infantry, lab experiments, soylent green, and of course, Congress.
Lib in Cobb
August 31st, 2011
10:54 am
Standardized testing is the product of the system not allowing good teachers to teach. Standardized testing is an uneven playing field. How can anyone expect a child who has a chaotic home life where their mother is getting the crap beat out of her on a weekly basis because dad or the live in boy friend is nuts or addicted or both. That same home does not have adequate food, that home may be located in a part of town where gun fire interrupts a semi good nights sleep. That home is where the children live, who are expected to compete with the kids from wealthy homes where there is peace (perhaps) but there is good food, computers, expensive tutors, if needed and always a good nights sleep. Oh, I nearly forgot, some of these kids who are expected to compete with all other students in the state could be ESOL.
The playing field is not level now, nor was it level when NCLB was designed, nor will that field ever be level. NCLB was an educational joke written because it looked good, not because it had a chance of working. Thank you, George W. Bush.
funny
August 31st, 2011
10:54 am
instead of feeding the troll here; i just laugh instead
100% by 2014??????
ppl can TALK alll they want ; there is no way we will reach 100%; NCLB was set up to ruin public education. period. the person that started it have admitted to it.
policitans always have an endgame and it has nothing to do with helping students
Pompano
August 31st, 2011
10:55 am
Amen @jeff. Public schools just whine – mo’ money, mo’ money – but resist any effort at accountability while showering administrators with ridiculous compensation packages.
SoGAVet
August 31st, 2011
10:59 am
Mr. Arnold is spot on. Period; as is @Wondering – well said.
Oddly, there is another, similar below-the-radar effort going on in education right now in the form of the Common Core Standards. This effort is being bankrolled and steamrolled by Bill Gates – and just as with NCLB, we are rolling over and taking it.
I consulted in five different states and can categorically report that some states have woefully inadequate standards. In those instances adoption of Core Standards is a good thing.
But if one takes the example of Georgia, our standards were already “blue ribbon” rated and we did not need to adopt CCS. But we are lemmings in education and so we are following everyone else off the cliff.
Oh and we’re also doing it in Race-to-the-Bottom, er -Top, as well.
Pompano
August 31st, 2011
11:00 am
@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.
thomas
August 31st, 2011
11:00 am
@ funny,
I think the first Bush had the goal that we would be #1 in the world in math and science by 2000, or something like that, too.
Atlmom
August 31st, 2011
11:04 am
Wow, mandating 100% compliance. In standardized testing. Maybe the same thing as mandating that everyone have health insurance?
I disagree with the letter writer. I think NCLB was actually perhaps supposedly implemented so that parents could completely and totally abdicate 100% of responsibility for their children to the schools. Which is completely the opposite of what vouchers would do. So nclb seems that it would put the blame on EVERYONE ELSE (oh, it’s the SCHOOL and the TEACHER that’s failing..it couldn’t possibly be that I let my kids play video games all day and stay up til all hours and don’t worry about jr. actually going to school and being respectful…etc…). Not the parent.
SO whatever the ‘real’ conspiracy, can we agree that it SUCKS. And that we really need to get rid of it. And get rid of the federal government’s involvement in education? It would be a beautiful thing if we could create a system where the feds actually helped our education system.
But they’ve had over 30 years to do that. and they’ve only made it worse. so let the states/local govts do what they can. and really – that’s what capitalism is about. if my school system sucks, maybe i can move elsewhere (unfortunately, many people can’t). so you fix your school or go somewhere where there are better schools. more accountability for everyone in the system is much better. but that means everyone. the federal govt just seems to come up with these laws and doesn’t know how to implement them or what to do after the laws are passed (i mean, if you listen to some who helped put the law together, they say: we never thought that it would just come down to thsi testing thing. really/ what did you expect!?).
Sydney
August 31st, 2011
11:14 am
As a former teacher (and will never return) I applaud Jim Arnold’s confession and really wished he, and so many others, would’ve spoken out when the law first passed. It was a heinous crime Bush did to the teaching profession and educational system thinking that all students learn at the same rate, the same things and can all pass a test that’s about as standard as you can make it. Forget originality or creativity. Forget about higher levels of thought. Most of you commenting here or reading this post probably wouldn’t be able to pass this test.
Yes, our educational system needs reform – but towards the benefit of the student and the schools, not the benefit of the government lessening the important role public education plays in our society. Teachers are already overworked – between the long hours of paperwork and extra workshops they have to attend, including classes in ESL (English as a Second Language), constantly changing curriculum (to accommodate the tests), undisciplined students, etc. – it’s enough to cause teachers to leave the profession in droves.
Arnold is right on in pointing out how inaccurate such testing is when gauging economic and demographics of a school. Mainstreaming was bad enough and now, add to that NCLB? I see kids in colleges now that do not have the thinking skills necessary to follow a path of higher learning. They do not know how to evaluate, synthesize or analyze (the higher levels of learning) in their classes and therefore are struggling to graduate. They’re supposed to learn these skills in their earlier educational years, but since teachers and schools are so adamant about getting passing grades for the test, they end up learning nothing more than how to pass it (mostly by rote learning (memorization)). Is this what we want for our future generations?
Atlmom
August 31st, 2011
11:19 am
(i.e., mandating 100% compliance, or 100% passing…that’s going to fix all the problems, isn’t it?)
Mae
August 31st, 2011
11:22 am
I used to hope that my children’s school would NOT make AYP so that it would not be a receiving school for all the kids whose parents were abandoning their south DeKalb schools. The resulting overcrowding some years was ridiculous and unsafe and actually lowered the quality of education for ALL of the kids. So what we wound up with was a few schools in the north end of the county filled to overflowing while brand new schools in south DeKalb sat nearly empty. For a number of years, the DeKalb system even paid for transportation for kids who were being bussed or driven to school. I can’t count the number of times I saw five or more busses leaving our neighborhood school with only a handful of kids onboard. Perhaps that money should have been spent on educating parents in the sending schools’ districts to practice a little more personal responsibility so that their kids would be ready for school and capable of succeeding, not turning their neighborhood schools into places not fit for kids to attend. Maybe the money could have been spent on free birth control so that people would not have more kids than they could afford–financially, physically, and emotionally–to raise well. Why is it that the poorest among us choose to be teenage mothers and fathers? Why do the least capable of supporting themselves have more children than they can handle? Why are so many growing up in single-parent homes? Some circumstances can’t be helped, but many can. If you want better schools, start with more personal responsibility and better parenting. NCLB, standardized testing, transfers, and money won’t solve problems that start in the home.
TaxWatchers
August 31st, 2011
11:24 am
This is the kind of integrity and leaderhip that is needed in the Atlanta Public Schools.
Maureen: Please consider at some point putting the entire letter in the newspaper.
chillywilly
August 31st, 2011
11:26 am
Jim Arnold For State Superintendent of Education!! Standardized testing is worthless and should be done away with, period.
Thank you Mr. Arnold. Your letter was right on point.
Lee
August 31st, 2011
11:26 am
Actually Jim, your protests are about 20 years (or more) too late. When one paints a large, red bullseye on themselves, they shouldn’t act surprised when someone takes potshots at them.
… And public schools painted the bullseye when they began inflating grades, passing students from grade to grade who couldn’t do the work, and graduating illiterates. Politicians, who never pass an opportunity to “solve a crisis” by enacting legislation, jumped at the chance to enact NCLB to solve the “education crisis.”
I don’t have much sympathy for self-inflicted wounds. Public education did this to themselves. Unfortunately, our children are the ones who suffer the consequences.
Atlmom
August 31st, 2011
11:26 am
and by the way, when I *did* send my resume to APS to see about a math teaching position, they emailed back saying they didn’t have any more positions open. Hmmm…cause the article in today’s AJC indicates that parents are hopping mad that their kids don’t have an actual math teacher in the classroom.
wow.
Go Tell it on the Mountain
August 31st, 2011
11:31 am
Hallelujah! This man is a prophet and deserves a presidential badge of honor.
James in Athens
August 31st, 2011
11:33 am
Public schools are just not very good in Georgia Period.
We live in Oconee County which has very few problems but
one(we have 4)of our Elementary Schools just wants to dumb down
the smarter kids and keep them with the rest of the class…
The Principal’s response is there are not enough Smart Kids this
year to have hire a PACE teacher for Math… What a joke…
Maybe the schools do nothing Principal could take a pay cut
cause she’s just been cashing the checks the 5 years we have been
there… Glad this is our final year at this school….
@atlmom
August 31st, 2011
11:37 am
Today’s AJC article: Always be skeptical of how things appear.
Our principal came to each teacher and said make sure your room has at least two parents who will be positive and not talk about cheating at the meeting. We are scared.
Spot On
August 31st, 2011
11:38 am
Says it all ——-
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.
The Title of this Movie could be………..
Tax payers dollars at work?
or
What special interests?
or
Legislating from the Bench?
Dr NO aka Mr Sunshine
August 31st, 2011
11:40 am
Some children are going to fall between the cracks. Ya cant educate/save them all. Thats just the way it is.
Dr. John Trotter
August 31st, 2011
11:45 am
I am in a hurry this morning. Have to ride all over the place today. So, please indulge my bluntness and candor.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was just a national, suped-up version of Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) program. It’s all based upon the false assumption that if children aren’t learning, then it is because the teacher is not teaching. 100% false assumption. You have to attack the assumptions first. This is the false assumption. Johnny is scoring like a moron. Therefore, we need to re-train the teachers and make them accountable for Johnny’s failure. Well, they still call me Johnny in Columbus…where I grew up. My family still calls me Johnny. And I am here to tell you that I scored as a “moron” on an achievement test in elementary school. The principal, Mr. Brombaugh, called my father to tell him my score. My father was also an administrator in the school system. I had obliquely heard my parents discussing my I. Q. test score(s) once. But, this was very oblique. This is not something that they would discuss in front of the kids. I knew that I was plenty smart. But, I just didn’t care. The darn achievement tests simply bored me. I just marked down “answers.” Now, who was to blame? I was.
I got my rear end in place when I had to. Mrs. Herring, my fifth grade teacher, did not play. She was strict, and I was afraid of her. I made straight As in her class. It all boiled down to motivation to learn. Motivation to learn is what these numbskull educrats and policy-makers simply overlook — or don’t want to pay attention to. It boils down to discipline as well. This is very important. The teachers have to be supported in the classroom. It also boils down to intelligence. Some kids just are not as sharp academically as other kids. This is just a cold fact. Do we blame the teachers for this. A quick story (used this in our first MACE magazine in 1995): My sister was teaching First Grade in Columbus. She had a child in class who simply couldn’t keep up. In fact, no matter what my sister did (and she was a terrific teacher!), he could not grasp hardly anything. My sister so dreaded having to inform his mother that it would be best if her child was retained in the First Grade…to give him the time to hopefully mature enough to learn to read. So the big meeting came. My sister gingerly and very sensitively explain to the mother that her child was so far behind the other kids and that it would simply be better to let him repeat the First Grade. She asked the mother if she had any questions at all. The mother asked: “Yes, I do. When will the Halloween Party be taking place?” Needless to say, my sister was dumbfounded.
Another quick story. Also used this in our first magazine in 1995. A teacher in South Fulton told me that she had the class participating in some form of “Show and Tell.” My little elementary student proudly blurted out: “My dad can break into houses!”
I always said that QBE stood for “Quit Being an Educator” or “Quit Brutalizing Educators.” No Child Left Behind (NCLB) made QBE look like Ned in the First Reader. It is horrendous. It is pure bullsh-t, if you will indulge me. None of it smacks with the reality of what is involved in the public schooling process. It has produced super-hero-educational-frauds like Beverly Hall, Ron Paige, and Michelle Rhee. It has inflicted physical and mental damage on otherwise very good educators. It has created a cheating culture. It has reduced the curriculum to the most shallow and inane and ridiculous parroting of some arbitrary “core.” Kids are not taught to think…because this will not be measured on the tests. Vocational curriculum that keeps many children in schools and allows them to enter the job market with meaningful jobs is jettisoned because the almighty standardized tests do not measure this. Same thing for recess, P. E., and the varied arts. Even yesterday, I was talking to an Atlanta teacher who said that they were told that the black males in their school could not be suspended because this would throw their demographic numbers out of line. It would skew the numbers for the NCLB report. Don’t you know that the kids then know that your hands are tied and that they can act the fool in the classrooms and in the school in general?
NCLB and QBE are bullsh-t and should be thrown into the ash heap of failed educational experiences. They should be hauled down to the Valley of Gehenna and piled up on the rest of the dead carcasses so that they rot and are eaten by the buzzards. I do indeed believe that that was some sense of conspiracy behind NCLB. I believe that the Business Roundtable pushed it. Billions (literally billions) of dollars were made off of NCLB. This entire overhaul (for the worse) of public education in the United States because of NCLB reminds me of the arms dealings and the profit of war. I am sorry, but I smelled a rat from the very beginning. It stunk then and it still stinks. Get rid of both…NCLB and QBE and let teachers teach! (c) MACE, August 31, 2011.
Note: In a hurry. Typing ferociously and no time to check for typos. Please forgive.
rexwinn
August 31st, 2011
11:45 am
Thank you Jim Arnold. Every word of you letter is correct.
Elizabeth
August 31st, 2011
11:48 am
Mr. Arnold is 100 per cent correct in his assessment. And he is also correct that this will never completely go away. I wish I worked for him. This is the best article I have ever seen, and his conspiracy allegation is also correct. I wsh I thought people would listen but they will not, as judged by the 48 comments ahead of mine.
Kay G. Baxter.
August 31st, 2011
11:48 am
Someone needs to explain to Good Mother the difference between a criterion referenced test like the CRCT and a norm referenced test like the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The NCLB is an abomination designed to destroy the public schools. I am so glad to be retired. I am so sorry for those who are still trying to be good teachers.
Double Reverse Racism
August 31st, 2011
11:49 am
This might sound odd, but
Beverly Hall was a racist of the worst sort. We need someone like Jim Arnold to head our schools- A compassionate person who really understands what teaching and learning is all about.
I am a proud African American APS teacher who truly cares
Jackie
August 31st, 2011
11:49 am
Looking forward to the educator who proposes Forget about The Kids At the Margin. Or maybe Give US More Money and Forget About Results.
The education world is in deep trouble. NCLB is a grossly imperfect system. But the education leaders are forfeiting the support of the moms and dads who used to be the backbone of supporting teachers and principals in their local schools.
Wait till the SPLOSTS come up for a vote next time.
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
11:50 am
@Pompano, so true!!! I am a little confussed though… Maureen wrote an article the other day about uga and tech becoming more and more competitive to get into. Yes, I do believe that these students have had major test prep for these sat/act. It is just a part of the big game now!!!!!! Very sad, but true. The HOPE scholarship is part of the problem. Good, yet bad. Get to go for a cut fee but it is hurting critical learning of many. NCLB not child get to truly move forward. It just might get you into a great college though!!!
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
11:52 am
Sorry, NCLB means, no child gets to truly move forward. Hit the send button too soon!
A Breath of Freesh Air
August 31st, 2011
11:59 am
Mr. Arnold must have a highly intelligent, progressive and well read board of education. They are to be commended to have someone of his statue to represent the Pelham City Schools.
Thank you Maureen for publishing his letter. It is one that I will always cherish.
A Breath of Fresh Air
August 31st, 2011
12:00 pm
Mr. Arnold must have a highly intelligent, progressive and well read board of education. They are to be commended to have someone of his statue to represent the Pelham City Schools. Thank you Maureen for publishing his letter. It is one that I will always cherish.
HS Public Teacher
August 31st, 2011
12:02 pm
Jim Arnold speaks the truth. NCLB was a creation of the “upper class” to push vouchers (and the like) into public favor. If you cannot see this, please re-read his article. It is true.
jbraml
August 31st, 2011
12:11 pm
If enough parents would refuse to allow their kids to take the tests, things would change. What is a school system going to do, hold back every kid. I don’t think so.
SCLCrev
August 31st, 2011
12:11 pm
Georgia needs leaders like Jim Arnold. America needs leaders like Jim Arnold.
A man of character who willing to speak against the odds in pursuit of what is best for children!
He nees to be the State Superintendent of Education…even better….the U.S. Secretary of Education.
Charter schools are PUBLIC schools
August 31st, 2011
12:13 pm
“Vouchers – especially for private and charter schools”
This guy is the school system superintendent, and he doesn’t know the difference between a voucher and a charter school? That basic lack of knowledge is simply unacceptable when it is coming from the head educator of a school system.
Charter = public schools
Vouchers = money sent to privates schools
Dr. Arnold, here is the link to a FAQ on charter schools at the Georgia DOE site for you to study. You REALLY need to study it.
http://www.gadoe.org/pea_charter.aspx?PageReq=PEACSGENFAQ
I feel sorry for any charter applicants in Pelham.
Once Again
August 31st, 2011
12:15 pm
Those of us who actually know the proper and constitutional role for the federal government have been speaking out against federal involvement in education since the unconstitutional Department of Education was created in 1979. The constitution authorizes absolutely NO role for the federal government in education and Bush’s push for this horrible legislation just further enhances his standing as one of our most unconstitutional presidents.
Oh, in case any of you teachers out there want to spout out some crap about the “necessary and proper” clause as the justification for the ED or any other federal overreach, check out this great article from today’s Daily Iowan by constitutional scholar and best selling author Tom Woods:
http://www.dailyiowan.com/2011/08/31/Opinions/24610.html
With only 5000 employees, the ED spends billions on nothing, educates nobody, creates 95% of all the regulations that destroy local schools, and should be immediately abolished. Newt and his useless republican revolution were supposed to do just that, but once again we see the problem with trusting unprincipled republicans who are more concerned with getting elected than upholding conservative principles.
Children will not be helped by switching deck chairs on the Titanic, and that is all that is really going on when a child is allowed to switch to yet another government-run school. Vouchers will just allow the govnerment to destroy the private sector of education. What is needed is a complete abolition of all government schooling in favor of homeschooling, private schooling, charity schools, and whatever a truly free and unrestricted market may creatively deliver to the parents of this nation.
CH
August 31st, 2011
12:16 pm
@ Lib in Cobb
“NCLB was an educational joke written because it looked good, not because it had a chance of working. Thank you, George W. Bush.”
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.
Maureen Downey
August 31st, 2011
12:18 pm
@Charters, To be fair, I have heard “voucher” used in the public school context of students from one district leaving the system to cross district lines to attend a state commissioned charter in another county. (An example would be the DeKalb students who attended a state commission charter in Gwinnett.)
At some point, we will have to come up with precise language for the increasing choice landscape as the conventional terms don’t work well now.
Maureen
HS Public Teacher
August 31st, 2011
12:24 pm
Good Mother – I’m sorry, but standardized testing does not measure teacher effectiveness. It measures student knowledge. These two things can be mutually exclusive and THAT is the problem.
I agree that a “bad” teacher should not be teaching. However, the NCLB approach is not the answer. The answer is for that principal to grow a spine and use the teacher evaluation tool already in place properly.
In any given school, everyone knows who is a “good” teacher versus a “bad” teacher. It is no secret. The problem is simply that the administration will not do anything to fix it. So, the real problem here is “bad” administration.
I hope that you can see my point and use your efforts to fix the administration. That will then help correct what you see as a “bad” teacher problem.
BehindEnemyLines
August 31st, 2011
12:27 pm
More whining from another failure that fears the end of his feeding from the public trough. Nothing new to see here.
Ringing Ears
August 31st, 2011
12:28 pm
I hope Jim Arnold writes a book on the hypocrisy of current educational policy. He is saying what others are afraid to mention.
There is something about truth; once read, it continues to reverberate. My ears are ringing.
David
August 31st, 2011
12:28 pm
Lots of blame being thrown around here. But this is the core issue: why do we continue to throw federal dollars at education? If it were a money problem, wouldn’t we see better results from those school systems that spend more?
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. Those who think money is the answer, let them pay (via higher taxes). Bottom line is that the solutions of the past 40 years have not helped, despite continued and rapid growth of government involvement (especially at the federal level). So unless you can show the data that demonstrates how federal bureaucrats and $ make education better, maybe we should pull back from these ill-conceived solutions and look for solutions that really work.
Kevin Smith
August 31st, 2011
12:29 pm
Good Mother is an idiot
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!!!!!
Laura
August 31st, 2011
2:39 pm
@ teacher reader,
As a psych instructor, I’m trying to figure out where you’re going that Skinner’s theories on operant conditioning are wrong. People, like pigeons, work for rewards and delayed gratification. Maybe it’s the rewards, how they’re perceived , and how they impact the students more so than the conditioning itself that need to be looked at.
Maybe you’re thinking more of the humanist school of psychology that’s ruined education. In that case, I’d agree with you.
Art Thomas
August 31st, 2011
2:46 pm
I have spent 3 years doing part time short and long substitute teaching in a smaller Eastside Georgia county. During this time I obtained middle grade math certification and applied to teach using the Teach Georgia .org system. I never heard back from any of 20 counties which had open math slots. Adults who have worked for many years and have higher level degrees seem to be shut out of working for the school system in Georgia
During this time I have dealt with many middle and high school students and can emphatically reiterate what Arnold has stated. The students for the most part are incapable of doing work necessary to make a legitimate pass to the next grade. Georgia continues to sink in the miasma of artificial testing while math and language arts languish.
My latest 3 day assignment was an exercise in dealing with 8th graders overloaded with trauma, incapable of even walking to lunchroom and spending teaching time writing up students for streams of obscenities, rudeness , loudness and physical abuse to each other.
The school systems continue to hire just out of college young men and women with no experience and no student skill relationship other than to spend time hollering at the kids. This is sadly underscored at a middle school where 18 new hires replaced many seasoned teachers who retired, quit or left the district in disgust.
I can only express disappointment and regret for the many teachers who face larger, louder, more undisciplined classes populated by the kids who most emphatically have been left behind to our societies long term negative consequences and shame.
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
2:47 pm
@hands are for hugging not hitting, yes, maybe AMERICAN kids!!! I don’t believe we should socalize the entire country!!!! This is what made this country the land of the free in the first place!! No, I have not be left behind!! I have always worked hard for everything I have. I am also teaching my children the same. As far as healthcare for American kids. Yes, AMERICAN kids! Yes, charity begins at home not a free-hand out! Have you been hugged today??
“We Have All Been Left Behind” « The Unquiet Librarian
August 31st, 2011
2:48 pm
[...] No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled via kwout [...]
Dave
August 31st, 2011
2:49 pm
Good Mother -
” Bring on the standardized tests but not the CRCT.” I remember when the only test given was the Iowa which proved too difficult for most, hence the CRCT. Be glad that if standardized tests are to be given it’s the CRCT, which probably makes your child look more advanced,
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
August 31st, 2011
2:50 pm
Good Mother,
How well do you think the students in Dr. Arnold’s Pelham City school system performed on standardized tests? You say, “Not very well.” Well, you’re right.
Dr NO aka Mr Sunshine
August 31st, 2011
2:54 pm
“wish this man could come lead the Atlanta Public Schools back to a district worthy of respect.”
The problem with APS is Atlanta and it will never improve. In fact if anything it will get worse.
Enjoy!
d
August 31st, 2011
3:09 pm
Yes, Ted Kennedy did sponsor the bill, but it was based in a very very large part on what George Bush pushed through in Texas when he was governor there. It was a failure there and it is still a failure nationwide. That being said, there is a purpose for testing. We have just warped it beyond recognition with this legislation.
Fed Up
August 31st, 2011
3:14 pm
“Children have no choice in who they are born to – so why are they being punished for this?”
We are sick and tired of this mentality and the excuses that go along with it. I can’t help it if I make more money than these parents, but I’ll be damned if I am going to keep paying for their failures. Socialism and the entitlement mentality are KILLING this country.
Hands are for hugging - not hitting!
August 31st, 2011
3:19 pm
@ Really amazed – We can hug and agree to disagree – how’s that?
William Casey
August 31st, 2011
3:21 pm
@GoodMother: some children will always be left behind because every single society in world history has been a socio-economic HIERARCHY of classes, usually symbolized in the pyramid shape (a few wealthy at top & many poor at bottom.) In modern times, as the middle class grew, the shape more closely resembled a diamond. However, current economic condotions may be restoring the pyramid with more poor people at the bottom. Children will be left behind because ability, work ethic, persistence and resources are not evenly distributed among all people. The government can only litle affect this..
Shirley U. Jest
August 31st, 2011
3:25 pm
“We ain’t the sharpest knives in the drawer down her in Dixie”
Well, since most of the people that live in the South are not natives to the Southeastern US, who are we going to blame this statistic on? Could it be that we have the highest proportion of Illegal immigrants here in the South as well? The public education system in the US was not meant to teach the every country on the planet. Our kids will never be as bright as Asian students when we must educate everyone culture in this entire World.
Teacher, Too
August 31st, 2011
3:35 pm
I don’t know where to begin. Teachers are accused of “failing” too many students– the same students who know that regardless of what their grades are or how poorly they do on the CRCT, they will be “placed” in the next grade level. There is no reason or incentive for some students to even try when they know they will just be moved along.
When will we begin to hold students responsible for their education? If they know they will just be “placed,” why would we expect them to care? In middle school, students know they will be moved along regardless of their grades or whether they pass the CRCT. Students can fail three or four subjects for the entire year, yet they are moved to the next grade level.
This is madness! Nothing will ever change until students accept responsibility for their learning, and we are doing a grave misservice when we just pass them along to the next grade level, hoping that someone else will save them.
Scott
August 31st, 2011
3:36 pm
@Teacher Reader
Everything you decry can be fixed by simply *holding students accountable to learn.* It isn’t about this method or that method. It’s about having high standards, regularly enforced, and sticking to them.
Jerry Eads
August 31st, 2011
3:36 pm
Fascinating. Again. I rattled off a response when there were 8 and decided I’d wait – it’s so easy to be angry. Haven’t changed it a bit since this a.m. though. I got a huge kick out of @SoGaVet – remember I wrote this without having seen his (hers? – can’t assume gender).
Jim, as I’ve noted here before, I may have been the first in the state to read the tome in its entirety when it first hit our desks at what that week was called the Office of Education Accountabiity – in very late ‘01. It was obvious then to anyone who could add a pair of single digit numbers that by 2014 every public school, BY DEFINITION, would “fail.” There has been a tiny group of us since that moment – mostly measurement folk – begging anyone and everyone to see that the emperor had no clothes. To no avail. The emperor knew that most folks are incredibly gullible – say something often enough and they’ll believe it, regardless of the falsehood. PT was almost right. Apparently, you can fool just about everybody almost all the time. And, as you noted, we just stood by. But we’re not just standing by any more – we’re HELPING, for Pete’s sake, abetted by travesties such as APS and suckered (@SoGaVet’s lemmings?) for a tiny pittance by what perhaps should be called RTTB rather than RTTT.
I suspect that the conspiracy theory is all too accurate. AND, as already witnessed with those above who have been duped and brainwashed both that the tests are perfect measures of all that is (but only for the publics, not the privates and charters — hm), and that public schools are failures, the conspirators win. America and its future lose.
That said from this morning, I do have SOME hope: It’s POSSIBLE that the so-called Core Curriculum will actually BE a curriculum rather than the discordant mish-mash of “standards” (Again: standards are fine for fitting car doors to fenders, not for learning. But if you really think the entire country will be fine if everyone is only required to get to the 10th percentile, then standards are for you). It’s POSSIBLE that the seat of the pants “Gee that looks good” rating system a few state folk threw together might get brought along to something actually usable by the outside experts who may actually have a clue what they’re doing. It’s POSSIBLE that combining multiple states’ resources to develop the enormously expensive assessments might actually measure complex learning rather than factoid recognition – and actually be useful to teachers, rather than simply wasting millions of student learning hours. Let’s hope.
Teacher, Too
August 31st, 2011
3:38 pm
Sorry- should be “disservice” not “misservice.” Typo!
Really amazed
August 31st, 2011
3:40 pm
Yes, we can agree to disagree. xoxo
Scott
August 31st, 2011
3:44 pm
@Teacher, Too
Well said… students won’t care until they have a reason to. The new education initiative should be “Study Harder Or We Will Leave You Behind, Your Choice.”
wondering
August 31st, 2011
3:45 pm
If a doctor was held to NCLB, none of his patients would get sick. If an auto mechanic was held to NCLB there would not be any cars with mechanical problems. If a banker was held to NCLB there would not be any failed banks. Why do so many people think it’s okay to blame teachers for what their students do?
Teacher Reader
August 31st, 2011
3:45 pm
@ Scott It takes more than holding students accountable, although that is one step. It’s not rewarding students for everything that they do. It’s about teaching children, and not using the dumbed down curriculum that Rockefeller supported through his endowments. It’s about teaching teachers how to teach in a different way. It’s about changing the America’s perception of education and that everyone is supposed to feel good about themselves. It’s about stopping the standards and outcomes based education, and even the Core Curriculum that the government is developing through big business and not educators.
What’s happened in education didn’t begin 20 years ago, but has been in the works since right after the turn of the 20th century. It was taking place in the 60’s when my parents were taught to read using the whole word and not phonics, and were introduced to “new” math. It was taking place when I was in elementary school, with the even newer math, that my parents couldn’t help me with. It was happening when I began teaching in the mid-1990’s with whole language, less writing, and again, even newer, newer math.
Jimmy62
August 31st, 2011
3:48 pm
So basically he supports policies that keep poor, black kids in bad schools with no way out and no hope for improvement.
His system is no better, and in many ways worse than what NCLB created.
Archie@ Arkham Asylum
August 31st, 2011
3:58 pm
“No Child Left Behind” should have been named “No Teacher Left Standing!” Mr. Arnold’s article only confirmed that and we teachers stood back “with our hats in our hands” and allowed it to happen!
Brandon Elementary Teacher & Parent
August 31st, 2011
4:01 pm
Up or down, I think APS would benefit from a respite headed by an honest, forward thinking leader who respects children, parents and taxpayers of all backgrounds. That’s why Mr. Arnold deserves wide endorsement for consideration to serve as the next APS superintendent.
The APS board, if it is to gain the respect of the community, must repudiate those who come with profiles of being a “miracle worker” or a track record of securing “dramatic” gains each year among large groups of students. This especially true for special education children and others who are significantly behind. What are needed is genuine learning experiences, not “dramatic” spikes so that one can boast about creating the Atlanta “miracle.”
We have been disrespected and brutalized for so long that only a period of healing by someone who genuinely understands, can begin to rectify the many wrongs.
Atlmom
August 31st, 2011
4:03 pm
jimmy: so true. i don’t get it. so many people say: oh, we have to support our local/public schools! charters are EVIL. I think trying something new makes sense…if the local schools are so awful, why keep throwing all that money at them. we have shown that the system we have is awful. why keep tweaking it? why keep saying : oh, that math curriculum isn’t good, but THIS one, that will solve all our problems. when it’s the whole SYSTEM that isn’t working. I don’t get it, really.
UDA Prof
August 31st, 2011
4:39 pm
@ Jimmy62 – I respectfully disagree.
I think Superintendent Arnold is right on the mark. One can only surmise from reading his remarks that he has an undergirding philosophy that would benefit youngsters from all walks of life. He’s not making excuses, he’s being factual. We’re not talking widgets with drop dead quality control parameters. Cave man thinking stifles ingenuity and creativity, the very qualities that will bring American back to the forefront.
The lockstep pursuit of test scores drowns creative thinking. America must be preeminent in research and development, able to lead the world with ideas. Now, with world trade agreements and the exceptionally low cost of production in developing nations, thinking skills are absolutely critical.
Gone the days of being a manufacturing empire, our factory model of rote preparation for testing used by so many school districts has consistently yielded large numbers of disabled students.
irisheyes
August 31st, 2011
4:56 pm
@Good Mother, condescending remarks? They’re true, aren’t they? The fact of the matter is that in 2014 if one student fails the CRCT, regardless of whether they have the IQ to even achieve on grade level, the entire school is labeled as failing. As a teacher, that is extremely frustrating to me because even if every single other student in the entire school passes, the public will look at all of us as failing. I don’t think that’s fair, do you? Like I said, there does need to be accountability, but is this the best way? Instead of insulting everyone who disagrees with your view, what would you change? Obviously, the status quo isn’t working for students, teachers, or parents. I want to give my students the opportunity to be creative. As a parent, I want my kids to have the opportunity to go to music, art, and PE. I want their teachers to encourage their creativity since they don’t have problems passing the CRCT. Thankfully, they’ve had teachers who don’t focus on test prep, but do encourage deep learning, but in a school with a high population of special ed or ESOL students, that wouldn’t be the case. They are the ones being left behind because we’ve narrowed their education down to reading and math so that they can pass one test. Don’t they have the right to have music, art, and PE? Why should they be denied the chance to explore science or history or economics just because it “doesn’t count towards AYP”? As a teacher and a mom, I’m angry that this is what our “reformers” have turned education into. If you haven’t read it, “The Life and Death of the Great American School System” by Diane Ravitch is a fantastic book. I don’t completely agree with all of her assertions, but her portrayals of what some school systems have done in order to pass “the test” are chilling.
School Ratings Thread - READ FIRST for school inquiries. - Page 40 - City-Data Forum
August 31st, 2011
5:10 pm
[...] No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled [...]
Anonmom
August 31st, 2011
5:11 pm
NCLB isn’t working — the feds shouldn’t be in state education. I actually have hit a point where I think there’s too much money going into the kitty-particularly at the top (my conclusion that maybe vouchers are a better answer is because the money enters from the bottom of the system — it would force parents to be involved and to make decisions — the money would be in tiny buckets and spread out). Currently, DCSS has a billion dollars a year in federal, state and local tax money. This money enters at the top and the system is being run like a small third world country. Very few dollars, porportionately, are making their way into the classroom. There is no on line accounting of how the money is being spent. Many teachers don’t speak or write “proper” English. They don’t all know that there are 50 states and what the capitals of all the states are. They can’t all spew back all of their basic math facts. The money isn’t being used to really train the teachers we have or to keep them happy with their professions. The money is being sucked away and diverted from the top for other purposes — these purposes are not being used for the benefit of the kids. You can’t have a functional school system, where kids will learn with the folks with the actual contact with the kids aren’t given all the resources and training they need and we aren’t hiring the best and the brightest at all levels. All of this is compounded when you add in that the kids are moving from school to school, there is no real ‘holding kids back” when they don’t meet the mark and you are tossing classrooms full of kids (25-38) who are at varying levels at these teachers without any regard for leveling at the beginning of the year, with no support for discipline in the classroom and then expecting the teacher to differentiate instruction– the kids who are very below grade level are ignored. The kids way above grade level are ignored and the “bubble kids” get the attention because they, maybe, will be able to pass. Bag the feds. Bag the CRCT. Give the kids an IOWA — have the IOWA follow them, if the IOWA improves from start of year to end of year, the kid maybe learned something. With a voucher, there is much less room to divert so much money from the top … the “bad apples” have to get together to divert the money…….
long time educator
August 31st, 2011
5:32 pm
I think Dr. Arnold makes total sense. Whether the folks who gave us NCLB had kids’ best interests at heart to begin with, it is obvious that the results of NCLB are not in kids’ best interest. We need to decide why we have public education and what we expect it to accomplish. The expectations have grown to practically include all parenting responsibilities. That is why we perceive it to have failed. Schools cannot solve all of society’s problems. We all know which kids and which schools are falling behind and they are usually demographically similar. Some ethnic or cultural groups and lower socioeconomic groups consistently do more poorly academically. We already know this; it is what Title I is all about. Why are we blaming teachers?
Jennifer
August 31st, 2011
5:52 pm
NCLB was run aground by district and state officials. Nothing wrong with a standardized test, benchmarks for proficiency, subgroup evaluation, and extra $$ and support for students in schools that are not making progress. No one forced us to give watered down tests, make subgroups so high students would never be counted, take away art, music and PE, push kids out so the school could “make the grade”, use test measurements as the indicator of a child’s worth – we did that to ourselves. Shame on us for not putting everything in perspective. Other than the 100% goal for the federal mark (which some schools are making), we let state and local officials run ramshod over our children.
Good Grief
August 31st, 2011
5:53 pm
“in a school with a high population of special ed or ESOL students, that wouldn’t be the case. They are the ones being left behind because we’ve narrowed their education down to reading and math so that they can pass one test. Don’t they have the right to have music, art, and PE?”
These are the very students that should be “left behind”! Seems that policial correctness and misguided compassion has run rampant and the very kids that are paying the price are those US born children. Maybe the Hispanic should create there own schools if they want to stay here. Prove they want to be part of the US and become citizens and learn to speak ENGLISH!
We keep bending over backwards to apease people that are using our recources paid mainly by US taxpayers and giving our own a secord rate education. The takers will continue to take until we are bled dry.
Why can’t “educators” figure out this is where the problem is! The melting pot is no longer cohesive and takers will not assimilate. The US provides a “better life” alright, and it is KILLING our education system and everything else that they want to take from US.
The problem is staring you in the face … we educate too many that don’t deserve to be here in the US!
Eric
August 31st, 2011
5:53 pm
Good article, Mr. Arnold. As an aspiring teacher in Special Education, I have always thought it a disservice to lump our students test scores with the majority, then penalize the schools. Also, why not create a new grading system that looks at the individual’s progress (”growth”) rather than a federal benchmark. Incidentally, such standards or benchmarks are arbitrary and does nothing but fuel anxiety for families and the education system. A truly horrible situation!!
sissyuga
August 31st, 2011
7:41 pm
“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.”
My dad has been saying that for years-35 plus years educator…. Who was our president at the time? Right wing Bush…. You really think he gave a hoot about public education? My motto this year: My job is to educate; not teach to a test.
slp98
August 31st, 2011
7:42 pm
@ Good Grief – What in the world makes you think that special education students aren’t US citizens? News Flash: ESOL kids aren’t the kids that cost us an insane amount of money to educate; special education students do cost a disproportionate amount of money to educate. And before you go blaming teachers and school administrators for wasting your tax money, keep in mind that the law requires us to provide enormous resources to students in special education (again, not school system employees’ faults).
In a north part of town, you would be SHOCKED at how many wealthy, affluent parents hire attorneys to come to every school meeting. Do you realize that your tax dollars are spent on legal fees because these parents want their children to have over-the-top resources, services, etc. (more than once I’ve heard demands from a parent for their child to have a one-on-one teacher)?
If you are so tired of everyone being “PC”, then talk to your legislators about IDEA and how its endless mandates can nearly bankrupt local school systems. Ask them to limit the amount of abuse school systems have to take (e.g., having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to defend themselves from ludicrous parent demands).
Dekalbite
August 31st, 2011
8:01 pm
Standardized testing – e.g. – the ITBS – was invented to test the student – not the teacher. The test was to assess academic areas of strength and weakness and give the teacher feedback so he could remediate or accelerate for those students on either end of the spectrum.
I started teaching in the very early 70s and my career spanned 40 years so I have seen it all.
Before NCLB, the AJC used to publish the ITBS scores and if they were high that’s where everyone wanted to move and would pay a premium for a house zoned to that school. So even if we did away with NCLB there would still be a call for testing even if just to sell real estate at a premium.
NCLB sounds like a good concept, but it has been used to enrich test companies and to create a bloated administration the like of which has never been seen in public education. Even the very small rural systems my relatives teach in in the hills of Tennessee have coaches and coordinators and whole layers of non-teaching personnel where almost everyone used to be a teacher. I would like to see a study in the growth of administrative expenditures from the inception of NCLB. Not going to happen. The administrations of these counties may deride NCLB in public, but most of them know that their positions were created because of NCLB.
Math Teacher
August 31st, 2011
8:07 pm
Why didn’t they pass a law requiring 100% employment by 20X6? Then, all the teachers leaving for sanity’s sake would be sure of having a way to support their families.
Wheeler Mom
August 31st, 2011
8:12 pm
Where do some of you get your facts??
From the ed.gov’s NCLB fact page:
President Bush has made education his number one domestic priority. On January 23, 2001, he sent his No Child Left Behind plan for comprehensive education reform to Congress. At that time, he asked members of Congress to engage in an active bipartisan debate on how we can use the federal role in education to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers. The result, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, embodies the four principles of President George W. Bush’s education reform plan: stronger accountability for results, expanded flexibility and local control, expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work.
A Proficient APS 12th grader
August 31st, 2011
8:23 pm
But dey sed dat i had a dagree…wut up wit dat..?????
Informed Insider
August 31st, 2011
8:58 pm
Those of us in education that saw what was going on did speak out. In the early 2000’s those of us that were working in the lower socioeconomic status (SES) schools knew that we would fall into the category of NI schools first and that the benchmarks were arbitrary and unattainable for all students. In fact, the state of Ga asked for waivers on the benchmarks early on and created larger changes in these benchmarks for the later years. We watched as principals were replaced, schools were restaffed and we said that nothing would be done until higher socioeconomic schools became NI schools. And we were right! As long as we were “the failing schools” no one said anything. But now that the higher SES schools cannot make the benchmarks it is time to change the system, even though it was a flawed system from the beginning. We have argued for true “growth model data” for years, but this has not happened. This was a system to render the public schools incompetent so an alternative voucher system could be implemented.
JIm Arnold is Exactly Right and I could not have said it any better!
Good Grief
August 31st, 2011
9:17 pm
@slp98
What in the World are you babbling on about? Wealthy parents are not suing the public schools – they are sending their kids to private schools. You are so far out of touch with your wealth envy you have no clue what you are saying. Our resources are being spent heavily on people that do not belong in this country. Are you one of those people? Run along before you embarass yourself any further.
Smell the Coffee
August 31st, 2011
9:21 pm
@ Informed Insidef – You 100% on target.
I was in the process of responding to Mr. Arnold’s letter when I read your comment. Nothing I could write would match your succint account and chronology of events leading to our current crisis.
Thank you.
Atlanta mom
August 31st, 2011
9:29 pm
@ jennifer
Where do you live? How many subgroups in your local HS?
slp98
August 31st, 2011
9:33 pm
@ Good grief – Clearly, you do not know what you are talking about; I doubt your job is to deal with these cases on a weekly basis (as my job requires). And wealthy envy is not the issue, as I grew up in the same affluent environment. Private schools will NOT ACCEPT most of these students. Additionally, parents share tips about how to “work” the system to get whatever they want via legal threats. I have a foot in both worlds – parent insider as well as employee.
I wouldn’t throw stones about embarrassing oneself, as your rant about children who can’t speak English speaks volumes about your lack of knowledge of how resources are distributed in schools. Just another tea-bagger trying to find someone to blame (i.e., foreign citizens) for our country’s problems…
Atlanta mom
August 31st, 2011
9:39 pm
@Jennifer,
Let me rephrase. How many subgroups that actually enter into your AYP calculation. You sound like Dunwoody Mom who was so proud of the diversity in her school. And for a “northern arc” school, it was very diverse. They had nary a subgroup.
ex aps teacher
August 31st, 2011
10:19 pm
This is the kind of leader we need for our schools
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/education.wv.finland/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1
Theresa
August 31st, 2011
10:29 pm
maybe this will put it in perspective for you:
All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.
All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.
When players arrive at any game with remedial skills in football for any reason, their coaches will be penalized for their performance, regardless of how long the players have been on the team. cjk
If remedial players do not achieve proficiency by the next statistically recorded game, their coaches and athletic directors will be put on probation. After several games of probation, coaches and athletic directors may be released. Coach and athletic director probation and release will not be conditional on the size of gains in the remedial players football skills; players must reach proficiency. cjk
Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. Coaches will use all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don’t like football.
All coaches will be proficient in all aspects of football, or they will be released.
Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th and 11th games.
This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.
If no football player gets ahead, then no football player will be left behind.
Paulo977
August 31st, 2011
10:34 pm
“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.”
We still don’t get it . Obama are you listening ? Get the RttT OUT of the system !!
Janine
August 31st, 2011
10:36 pm
I appreciate the message and the messenger….However, Maureen, you know as well as anyone that teachers have been “speaking out” since NCLB first raised its ugly head. Teaching was my life’s work and I know not one single classroom teacher who did not “speak out” about the fallacies of NCLB. Even some of the so-called “consultants” would give instruction about NCLB requirements with a wink to the classroom teachers. No one would listen. We couldn’t do sit ins or walk outs or pickets [even if we could have afforded to miss work ]because it would have damaged our students even more. So do not, do not state or imply the WE did not speak out.
ATL Teacher
August 31st, 2011
10:55 pm
Enter your comments here
Anonmom
August 31st, 2011
11:06 pm
I met, face to face, with Senator Isakson about 10 or 15 years ago. I told him that NCLB didn’t work for the parents. That, as a parent, I wanted my school to faile NCLB, at least every other year, so that we would not be inundated with transfers. He was appalled. He was officially put on notice that there were problems at that point in time. He also told our group that the special ed kids were not originally in the legislation but that their lobbyists actively lobbied to be included becasue they really wanted to not “be left behind” and he recognizid that this was a shorcoiming in the legislation that ultimatley needed to be fixed. (We’re still waiting). Iti s statistically impossible for all kids, at all schools (including those with IQs below 100 and those who don’t speak English at grade level) to be proficient at grade level… the bell curve exists for a reason. So when all school fail, two years in a row, at lest then, maybe, they (DCSS) will have to offer up tutoring, because there won’t be any school open for transfers. Also, the white flight has been significant under NCLB because it really does enocourage teaching to the middle and those who are at the top of the bell are ignored (as are those at the bottom). There’s a story floating around about a past board member whose son was asked to leave a school in a small public system because he was going to bring that system’s IEP count too high — once a subgroup gets too high, scores count and that doesn’t look too good for AYP — so school with homogenous populations are better off. It’s criminal that a failing score (or lack of attendance) can really harm a school on so many differnt bases (e.g as a ESOL, IEP, hispanic and FLL, kid on one failing score).
Gary Stager, Ph.D.
September 1st, 2011
3:31 am
I called it out in countless publications over the past decade or so as evidenced by just three of my articles:
“School Wars” (2008) cover of Good Magazine – http://bit.ly/bVsP19
“Who Elected Bill Gates?” (2011) The Huffington Post – http://huff.to/gvjHlL (lots of links in the article)
“Direct Instruction” (2004) District Administration – http://bit.ly/pbZ58Q
Given the war on children in this country, I take no pleasure in being right for so long.
Glad to have your voice in the conversation!
Gary
Southwest Portland schools feel pressure of increased AYP standards – Southwest Community Connection | Live Newsline
September 1st, 2011
6:33 am
[...] Portland. …More than one in five Utah schools fail to meet federal goalsSalt Lake TribuneNo Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few …Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)Close the Math GapHuffington Post (blog)all 19 news [...]
Language School Review September 1, 2011 - We Spy on US Language Schools! - Language School Spy
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[...] meet No Child Left Behind benchmarks in 2011Deseret NewsUtah schools get their gradesABC 4Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)all 5 news [...]
Dunwoody Mom
September 1st, 2011
7:07 am
You sound like Dunwoody Mom who was so proud of the diversity in her school. And for a “northern arc” school, it was very diverse. They had nary a subgroup
Huh? You might want to take a look at the demographics for Dunwoody HS. You will see probably one of the most, if no the most, diverse high school in DeKalb County. There are students in every subgroup in DHS. Is it important to you to spread mis-information?
long time educator
September 1st, 2011
7:20 am
@Theresa,
Very clever comment and so true!
HS Public Teacher
September 1st, 2011
7:38 am
Another result of NCLB is the ‘witch hunt’ of teachers. Good people and good teachers are either chosing to leave the profession or are being driven out because of the absurd notion that student test scores are alone determined by teacher quality.
These standardized tests are not only terrorizing the students, but also the teachers.
As a result, teachers switch to a survival mode that uses horrible education practices (route memorization) and teaching methods just to conform – and 99% of it is not good for the students. However, if “everyone else is doing it then it cannot be MY fault.”
Stupid says as Stupid does
September 1st, 2011
7:58 am
Just cheat, steal & lie like they have done in APS for so long and you will be recognized as one of “America’s most improved school districts.”
I say dumb down the poor kids and teach to the test!
How gullibe can we be?
Good Grief
September 1st, 2011
8:13 am
slp98 says … “Just another tea-bagger trying to find someone to blame (i.e., foreign citizens) for our country’s problems…”
Typical, uneducated response.
Back up your comments with documentation. There are plenty of stats and a wealth of information to confirm the facts that I stated, if so states wouldn’t be trying to rid ourselves of illegals in record numbers. When you TAKE more than you contribute to a society, you are a large part of the problem. But what do you come back with – tea party hate that is loosing ground and you are making you look silly with every delusional comment. So the overwhelming majority of America is racist? YOU are part of what is wrong with education. Bless your heart!
HS Public Teacher
September 1st, 2011
8:58 am
@Good Grief –
First, it is not “educators” that make the types of decisions that you discussed. It is the politicans. There are laws on the GA books and there are Federal mandates that require “educators” to provide very specific things to sub-groups. We do not have a choice. Please stop jumping on the bandwagon for placing all blame on teachers. Remember that teachers are nothing more than worker bees trying to help your children. We are not the decision makers.
Second, you and I are not that far off. I feel that there should be “graduation” tests for elementary school and also middle school. If a student cannot score a minimum to show that they are ready to “graduate” to the next level of school, then they can have options: retake the test, attend an alternate school (to learn a trade, for example), or stop going to school and get a job. We waste too much money trying to educate kids that either don’t care or don’t want to be in school – yet we force them to be in a classroom where they inevitably ruin it for the real students.
Lastly, in most every one of your posts, you grand-stand seemingly on some soap box with complaint after complaint. Where is your suggestion or solution?
BTW – People in this Country illegally account for a very very small percentage of people in the US. Even here in GA, it was estimated that they kids account for about 3% of the student population in public schools today. Although it should be 0%, I think that you exagerate this way too much.
Pardon My Blog
September 1st, 2011
9:00 am
Interesting comments. There is not one solution that will work for all states much less all school systems because they all have unique student bodies with different needs. It was my understanding that when first instituted, Sen. Kennedy and President Bush wanted to ensure that the students were getting the very best education possible and that poor performance by some teachers were denying some students the ability to succeed in an ever changing world. @Anonmom has it right about DCSS, there are many teachers that I question how they got their High School degree much less their teaching degree from college. The student population is another problem from the non-English speaking (in DCSS there are many different languages not just spanish) to the Special Education. A teacher friend of mine go so frustrated because a majority of the students in her class (elementary school) could not speak nor understand a single word of English. They spoke Russian or Chinese mostly with a sprinkling of Spanish with the rest speaking English. She was required to spend her class time trying to “teach” to those students. Who lost? The English speakers. She knew at test time her students would not perform well and unfortunately the parents could not understand as they spoke no English as well. Don’t use taxpayer money to fund these Charter Schools, use it instead as a special learning center for English Language then once learned they can be mainstreamed into the schools.
Then there is the other issue of students, especially at the High School level, who simply do not want to be there. Many teachers complain that the parents of some athletes could care less about the education aspect of school. The important issue seems to be why Johnny did not start on Friday, etc. The emphasis on a good education begins at home. Some parents feel that by transferring their child to a school on the Northside that somehow by osmosis their child will suddenly become brilliant. It does not happen.
There are many problems with public education which mostly stem from a one size fits all approach. It doesn’t work just like not all teachers are good teachers and not all administrators are good administrators. The NCLB has grown into a monster and is not achieving, I believe, its original goal. Have national curriculum requirements but let the States handle the particular needs of the schools.
William Casey
September 1st, 2011
9:38 am
@THERESA: As a former coach who also took his teaching seriously, I absolutely loved your “football” post. I would laugh if what is happening to our schools weren’t so sad.
Suckered Citizen!
September 1st, 2011
9:49 am
SOLUTION:
Take all the illegals and others who don’t contribute to our tax base and send the to APS so they will become competent graduates able to secure meaningful employment.
I understand APS transforms the illiterate into the literate in no time flat. All it takes is millons of dollars and fat salaries for crooked administrators.
ReginaPhalange
September 1st, 2011
9:50 am
And aside from everything else Good Mother got wrong (I’ll let the teachers school her on everything else, though I’ve been saying from the start that NCLB was a farce–but I’m not a teacher or an administrator so nobody hears me), she misspelled “lousy”. And she’s raising kids. I’m truly afraid. Or as Good Mother would probably say, “I’m truely a-sceered.”
AtlSouthside
September 1st, 2011
10:18 am
Its funny how people want to discredit the assessment & observations of a superintendent… anytime someone points out disparities (such as the zip code effect) it discredited and called an “excuse.” – As though this schools were segerated as recent as the 1950s.. in most places school remain segregated in 2011… but everything is just an excuse right? GTFOH!
I went to Fulton County Schools, and guess what? There’s a HUGE difference in quality if you’re in North Fulton County Schools vs. South Fulton County Schools…
AtlSouthside
September 1st, 2011
10:21 am
***As though this schools weren’t segregated as recent as the 1950s.. in most places schools remain segregated in 2011… but everything is just an excuse right? GTFOH!
GA State didnt allow black students to enrolled until the 1970s
AtlSouthside
September 1st, 2011
10:31 am
I remember discussions in my Sociology courses at GSU, it was there that I learned how naive some people can be, specifically some white (and even black) people who are privileged and dont realize it.. to call any proven/documented/obvious disparity an “excuse” – that baffles me, as someone who has been through the educational system in Fulton County and then graduated from GSU… I know the disparitied exists and they are much bigger than the teachers or administrators… its about the MONEY.
Mac
September 1st, 2011
10:33 am
Jim Arnold has done the best job in summarizing the impact of NCLB. While I do believe it was well-intended, it has failed and the saddest thing, to me, is that it did not have to fail. It could have been reauthorized and improved so that the impact was what was intended. Federal government does not have a role in schools. Schools are the responsibility of the state. As for the cheating…there is no excuse for that. None. Zip. Zero.
To Irish Eyes from Good Mother
September 1st, 2011
10:49 am
Your comments regarding “just one” student failing the test are hypothetical. ONE student is one school is not making the school fail — it’s a hundred or more failing the test, a test that is dumbed-down. The students are only required to score 60% on a dumbed-down test to be “proficient.” Yet, they still fail.
There is plenty of money for art, music and sports but it is taken by crooked administrators. If we required illegals to go back home, we’d have more than enough money.
We need a real standardized test that has a high standard and we need to provide real consequences for those that can’t pass it — retain the student.
A high school diploma should mean something. It shouldn’t only mean that someone shoved the kid out of bed most days and they sat in a chair for twelve years.
And we need accountability for teachers. There are many bad ones at APS. Those 178 who were caught cheating are now on administrative leave costing APS ONE MILLION dollars a month. That’s a lot of art and music.
AtlSouthside
September 1st, 2011
10:50 am
Do you really think this APS mess is the 1st of its kind?
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
10:55 am
Respectfully, Mr. Arnold, “we” administrators are the ones who for decades allowed the public education system to deteriorate and fester, particuarly in places where there were few, if any, parent and community advocates to hold us accountable for what we did for the least of our children. For decades, “we” were granted the unrestricted authority to run the public schools as we saw fit, and “we” have failed miserably in many places. “We” were charged with the supervision and evaluation of our teachers, and we have had a substantial research base to tell us how to do it effectively, and “we” didn’t do it. “We” spent more time in our central offices politicking than we did working directly with our principals, teaching and training them in how to lead their schools to be places where dreams truly do come true. “We” who worked in affluent districts with lots of employee applicants to choose from were fortunate not to have to spend very much time doing the most important part of our jobs, which is leading instruction. In places without such good fortune, “we” allowed the system to struggle and weaken. “We” allowed the high school dropout rate to reach almost 33% in this, the richest and most technologically advanced country on the planet.
“We” relinquished our responsibility. It was seized by external forces, notably the state legislatures and Congress, because we didn’t do our jobs. You are correct, it is the children who have paid the price. And I’m not arguing that NCLB is by any means a success. However, had we not had accountability forced on us, would “we” have turned the spotlight on our subgroups of the neediest children? “We” both know the answer to that question.
Dunwoody Mom
September 1st, 2011
10:58 am
However, had we not had accountability forced on us, would “we” have turned the spotlight on our subgroups of the neediest children?
And what has this “spotlight” accomplished? Little from I have seen and what the statistics bear out. I also believe tagging schools, and thus children with a “failing” tag is harmful. If you tell a child, or anyone for that matter, that they are “failing” enough times, they will believe it and so, why even try?
Janine
September 1st, 2011
11:07 am
Did no one who had a hand the development/presentation/implementation of NCLB see the blatant and numerous items of ignorance permeating this “plan” for improvement??? SCARY !!!???
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
11:15 am
The good thing that has been accomplished is that districts have been dragged kicking and screaming into focusing on teaching and learning. Granted, many of them have become consumed with kill and drill (which is, again, an administrator problem, far more than a teacher problem), and that has got to change. But at least there is now a national awareness that ZIP code has a profound impact on the quality of a child’s public education, and parents are becoming equipped with the knowledge of what really goes on in classrooms. Administrators are being forced to take a long, hard look at teaching. I have faith that eventually we’ll get it right. I remember when I started teaching in the 1980s and there was no such thing as widespread “new teacher induction” practice. It was literally sink or swim. In the last three decades, we have come incredibly far in terms of how we handle that issue.
irisheyes
September 1st, 2011
11:43 am
@Good Mother, the middle school near where I teach was labeled as NI because not enough of their 6th grade special education students did not pass the CRCT. Administrators figured it was probably one or two students (since they were very close to the needed percentage). The whole sub-group isn’t hundreds of kids, it was about 40 or 50. Because of one or two students, the entire school was labeled as NI (or failing as the media loves to call it). Schools aren’t “failing” because of hundreds of students, they’re labeled as failing because of just a few students. Plus, the hypothetical I’m giving WILL happen in 2014. One hundred percent of all sub-groups must pass the CRCT in 2014 or else the entire school is labeled as failing. I’m sorry if you don’t want to believe it, but those ARE the facts.
irisheyes
September 1st, 2011
11:44 am
FYI, before someone makes a remark about teachers blogging during school time, I’m home on maternity leave.
Mac
September 1st, 2011
11:47 am
Seems like the author is spot on:
Michigan Republicans: Let’s Privatize Public School Teaching
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/michigan-republican-privatize-teacher-public-education
Digger
September 1st, 2011
11:55 am
We demand that by 2016 all white kids be able to run as fast and jump as high as black kids. Close the athletic gap, by whatever means necessary.
Dr NO aka Mr Sunshine
September 1st, 2011
12:07 pm
AtlSouthside
September 1st, 2011
10:31 am
Quite the bitter person I see. Why dont you go get a job or visit a casino or get married or divorced or fly a kite. White priviledge is a myth and was contrived to inspire white guilt. Well I certianly dont feel guilty. My parents sacrificed so I could have a few little extras. And if certain communities cultures refuse to sacrifice for their children or continually function with a lack of morals, well, that isnt my problem.
That being said Im sure they are plenty of parents of all races that sacrifice for their children. For those that dont, well it isnt a govt responsibility. And oh btw…life isnt fair.
Dr. John Trotter
September 1st, 2011
12:16 pm
Dr. Gary Stager:
I noted your articles in the past about Gates, Direct Instruction, NCLB. You were and are right on target. I too am a little amused and bemused when all of a sudden the general populace seems to believe that this discovery of the ill effects of NCLB and the mandated standardized testing, cookie-cooker teaching methods (ala “Direct Instruction), and prescripted curricula are just now happening. Some of us have been railing against this stuff for years now.
Several years ago (about 2005 or 2006), I wrote a very detailed article on the MACE website about the deleterious effects of Direct Instruction. Even in the main article of MACE’s first publication (”For Kids’ Sake, Let Teachers Teach!”, The Teacher’s Advocate, Fall of 1995), I spoke out strongly against the mandated standardized testing and the mandated cookie-cutter teaching methods. For years in our publications (which can be viewed in the Archive section of http://www.theteachersadvocate.com) and website, we have constantly beaten the drums against the asinine thinking behind such folly in the public schooling process. It is all based upon the false assumption that students aren’t learning because teachers aren’t teaching. Hence, using the Max Weber production model as the model to “improve” public education (= teachers being forced to teach harder, i.e., on an assembly line dealing with inanimate objects), teachers ceased being treated as professionals where their knowledge, judgment, and wisdom are respected; rather, teachers are treated as hired hands who need to be snoopervised and told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. No discretion allowed.
These educational numbskulls in the business community (viz., Bill Gates and Eli Broad) apparently think that children are like chunks of cookie dough coming down the conveyor belt in equitably divided portions, and teachers are therefore expected to be able to mold each chunk equitably and at the same pace. Of course, Gates and Broad can’t imagine that the chunks of cookie dough are not made of the same consistency. Some have had extra salt poured into the batch. Some have mistakenly had pepper and vinegar poured all into the batch. Some refuse to be molded; rather, some chunks of cookie dough actually spontaneously jump off the conveyor belt! This analogy is, of course, stupid, but this is how these so-called businessmen think that you “reform” public education. You just count how many cookies each teacher makes (= test scores), and you reward those teachers who have made the most cookies, because, after all, in their way of thinking, children are just like cookie dough.
The Business Roundtable, as I have also pointed out in the past, was one of, if not the, major impetus behind this entire effort to “underhaul” education in America. This effort has devastated the public schooling process in the United States, making it a parody of true education which instills within the human spirit a quest for knowledge which will last for a lifetime, not just for some shallow, one-time recitation of arbitrary “core” facts decided by clueless educrats.
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
http://www.georgiateachersspeakout.com
Dr. John Trotter
September 1st, 2011
12:29 pm
In reference to Gates and Broad, I intended to say “so-called reformers,” not “so-called businessmen.” No one doubts their business acumen. We just doubt their education acumen. Sorry for the mistake. Writing too hastily, as I usually do.
Janine
September 1st, 2011
1:02 pm
@Dr. Monica: You are certainly correct about “administrators…and Central office people” had to be dragged “kicking and into focusing on teaching and learning. “. After going through public school myself, having two children who went through Dekalb Co. schools and become highly successful in their college careers and professions,and teaching in that system for 32 years I know that until the last few years before my retirement in 2005 the focus among most teachers was on teaching and learning.
Oh…and anyone who didn’t already know that “ZIP code has a profound impact on the quality of a child’s public education,” and , IMO the education level of the mother, whether single or not…well, must have been under a rock for 1000 years.
Janine
September 1st, 2011
1:03 pm
I realize there are some omissions and errors in my post….I was ANGRY.
Dunwoody Mom
September 1st, 2011
1:13 pm
The good thing that has been accomplished is that districts have been dragged kicking and screaming into focusing on teaching and learning
I’m not sure what world you live in, but it has been my experience that there has been a heck a lot of teaching and learning going on for decades now.
It disturbs me that a so-called “Dr.” finds any value to NCLB in its current form.
Dunwoody Mom
September 1st, 2011
1:25 pm
Dr. Henson, I believer you are a supporter of Michelle Rhee???? That might explain your attacks on “teaching and learning”.
me
September 1st, 2011
1:50 pm
Dr. (online degree) Henson runs an online charter high school for the Edison group if memory serves and so has a vested interest in downing ‘normal’ schools.
amazed
September 1st, 2011
1:56 pm
Interesting what different interpretations of the same letter there are. Rather than someone brave, I see a whiny administrator who doesn’t want to take responsibility. We already have those type of people in APS and DCSS. We just got rid of one in Beverly Hall. We don’t need one from a tiny district in South Georgia.
Let’s see what he says is being done and he believes:
He wants no accountability.
He wants to ignore failing sub-groups (they did that for a long time in Mitchell County)
He doesn’t want to test ELL students.
He doesn’t think English and Math are important
He games the system.
He doesn’t communicate why the school is failing when one small sub-group fails.
He teaches to the test.
Clearly he doesn’t take responsibility for things that were his choices but wants to blame conspiratorial outside forces. Maybe you can’t get the Special Ed to pass. Maybe you can’t get 100% of the rest. But the point is to try rather than giving up. And all the rest of the things he complains about are choices made by the school districts.
High minded ideals by W. and Ted are being turned into a conspiracy theory by those administrators unable or unwilling to succeed.
To Irish Eyes from Good Mother
September 1st, 2011
2:20 pm
The facts are that the test is ridiculously easy and it only requires 60% to pass.
If a school can’t get a student to pass a ridiculously easy test by a low percentage, the school deserves its failing grade.
Teachers, administrators and schools mustbe held accountable.
A teacher’s evaluation must include the product he or she is producing — learning.
If the children aren’t learning, something at the school is wrong.
The school gets our children for six to eight hours a day 190 days a year. If a school can’t teach a child to read in that length of time, it needs to be renamed, cleaned, and have an entirely new staff.
Reading is fundamental. There is absolutley no excuse for any system to have a child for twelve to thirteen years and hand them a diploma the child cannot read or comprehend.
I’ve had it rough: broken home, poverty, abuse, poor school. You name it. All the cards were against me. I thrived in my public school despite some completely lousy teachers. I had some good teachers and a few caring individuals that helped me. I’m intelligent, college-educated and I earn a good living and, Lord, I pay the taxes and give back to society.
For all teachers: we remember you. We remember what you’ve said to us, we remember how good or bad you were. You are memorable. I did a sanity check with all my colleagues. We all remember every one of our teacher’s names. We remember what was good and bad about you. We remember what you taught us or didn’t teach us.
Your job is an important one. Please take it seriously. Please find a way to teach instead of finding excuses for failures.
ohio
September 1st, 2011
3:33 pm
FYI, charter schools are public schools and are held at higher standards than traditional public schools.
irisheyes
September 1st, 2011
3:40 pm
Oh, Good Mother, your lack of knowledge is starting to show. First of all, the school year at most public schools is 180 days, and for some systems, it’s even less than that. Secondly, the students are here for 6 1/2 hours from the beginning bell to the ending bell. Take out time for lunch, recess, and specials (all important parts of the school day), and total instructional time for my elementary students is a little more than 4 1/2 hours. Finally, the subgroups that usually cause a school to be labeled NI are the special ed subgroups. Those are the kids who have IQ’s below average, yet they are expected to perform at the same level on the same assessment as a student who has an IQ of 100+. I’m not saying that those kids can’t succeed, but those assessments need to be written at the student’s achievement level. Yes, every regular education child should pass the CRCT. But, we’ve ignored the complexities of special ed students. We need to do better by them.
Take some time to look at a school’s AYP numbers. See why they didn’t make AYP. If it’s the special ed students, ask yourself how it affects your child’s education. Don’t paint an entire school or system with a broad brush.
Thanks for remembering that my job is important. One thing to remember as well is that I’m an educated professional, and when teachers say that there are things that aren’t working, they really do know what they’re talking about. It’s not excuses, it’s the truth from those with “boots on the ground”.
Schoollibrarian
September 1st, 2011
3:48 pm
Having been an educator for over 20 years, I chose to get out of the classroom 3 years ago–because I was not allowed to teach STUDENTS, but instead was only told to teach the TEST. I am now in the library where I feel I can impact students again–to help them truly acquire the skills they need to succeed in our rapidly changing technology based world.
We hear it over & over again from employers in the last few years–new grads (HS or college) are NOT prepared for the work force–they have no initiative, do not know how to troubleshoot, problem solve or be creative. YET these are the EXACT skills needed in our evolving job market.
Truly sad that the powers that be cannot see that this law encourages school districts to turn out students with the exact opposite skills desperately needed in the 21st Century.
I thank goodness for the “renegades” out there who refuse to teach to the test, to teach the scripted curriculum–but instead create creative, interesting, real-world projects that will best prepare their students for a future.
To Irish Eyes from Good Mother
September 1st, 2011
3:54 pm
Irish Eyes, the fact that you quibble about 180 days versus 190 days says a lot about you.
You’re making excuses. Ten days doesn’t matter. Kids are in school for twelve years. In twelve years they can learn to read if they are taught regardless of their home life. I’ve seen it over and again.
Special education students are not the only ones failing the dumbed-down test. I’ve looked at the AYP numbers for all schools in APS.
So stop whining. Stop making excuses.
HadIt
September 1st, 2011
3:59 pm
Expecting a special ed student to pass the same standard tests given to regular ed students is like expecting a child in a pair of leg braces to compete in a fifty-yard dash. It’s madness. My wife is a special ed teacher. I’ve seen her work all night, going into work the next day with no sleep whatsoever because of the paperwork imposed by No Child Left Behind.
At Good Mother?
September 1st, 2011
4:14 pm
Enter your comments here
To Hadlt from Good Mother
September 1st, 2011
4:18 pm
There are plenty of non-special ed students who are failing the dumbed-down tests. It’s not just special education students.
At Good Mother
September 1st, 2011
4:20 pm
Your comments regarding “just one” student failing the test are hypothetical. ONE student is one school is not making the school fail — it’s a hundred or more failing the test, a test that is dumbed-down.
No Good Mother, you are wrong. One or 2 kids can cause a school to fail. Because you don’t understand how AYP works, literally, one child in one category can cause a school to fail. If you understood how AYP works, you would understand that AYP really is set up to make schools fail.
As far as your comment that standardized testing is so very very important. It is important, but to put high stakes on these tests on children, is not right. A child comes to school and takes this test and is having a horrible day. They fail the test because they are having a bad day…and somehow the teacher is held accountable for that.
I don’t think of you as anything better on this board than a troll because you like to cause trouble and you really have no idea what you are talking about.
Pardon My Blog
September 1st, 2011
4:27 pm
Being from South Georgia myself and knowing Mitchell County, Mr. Arnold is speaking from frustration of mandates that simply don’t work for his district’s make-up and needs. What would work for DCSS (just a stretch) will not work for the Pelham City schools. For example, look at all the resources that are available to parents, teachers, and students in the metro area versus what is available (or better yet) not readily available for those students. Is NCLB working? No. Is it a conspiracy? No and a very poor choice of words.
I believe that students need to be challenged but some progress at different levels. Classroom socialization with the hope that the brighter students will bring up those who are not at that same level does not work for the students or the teacher. But the biggest issue I see are some teachers who seriously do not belong in a classroom, some administrators who are totally clueless, and some Superintendents more worried about pushing a certain agenda than what is good for their district.
In my opinion, I believe there needs to be some flexibility along with accountability in order for students to succeed. Let’s get back to the basics of education and let the teachers teach.
Mule
September 1st, 2011
4:37 pm
Seems an educational system based on vouchers would soon create schools that have and schools that don’t have. A government that openly discourages creative thinking and reasoning by forcing students to learn to the test and teachers to teach to the test is a government that is scared to be challenged. Public chools today are forced to be the healthcare provider, mental institution, juvenile hall, dinner table and parents to many students. Only after all those needs are met can they began to educate the students.
Guilty APS Teacher and PROUD OF IT!
September 1st, 2011
5:01 pm
Guilty APS Teacher and PROUD OF IT
I cheated last year by pointing to correct answers as I walked throughout the room. I will continue to help struggling students choose the right answers until I am no longer evaluated based on my children’s scores. Low scores mean I get placed on a professional development plan with targets. We have no other choice and I do not feel as though I have committed a crime.
It’s easy to say find another job. Oh yea, where? Especially one that pays a decent salary, offers health benefits and has hours that allow for a family life. Besides teaching is what I spent 7 years (Master’s plus 30) of my life preparing for, because it is what I truly wanted to do.
What I do not want to do is teach to the test every minute of the day. There are times I would like to talk to my class about current events or the value of being good citizens. But in essence, I am scripted and better not stray from my lesson plan that has been pre-approved to make sure it aligns with what will be tested.
Everything we say, everything we teach must be match with items tested (item analysis). We have long meetings every week explicitly for this purpose. If we are observed discussing or teaching anything not aligned with these objectives you get a letter of reprimand and lots of harassing observations. You may find this hard to believe, but we can’t put an item on display in the room or God forbid, on the bulletin board if we don’t attach a note identifying which objective or standard is being addressed.
I know to those of you on the outside looking in, my comment might sound bizarre, but it is the honest to God truth.
Superintendent Arnold is telling the truth. This madness needs to stop!
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
5:08 pm
@Dunwoody Mom, I have not attacked teaching and learning. What I criticized is the lack of attention paid by administrators to leading instruction and ensuring that teaching and learning is the central focus of their (the administrators’) time and energy. I admire and support the work of Michelle Rhee to reform the education system so that teachers become the highly-paid professionals that we need.
@me, my master’s degree (2002) is from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, a respected brick-and-mortar institution. My doctorate is from Nova Southeastern University in North Miami Beach, Florida, also a respected brick-and-mortar institution. I do not hold any “online degrees.” I have spent nearly a quarter century in public education, the majority of which has been in school districts in several states on the East Coast, before becoming the executive director of Provost Academy Georgia, which will be the state’s first virtual high school serving grades 9-12 exclusively. I am a strong supporter of bringing additional educational options to students and their families and do not apologize for doing so.
I also post under my real name and not an alias. Would you mind sharing your real name and your education credentials for the reading audience?
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
5:20 pm
@Dunwoody Mom, I am not attacking you as a “so-called mother” simply because I disagree with some of the things you post, and I don’t appreciate your insulting my work and experience and knowledge base. I worked hard to earn my credentials from respected, accredited private universities, spending many, many hours in classes. I also spent many years in the classroom as a National Board Certified Teacher before working in administration. I wrote a book-length dissertation that summarized nearly years of my own action research, in addition to the literature review and analysis of the research base, on top of rigorous coursework. The topic of my dissertation was on administrators and why they generally don’t conduct teacher supervision and evaluation effectively. I happen to know quite a bit about the topic of teaching and learning and how administrators don’t focus on it in a way that helps teachers become better at what they do. It should not surprise anyone that reasonable people can disagree. Let’s not resort to insulting people and casting doubt on their education training simply because they don’t agree with what we say. It is the anonymous nature of the people who post here regularly, along with the insults and unsubstantiated remarks that many of them make, that lead many people in the Atlanta education community to forego joining the conversation and raising the level of discourse here. I’d like to see all posters use their real names and stop trying to identify imaginary hidden agendas of those with whom they disagree.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
5:21 pm
“nearly SIX years”
@ - Guilty APS ...What a tragic story
September 1st, 2011
5:27 pm
Poor teachers, and even worse, what a tragedy for the kids. This must be Beverly Hall’s legacy. No wonder she seems to be so reviled by so many. I hope she gets all that’s coming to her.
What a mess.
Maureen Downey
September 1st, 2011
5:35 pm
@Dr. Henson, As a New Jersey native, I can vouch for the stellar reputation of Seton Hall University. And I am delighted that my best high school pal — who has a doctorate from NYU — recently joined the administration of that campus.
Maureen
Dr. Monica Henson
September 1st, 2011
5:38 pm
Maureen, I very much enjoyed my studies there and made lifetime friends. My professors in the college of education were all former public school administrators, many of whom stay in touch with my classmates and me to this day. Seton Hall University is a terrific institution.
Another APS teacher
September 1st, 2011
5:38 pm
The Guilty APS teacher is telling the truth. In fact she’s making an understatement. It is exactly as she describe and more, all day everyday, before the school year begins until it ends.
Guilty APS Teacher and PROUD OF IT!
September 1st, 2011
5:44 pm
sorry for earlier spelling error
I cheated last year by pointing to correct answers as I walked throughout the room. I will continue to help struggling students choose the right answers until I am no longer evaluated based on my children’s scores. Low scores mean I get placed on a professional development plan with targets. We have no other choice and I do not feel as though I have committed a crime.
It’s easy to say find another job. Oh yea, where? Especially one that pays a decent salary, offers health benefits and has hours that allow for a family life. Besides teaching is what I spent 7 years (Master’s plus 30) of my life preparing for, because it is what I truly wanted to do.
What I do not want to do is teach to the test every minute of the day. There are times I would like to talk to my class about current events or the value of being good citizens. But in essence, I am scripted and better not stray from my lesson plan that has been pre-approved to make sure it aligns with what will be tested.
Everything we say, everything we teach must be match with items tested (item analysis). We have long meetings every week explicitly for this purpose. If we are observed discussing or teaching anything not aligned with these objectives you get a letter of reprimand and lots of harassing observations. You may find this hard to believe, but we can’t put an item on display in the room or God forbid, on the bulletin board if we don’t attach a note identifying which objective or standard is being addressed.
I know to those of you on the outside looking in, my comment might sound bizarre, but it is the honest to God truth.
Superintendent Arnold is telling the truth. This madness needs to stop!
Middle School Rocks
September 1st, 2011
6:22 pm
I wonder if pay for performance will last very long when teachers start to sue the parents and students in their classes for their poor performance on these tests. Maybe the proof could be zeros on assignments as well as the junk they turn in as “work.” These cases will all be won as we the teachers have proof that your students and their parents are the issue. Figure it out or pay up.
Nanna - @Guilty APS teacher
September 1st, 2011
7:21 pm
I just read Jami Sarrio’s AJC article posted 30 minutes ago and it said that the new superintendent will be ending bonuses for test scores since widespread cheating calls the whole scheme into question.
I had no idea that Beverly Hall made off with over $580,000 in bonuses, and this was in addition to her salary of $415,000. I now fully understand the motive for covering up a decade of cheating, lying and stealing.
Tape this comic above your computer
September 1st, 2011
8:43 pm
Type in “So you’re mad about something on the Internet” in Google and hit “I’m Feeling Lucky”. Read the comic.
Yeah, you went past Level 2 and probably Level 3, didn’t you? So what did you get out of posting? You know, on the Internet?
Pardon My Blog
September 1st, 2011
8:44 pm
@ Guilty APS teacher – still does not excuse the cheating. There is something called ethics, and there is a way to handle this without lowering yourself to that level.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 1st, 2011
8:49 pm
Dr. Henson,
Give us hell.We deserve it.
Dr. Arnold,
In light of the start of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association’s Open Championship, might I ask, “Paranoia, anyone?”
Wishful Thinking for those at APS
September 1st, 2011
9:08 pm
It is going to take more than stopping the bonus pay. The APS practice as described means it is very deeply imbedded in the system’s culture. Superintendent Davis cannot undo in a year what has become a “habit of mind” for APS educators.
It will take a decade or longer of sustained focus to lift the curse wrought ball Hall and her operatives.
Sharon Pitts must Go
September 1st, 2011
9:56 pm
Enter your comments here
Mikey D
September 1st, 2011
10:56 pm
@Dr. Henson,
Sorry, but as soon as you boasted about your admiration for Michelle Rhee, you lost the respect of about 99% of teachers out there. I hope that you’re no longer a school administrator, or if you are still supervising teachers that you aren’t imitating the vile tactics Rhee used during her time in DC.
jarvis
September 1st, 2011
11:09 pm
@Guilty APS Teacher, you are disgusting. You lack any kind of professional ethics. You would have been a failure at any line of business you had decided to go into. A lack of ethics always has a way of catching up with people.
Dunwoody Mom
September 1st, 2011
11:24 pm
Michelle Rhee’s 15 minutes are about up. Trying to brush aside the emerging cheating scandal in D.C. puts her right up there with Beverly Hall.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 2nd, 2011
1:43 am
(J)arvis,
Anonymity, like the law, is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 2nd, 2011
1:46 am
“Straight-talking chief?”
Give me a straight-shooting and -acting one. My Maternal Granny always told me. “Actions speak louder than words” and “Talk is cheap.”
Granny, 51 years-dead, remains to this day correct.
teacher&mom
September 2nd, 2011
6:47 am
@Maureen, I find it interesting that PDK polls have consistently shown the general public does not support NCLB. However, I believe in many voters’ minds, it does not play a role in how they vote. I do think more than a few teachers voted for President Obama in hopes he would make necessary changes in the law. Instead, he appointed a Education Secretary with little education experience and the result was Race to the Top…..NCLB on steroids.
Duncan is currently offering a waiver on NCLB if states promise to follow his new set of rules. Georgia will probably ask for a waiver and I fear the result will be worse than NCLB mandates.
Over 50% of the employees at the GA Dept. of Ed are paid through federal funds. The feds have GA in a vice grip. We are their puppet and they know it.
redweather
September 2nd, 2011
7:20 am
Sill waiting for Dunwoody Mom’s credentials.
Lee
September 2nd, 2011
7:30 am
“Sill waiting for Dunwoody Mom’s credentials.”
Good grief, this a blog, not a job application….
BTW, when you post to a blog using the title of “Dr.” or “Phd”, expect someone to take potshots at your title. It really has no relevance here.
UGA Doc
September 2nd, 2011
8:41 am
Dr. M – “Nova Southeastern University in North Miami Beach, Florida, also a respected brick-and-mortar institution”.
In what universe? Nova is laughed at pretty much nationwide. Spend a week or 3 a year in Florida and call it a degree? Nope. Bought and paid for degree doesn’t equal what you get at a real research University. Sorry
@Guilty Teacher
September 2nd, 2011
8:50 am
Guilty Teacher you are a fool. I’m copying and pasting your comments into a document and reporting your blog to the authorities so we can now hire people to WATCH you as you point ou the correct answers on the tests (and by the way, computer forensics are advanced these days).
Thanks for the heads up! I’m delighted you fessed up!
@Guilty Teacher
September 2nd, 2011
8:59 am
I just reported the Guilty teacher to the authorities and the rep says he will have the attorney general investigate immediately. If anyone gets wind of more cheating, contact any of the following immediately:
Do you have a question about APS policies and/or ethics training?
Contact: Rebecca Kaye @ 404.802.2897
Do you have a question about ethics and the APS balanced scorecard?
Contact: Alexis Kirijan @ 404.802.2830
Do you have a question about the APS security test plan? Contact Ray Hart @ 404.802.2702
Do you have a question about the APS anonymous hotline?
Contact William Scott @ 404.802.2732
Computer forensics are a wonderful thing, Guilty Teacher!
Perverted Thinking
September 2nd, 2011
9:07 am
Dear APS teacher:
I see Beverly Hall did a good job of schooling you. You would probably think it is okay to rob a bank if your kids needed food. Will the perversion ever stop? This method of justification is exactly why “leaders” such as Hitler were able to wreak disaster upon helpless people with impunity. Yes, you have in essence become one of Hitler’s (Hall’s) loyal soldiers.
From what I have read, Michele Rhee is self serving witch, but she is angel compared to Hall.
Thief
September 2nd, 2011
9:17 am
Guilty APS teacher
In case you don’t realized it you are stealing from taxpayering (my money) citizens. You belong in jail with the rest of those no count thugs.
Anonmom
September 2nd, 2011
9:19 am
Another big problem with the transfers and “failing” label at DCSS schools (which we pointed out to the good Senator Isakson over a decade ago) is that the highest priority is supposed to go for transfers first to the lowest performing students… then the funds from the title 1 schools do not follow the students into the non-title one schools as the student then over crowd the non-title one schools (e.g. as Lithonia HS now seems to be at 500 kids and Lakeside and Chamblee are at 2000 kids — same for middle schools). The kids don’t get (in DCSS — cp Gwinnett) individual tutoring that would, actually, really help them if they had title one reading and math teachers (not coaches — many DCSS coaches don’t even have teaching certificates yet are paid more but they have appropriate connections). The reality seems to be that mostly the level 2 or 3 kids are transferring, leaving the “failing” school with only the level one kids and rendering it next to impossible that the “transferor” school will ever make AYP in the future. The receiving school is very overcrowded (see Lithonia to Lakeside or Chamblee example) and then it makes it almost impossible for the receiving school to continue to make AYP because the in-coming kids are at a different point in the curriculum and expectations than the kids currently in the building (e.g. from no zero policies to zeros if 5 minutes late and nothing below a B policies to it’s okay if kids fail policies… — really I’m not making this up)– Also, there’s a big difference between the block schedule and the 7 period day (we should really return to the 6 period day) and the most “successful” high schools are on 7 period days – not block schedules and it’s very difficult for the kids going back and forth but none of this is explained to the parents in the mass migrations across the county at 50 some odd cents a mile under NCLB to the real detriment of the kids long term — the better plan would be to address discipline, have educated, qualified teachers in the classrooms who speak and write English with proficiency and administrators with experience teaching for more than a decade and get the kids the help they need locally in neighborhood schools with quality programs.
Anonmom
September 2nd, 2011
9:25 am
One more thought — NCLB allows any kid within a “failing” school to transfer out — even if the school only failed in 2 subgroups (e.g. non-English speakers and Free and Reduced lunch or Disabled population). The receiving school may have also failed in the same category but not as often or the numbers may have been maneuvered (e.g. as happened to Lakeside last year — they dropped a few kids off the numbers so that a few — 2 — subgroups would not count). The law should be implemented so that only those in the failing subgroup are able to transfer out and they should only be allowed to transfer into a school which passed for the subgroup — how does it work for a kid to move from a school if his/her school “worked” for his or her subgroup but not for another subgroup and they move to a different school that passed overall but failed for his/her subgroup? Not too many people really understand all the ramifications of NCLB and how the stats are really used (let alone how the state manipulates the CRCT cut scores). Wherein, I return to just give the kid an IOWA, assign the IOWA to the kid and see if the teacher can improve the kid based on the IOWA score a year later. Yeah, that, and vouchers to get rid of all the bureaucracy at the top and move the massive amount of money to the bottom of the pyramid and into the many hands of many parents and have the state start monitoring how the funds get spent — which I assure they are not currently doing. Neither the State nor SACS is watching out for the actually quality of education being received by the kids for the billions of dollars being spent on it.
Anonmom
September 2nd, 2011
9:26 am
And the media — published and news –refuse to (or are afraid to) really investigate — as in times gone by — where all those billions of dollars are really going…..
amazed
September 2nd, 2011
9:29 am
@Anonmom
The different class schedules within the district just further illustrate the gross incompetence of DCSS. Children do move.
Re: Guilty and Another
None of this has anything to do with NCLB. Administrators and teachers blame the results of incompetent administration (see DCSS class schedules) and implementation on the law. APS has its apparently incredibly strict scripting and documentation. We need administrators who take responsibility and communicate when things aren’t working like a model (such as NCLB) expects. Instead, its always fail to take responsibility and blame outside forces. NCLB clearly isn’t perfect. But its not causing the failing schools. Schools don’t fail everywhere.
To Dave from Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
9:35 am
Dave, you wrote: “Be glad that if standardized tests are to be given it’s the CRCT, which probably makes your child look more advanced.”
You’re missing the point, Dave. I don’t want my child to “look more advanced.” I want his skills accuratey assessed. If he or she needs improvement, I want and need to know. If he or she has a gift, I want to encourage it.
I read and work with my children every day but I still need to know how they measure up against others in the nation because they will be competing for the same colleges, universities and jobs tht other students are.
It’s simple. We need to measure learning for many reasons. I don’t want a dumbed-down test so I can hide in denial that my child needs something. I want to know early so I can intervene, as any good parent would want to do.
Keystone Cop
September 2nd, 2011
9:36 am
@ – I just reported the Guilty teacher to the authorities
I much as I frown on what this teacher has stated, I believe in freedom of expression and especially freedom of the press. If it were not for the revelations brought forth by the AJC our schools would still be governed by America’s Superintendent of the Year!
You must work for APS. Trying to defend whats left of their image no doubt? Wel and the public relations department have your hands full.
Yes, as painful as the accounts might be, we want to know what is happening
AtlSouthside
September 2nd, 2011
9:36 am
LOL at the guy saying he’s copying pasting the Guilty Teacher’s blog post & turning it over to authorities… (Copy & Paste would destroy the validity of your testimony)
Really amazed
September 2nd, 2011
9:42 am
It still amazes me that some people think this just happened in APS. They were the ones that happened to get caught! Like the teacher that stated “she points to the answer sheet to the crct and will continue too”. Do you really believe this is the only teacher in the state of GA that does this????
Really amazed
September 2nd, 2011
9:48 am
@Good mother, that’s the problem, many parents want the denial end of what you are saying. Easier to believe the crct is great!! Look mommy I met the standards on the crct. I am brilliant, aren’t I!
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 2nd, 2011
9:49 am
(T)eacher and mom,
Have you ever looked John Barge in the eye?
Gag the Press
September 2nd, 2011
9:51 am
@ Atl Southside, @ Really Amazed, @ Keystone Cop – I agree with totally agree with you all
Gag the Press:
That’s exactly what Beverly Hall attempted to do. If I recall correctly, she made a personal visit in hopes of persuading the AJC editor & editorial board to back off the reporting of school district cheating. Hall probably said, “Please just call the APS hotline and we’ll take care of it.”
RC
September 2nd, 2011
10:10 am
The conspiracy lies here…”it is easier to lead a group of cattle than to try to explain political actions to an intelectual, questioning public.” The mission of dumbing down the population is clear…government runs amuck and we (the masses) question nothing…or will not (be able to) in the future.
@Gag the Press
September 2nd, 2011
10:21 am
Thank God for this forum. Without it and similar avenues of free expression we might not ever know what is taking place, especially the under currents.
AtlSouthside
September 2nd, 2011
10:25 am
I actually worked for the tutoring program for a short time while I was in college, until I realized that it was a scam, and this “pastor” was taking advantage of taxpayers money, while also exploited the youth… they had a van, and would even drive out to the various neighborhoods just sign up as many kids as possible.. $1,700 x 200+ kids in the program = $340k and many of the kids only attended the program for a short time..
Really amazed
September 2nd, 2011
10:27 am
@Gap the press, isn’t that the truth!!
Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
10:32 am
RE: “If it were not for the revelations brought forth by the AJC our schools would still be governed by America’s Superintendent of the Year!”
I agree and I applaud the AJC for illuminating, uncovering and investigating the cheating. Kudos to the AJC! Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, something you can’t get in Abu Dhabi and definitely it’s something worth fighting for.
Jack
September 2nd, 2011
10:35 am
I came along before standardized tests. And I was an A student throughout grammer and high school and I was not born in an affluent neighborhood. I was, however, born in a home with both parents. It can’t be stressed enough that children born in a drug infested, one parent home will hardly ever make it to a real A student level. I’ve been accused of suffering from a pre-existing bias: maybe I do, but I agree with Mr. Arnold.
AtlSouthside
September 2nd, 2011
10:42 am
@Jack, even though I understand you’re making a generalization, but I disagree…
Most kids do not live in drug infested homes. And its funny how people automatically associate “failing kids” w/ poverty, drugs, broken homes and say “they are failing because of ____” – no the kids are failing because they have been labeled failures… the school sys & even some teachers have internalized that label, and they teach accordingly..
They are rich kids who flunk out of school… do drugs, get arrested… etc. I cam from a single home, and poverty and I made it!!!!
Nanna
September 2nd, 2011
10:51 am
I agree with everyone above that we need freedom of expression.
APS needs to first attend to the accused teachers who are “no longer in front of children,” but are costing taxpapyers SIX MILLION DOLLARS.
To Jack from Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
10:54 am
I came from all the ills you say it is impossible from which to recover: broken home, poverty, abuse, you name it. I thrived in school even though I had some lousy teachers, there were some good ones who cared enough about children to get me going.
I scored a 27 on the ACT on the first try with no prep and got a full ride to college. I’m now an educated, tax-paying, good parent who is raising more good little educated tax-paying citizens.
So your declaration that nothing good can come from my background is a joke. It’s not real. You are suffering frm pre-existing bias.
A few good teachers made all the difference in my life. Their dedication and caring trumped the bad ones. It wasn’t an easy start and life sure isn’t easy now but good students and good citizens CAN COME from terrible home lives.
Teachers DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE !
To Nanny from Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
10:57 am
Six million is a gross underestimate. I spoke to a State Reform Team member. The cheating, lying teachers are costing APS ONE MILLION a MONTH!
That doesn’t include Beverly Hall’s legal fees or her bloated bonuses.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:16 am
@UGA Doc: many would certainly have potshots to take at the University of Georgia compared to the Ivy Leagues, universities outside the Southeast, private research universities such as NSU, etc. I am not sure where you are getting your information about Nova Southeastern University, which includes colleges of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, humanities, education, and several others. NSU is a well-respected private research university. NSU pioneered the blended distance learning concept more than 30 years ago. Distance courses in the graduate school of education operate on a similar schedule to brick-and-mortar courses (meaning that they meet live at scheduled times weekly in addition to asynchronous sessions such as discussion boards and study groups), along with in-person seminars with professors at central locations on a monthly basis (three full days in session in person).
Your characterization of a degree from NSU as a week or three weeks in Florida, bought and paid for, is ludicrous and ignorant. I’d expect far more, even from a UGA graduate. (I attended law school at UGA, and I’d match NSU’s research programs against UGA’s anytime.)
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:18 am
To my knowledge and understanding, the NSU colleges of medicine, law, and pharmacy operate exclusively in the brick-and-mortar world. As a public school teacher, I also attended Advanced Placement institutes hosted at NSU’s main campus that included attendee teachers from all across the Southeast.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:19 am
I’d also like to know “UGA Doc’s” real name and professional affiliation. Posting behind an alias eliminates all credibility.
settle down Dr Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:34 am
Someone has a seriously exposed raw nerve
we get it – you really like yourself. good for ya!
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:34 am
@Lee: I respectfully disagree that people’s education, training, and professional background has “no relevance” in discussions about public education. If this were a blog about medicine, I’d want to know if a posting was by an MD nurse, or by someone from the general public who has an opinion but no educational background or work experience to qualify it further. If it were a discussion of law, my perception of posts by JDs would be different than what I think about opinion posts from people with no work experience, training, or background in law. I like hearing from people across the spectrum, but it is also my fond wish that everyone who posts on this blog would at least use his or her real name.
Observer
September 2nd, 2011
11:37 am
@ Good Mother. I STILL think that you should write an op-ed piece for Maureen (as per the discussion on the Aug. 30 blog, “Looking for superman? check out the teacher”) on the benefits of standardized testing from your own particular viewpoint, that I don’t think has been expressed so far on “Get Schooled”–a parent, not a trained educator. Make it anonymous if you wish, though not to Maureen of course, so your children in APS schools won’t experience any retribution.
teacher&mom
September 2nd, 2011
11:39 am
@Dr. Craig: No. I have not looked Dr. Barge “in the eye.” I’m also aware that Dr. Barge inherited the current situation at the GABoE. He did not create it. The average person on the street, however, is totally oblivious to the extent the federal government is entrenched at the BOE.
Do you deny the fact that around 50% of the positions at the DOE are currently funded with federal funds?
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:43 am
@ settle down: It’s not about liking oneself or having a raw nerve. It’s about trying to engage in a level of discourse that respects the education profession. Education is one of the most important issues we have, and this is an exciting and stressful time to be in public education. I talk on occasion with colleagues around Atlanta (education professionals) who read this blog because we want to see what but who have experienced the same reaction when they try to post an opinion. I would very much like to see substantive discussion of the issues, but so much of it is limited to anonymous drivel, and it seems when anyone tries to have a discussion of issues on the merits, there is an attack squad at the ready, none of whom will use their real name. That’s the reason that so many people like me, who are willing to post under our real names and share our experiences and opinions, don’t attempt to engage in the discussion here. And that’s a loss for the online community.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:44 am
“we want to see what Maureen has to say”
settle down Dr Henson
September 2nd, 2011
11:49 am
but how do we know you are who you say you are?
Maureen Downey
September 2nd, 2011
11:58 am
TO Dr. Henson and all, As I have said many times, I have great respect for people who post under their own names. Those posts are usually the most cogent and effective.
I also believe in setting the record straight and am surprised when posters deem such efforts as being “overly defensive.”
We ought to put out facts and correct misperceptions and errors when we see them here, so I appreciate the background on Nova Southeastern U.
Maureen
Yo Wonderring from Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
12:03 pm
I re-read your comments several times.
You don’t get it.
YOU are the inputs.
The teacher is the input.
A teacher spends more time with my child than I do.
If the input is garbage it is because the teacher is garbage.
Garbage in and garbage out.
Good teachers know they can make a difference. Bad teachers blame the test.
Thrill
September 2nd, 2011
12:10 pm
Dr. Henson: Did you also graduate from UGA Law School? Personally, I think that some of the online universities have gotten a little tougher over the years, and the research institutions like UGA have gotten a little easier over the years…trying to compete with the dollars that the proprietary institutions like Argosy and Capella and NOVA Southeastern have eaten up. What year did you graudate from UGA Law School? I am impressed.
To Observer from Good Mother
September 2nd, 2011
12:25 pm
I’ll consider it. Thanks for the encouragement.
Jerry Eads
September 2nd, 2011
12:53 pm
Wow. Too much to work with. Couple things:
1. There are VAST differences in ‘rigor’ among universities. There ARE places that will grant a Ph.D. in seven months. There ARE places where it can take seven years. The sad part (for me) is that the 7-month wonder thinks they’re as well trained as the 7-year Ph.D. But to know which ones truly “add value” (and not just based on time) is VERY difficult. Hearsay – dataless opinion – is likely insufficient for learning which is which. Yes, mine came from a brick and mortar that seems to have left me with a decent set of skills, but I’ve seen brick and mortar Ph.D.s (and Ed.D.s) that are truly as embarrassing as the worst of the “mail order” degrees.
2. @To Jack points out the absolutist’s fallacy. There are two absolutes: One is that everything is relative; the other is that there are no absolutes. The WHOLE POINT of the education system is to bring along everyone. Some have the wherewithal to go further than others. It’s why (hey, I have to do a piece on testing, right?) minimum competency tests are so destructive; the so called “high standards” of our state tests are in reality at a point where 85-90% of the kids can usually pass with “normal” levels of education. That devalues those who do not have the capacity to exceed that point, and robs those who can – simply because state and federal policy REQUIRES schools to put all their attention on those kids right around that pass point level of intellectual capacity. The teacher who admitted helping students during the test was but the tiniest drop in the bucket and, as someone pointed out, one of perhaps many who simply didn’t get caught. AND, as long as our so-called “accountability” policies center around single measure once-a-year testing or any number of other poor choices, there WILL be people who see no choice but to ‘work around’ the problem. And for those of you who like your high horse, know that when cornered, most of us will find a way to fight back. Even you. Doesn’t matter whether we think it’s right or wrong. It just IS. Change policy to be fair and equitable, and people won’t cheat.
Thanks Maureen
September 2nd, 2011
1:00 pm
I think superintendent Arnold is an exceptional leader. He is definitely in the forefront by courageously speaking “truth to power.” Thank you Maureen for bringing him to our attention.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
1:55 pm
@ settle down: You can Google people who post under their real names.
That’s how you can tell that I really am who I say I am.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
1:59 pm
@ Thrill: I attended the Lumpkin School of Law at UGA 1985-1986. I concluded at the end of my first year of study that I did not want to be an attorney–what I really wanted to do was be a high school English teacher. I had gone to law school to satisfy my father and my undergraduate professors at Western Carolina University, who felt that being an attorney was much more prestigious than being “just” a teacher.
NSU is not a private for-profit university; it is a private research university, comparable to Reinhardt University or Oglethorpe University in Georgia, for example, except that NSU is much, much larger than those entities. These are private institutions that do NOT operate for-profit online degree programs exclusively. They have developed online operations to supplement and complement their brick-and-mortar offerings. NSU is not an Argosy, Phoenix, or similar type of business.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
2:01 pm
@ Jerry Eads: my doctoral program took six years to complete. Thank you for your clarification for the readers on the issue of rigor of university programs.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 2nd, 2011
2:37 pm
I’d like to return the conversation to the issue of who is responsible, ultimately, for the situation that public K-12 education is currently in with regard to accountability. I submit, respectfully, that Mr. Arnold is wrong when he blames any entity other than public school administrators for the fact that public schools are now held to account by legislative action at the state and federal levels.
An Observation
September 2nd, 2011
4:20 pm
Our policy wonks, educational think tanks, and foundations wonks seem to take their lead from populist politicians who pander retro solutions. They have been devoid of uniqueness, for the most staying well within the box. Schools and school systems, with few exceptions, closely mirror what we had a century ago in terms of their philosophical and operational underpinnings. e .
Why we continue such and expensive enterprise that fails so many is mind boggling. I concur with a number of futurists that in the not too distant future, we will have little left of a middle class. Even now most are deluded into thinking they are middle class. If we have those in the upper 5% with incomes exceeding millions, and I’m making $80,000 a year; then I’m far from being middle class. Statically, if you consider the median, I’m poor.
Ultimately, I blame ourselves, the gullible pubic for not being able to decipher what is in our best interest. If America is ever to regain its’ rapidly eroding preeminence it is imperative that we focus on developing a truly intelligent, creative workforce. Creativity and ingenuity will drive the future of successful nations.
Maureen Downey
September 2nd, 2011
4:39 pm
@Settle, I can also vouch for Dr. Henson, having heard her speak at the Legislature and talked with over the phone about her charter school.
Maureen
Dunwoody Mom
September 2nd, 2011
5:01 pm
@Monica Henson…I am sorry, but I cannot take any “educator” seriously who feels she need to place all the blame on school administrators. Education is a collaborative effort.
Please stay as far away from public education as you can.
@ An Observation
September 2nd, 2011
5:06 pm
Without sounding like a nerd, if you analyzed your $80,000 salary according to the principal of statistical frequency, you would fall squarely in middle class.
Lee
September 2nd, 2011
7:05 pm
“@Lee: I respectfully disagree that people’s education, training, and professional background has “no relevance” in discussions about public education.”
No, I said using titles in an anonymous blog name has no relevance. I could post under the name “Dr John Doe, PHD, CPA, CFE, CISA” etc, etc and it means no nore than simply using “John”.
Now, if I’m attending a seminar or other forum where you are speaking, then sure, I want to know the background of who I am about to listen to. On an open blog, it means nothing. I judge you by what you post.
ssteacher
September 2nd, 2011
8:43 pm
He’s exactly right on two counts: 1) Those with the ability to think, knew NCLB was a sham, and 2) Not enough educators “people of power and influence” were willing to speak out against it.
New problem: It’s too late to say “I told you so, I knew this would happen.” That’s not vision, that hindsight. That’s not leadership, that’s taking the pulse of shifting changes.
A bigger problem: Voters will continue to elect people from both sides of the aisle (who are not different in any ideology, just label), and think politicians can get us out of this mess (and others). The government’s program of planned ignorance of a generation of citizens is nearly complete.
vickie jones
September 3rd, 2011
9:55 am
Thanks you for speaking the truth.
Many of us know that we have been set up to fail ourselves and children. However, many have gone along to get along. And for what? God help us! These policies of NCLB have set us back 50 years. Charters for the urban districts, and vouchers for the districts who are not yet failing. Even you try to educate others on the true nature of NCLB, few will believe.
Thank you again.
vickie jones
September 3rd, 2011
10:14 am
In the beginning we thought that only the urban districts would be the catch all for ‘what’s wrong’ with education. Many of us cheered and offered little support to what was going on. After all, these were the districts where test scores needed to be improved at any cost. HMMM…then when we begin to see with using the new test and grading system, other well-to-do districts will now become just as urban districts would become. A few begin to take note. HMMM…by this time its almost to late. Many of us sit silently and allowed crazy laws to be enacted thinking that these laws would only affect urban districts. Rude awakening!!! Many of us tried to fight and encourage people to stand up, however, power and money ruled the decisions to destroy public education. Where are the community leaders? educational leaders? Sadly, many have already switched sides with the pretense of this ideology of school reform is what’s needed for the children. Many of our used-to be leaders are now receiving millions of $$$ to go along with the program of destroying public education. And for those of you who continue failing to understand, they are coming for you too; be it charters, vouchers, or States telling districts they must become a school choice district, but they are coming.
Ashley
September 3rd, 2011
10:18 am
I went to a training led by one of the teachers who was on the advisement board that came up with NCLB. She said they had set the goal for 95% of all students achieving. It was never meant to be 100% because 5% of the population is profoundly disabled and would never have the mental ability to pass that test. She said that politicians did not want to hear that and changed the law to 100%. That sounds like a set up to me!
Lee
September 3rd, 2011
11:37 am
@Ashley
September 3rd, 2011
10:18 am
I went to a training led by one of the teachers who was on the advisement board that came up with NCLB.
——————————–
Teachers on the advisement board? So much for this just being a politicians SNAFU.
Dr. John Trotter
September 3rd, 2011
11:47 am
Game Day, folks!
I am glad that others are speaking out against the futility and stupidity of No Child Left Behind.
At MACE, there was never a moment of hesitation or equivocation or vacillation. We spoke out very loudly against NCLB from the jump street. Someone mentioned vision. This was vision.
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
Dr. Monica Henson
September 3rd, 2011
12:58 pm
Side note: A little more about Nova Southeastern University, for those who might be interested…
Nova Southeastern University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, research university located in Broward County, Florida. NSU is the largest independent institution of higher education in the southeastern United States and is the seventh-largest not-for-profit independent university nationwide. The university was founded as the Nova University of Advanced Technology on a former naval training airfield offering graduate degrees in the physical and social sciences. In 1994, the university merged with the Southeastern University of the Health Sciences and assumed its current name. NSU currently consists of 18 colleges and schools offering over 175 programs of study with more than 250 majors. The university offers professional degrees in law, business, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, and nursing. Out of the 59 colleges and universities in Florida, NSU’s acceptance rate makes NSU the fourth-most selective private university in the state and the sixth-most selective university in Florida overall. NSU is classified as a Research University by the Carnegie Foundation, and is a first-tier research university as designated by the Florida Legislature. NSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and also has numerous additional specialized accreditations for its colleges and programs.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 3rd, 2011
1:07 pm
@ Dunwoody Mom: I don’t place “all the blame” for all the ills of the education system on administrators. I do, however, place responsibility for relinquishing control over accountability to administrators collectively. It is the superintendents of schools who are responsible for overseeing the operations of districts and the education of the children there. It is the principals who are responsible for oversight of the school buildings. If administrators (as a whole) in the United States had done their jobs the way that we should have been doing them, we would have put the development of outstanding teaching at the very top of our priority list. Most administrators did not do this from the early 20th century forward.
I am not anti-administrator at all; I have served for several years as a public school administrator in both the district and the charter world, after spending many years as a classroom teacher. I am not anti-school district, either. My company works with school districts in several states on school improvement, including dropout recovery and prevention and turning around so-called “failing” schools. Nevertheless, the question raised by Mr. Arnold’s editorial is, who is ultimately responsible for the problems caused by the implementation of NCLB? My answer to that question is, the administrators of the public schools are the ones who relinquished control of accountability to begin with, resulting in the passage of NCLB. Had administrators been doing the job they have been charged with, putting the emphasis and focus where it needed to be, which is on teaching and learning, the public schools wouldn’t be in the NCLB boat to begin with.
Digger
September 3rd, 2011
1:18 pm
Aint gonna get close to 95 percent either. We’ll be lucky if half the morons in school can truly attain grade level.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 3rd, 2011
1:31 pm
For those who ask, OK, why have administrators for decades not focused on teaching and learning the way that they should have? a dramatically oversimplified answer is that because no one has held them specifically accountable for doing so. In the public schools, what gets evaluated is what gets paid attention to by the evaluee. Superintendents are evaluated by their boards of education, which may or may not include experienced educators. BOEs generally do not evaluate superintendents on how much time, or how well, they spend working with their school principals on how to lead instruction and supervise and evaluate teachers. BOEs usually evaluate superintendents on criteria like managing the budget.
Responsibility for leading instruction was (and in many cases still is) frequently delegated to deputy and assistant superintendents, or even to directors of human resources, who do not have evaluation authority over the principals in the district. Principals, in turn, delegated teacher evaluation largely to assistant principals. What you had over a series of decades was a whole-scale abdication of direct responsibility for the most important function of the school, leading to pockets of deterioration in the quality of instruction, at a time when external influences, such as the breakdown of the traditional family unit, gang activity, lack of parental involvement, etc., were creating environments where teaching has become increasing difficult.
The general public just assumed that school and district leaders were focusing on supervision and evaluation of teaching, and everything else was ancillary to that work, when in reality, every teacher in this country could tell you that almost all administrators did NOT make a habit of spending time in classrooms except when it was right before the deadline to get all the evaluations in. (This is also why nearly 100% of teachers eligible for tenure were awarded it.)
I recognize and understand that this description does not apply to every single administrator, and in the past five to ten years, there has been at least some improvement in the quality of school administration with regard to leading instruction in many places. What I have offered is a nutshell explanation of why I believe that administrators are responsible for NCLB being imposed on the public schools (although states that are willing to forego Title I funds, which make up less than 10% of total education spending in the U.S., are not required to comply with the testing requirements, so they are not “forced” to participate in NCLB.)
Diane Ravitch
September 3rd, 2011
3:20 pm
Thank you, Jim Arnold, for speaking the truth. NCLB is the worst frederal education legislation ever passed. It has usurped state and local control. It has turned our schools into testing factories. It has enriched the testing industry. It has caused the loss of time for everything that is not tested. It has undermined creativity and innovation. It has set the stage for privatization and for the loss of one of our nation’s most important democratic institutions: our public schools. Our schools are rapidly desegregating. Education has not improved. It is possibly worse be ause of the test obsession. We are losing some of our best teachers. What a hoax.
Diane Ravitch
@ Cheating APS teacher
September 3rd, 2011
3:40 pm
Adding on the teacher’s concerns:
Several of the teachers at my school have been talking up a storm about the APS teacher’s letter on page 5.
Her statement about test mania is absolutely true. Every minute of everyday is focused on year end testing results. To go beyond what she said –even art, music and physical education must address objectives that are tested where students show deficiencies. For instance, art has become a reading lesson and students must read about various artist and answer questions (comprehension skills) as opposed to having an opportunity to be involved in traditional creative artistic expression (painting, sculpting, etc.) …. that is so much a part of childhood. In my teacher education courses it was stressed time and again that the arts provide a golden chance to build on the early signs of creativity, talent and other observed skills that may not be evident in traditional classroom work.
However, we work in a zero tolerance school, with no exceptions for teaching anything that will not be tested. Our students do not even have recess — it is considered wasted time. We are told the “instructional day is too short,” so often accompanied with the words “time on task.” In sum we have what resembles a harsh factory environment, as opposed to what is so badly needed, a wholesome, holistic setting that generates happiness and a love for learning.
My comment should not be read as an indictment against my principal, she has no choice but to follow the lead of her supervisor, and I would imagine so forth up the line of command. I sincerely hope that our new superintendent, Dr. Davis brings us relief from this senseless madness. The children are truly smart, but if we are not allowed to “tap” or nourish their intelligence, they will never grow. Teaching to the test as we are required to do by matching objectives to what we ask of our students can be done by programmed learning on computers.
The art of teaching is being disrespected and the children our being neglected.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 3rd, 2011
4:35 pm
Dr. Ravitch,
NCLB is a law. It is an action, not an actor.
The blame for the abuse of the intent of NCLB should be placed where it belongs- on us teachers who did not act to organize(through groups like MACE) to resist the testing mania which educrats at the state levels imposed on us and under whose pressures we ignominiously knuckled.
Shame on us. Not shame on NCLB.
To Diane Ravitch
September 3rd, 2011
7:41 pm
Diane,
I agree with you, except perhaps you meant resegregation instead of desegregation (e.g., Johnathan Kozol) .
Yes, NCLB has spurred our public schools in the direction of becoming mind numbing factories that are increasingly serving economically disenfranchised, underperforming student populations. And, yes this population reflects a disproportionate number of ethic/racial minorities. The loony reasoning and desperation created by NCLB, will continue to accelerate the departure of mainstream (at grade level & above) students from school districts that rigidly implement so called year-long test taking routines to boost scores while sacrificing authentic learning opportunities.
High functioning organizations (schools included) prosper from exposure to diverse ideas and people. We are well aware that our country’s most elite schools and universities value and purposely seek diversity across a broad spectrum (income level, race, special needs,…).
Helen
My psuedonym
September 3rd, 2011
9:09 pm
Spoken as if Diane, and bravo if it was, but I’d want verification. My conclusion is Jim is right – shame on us. We assume humans to reason, to think independently, yet the balance has shifted to those who took PT Barnum to heart. You can sucker almost all the people all the time. We assumed basic goodness of heart, caring for others, and that most folks would have at least enough reasoning capacity to smell a rat when it was. We are apparently wrong. The self-serving psychopathic charlatans and crooks who crafted NCLB for the sole purpose to destroy public education won. One of the touchstones of democracy has been virtually destroyed, leaving them the door open to resegregate society and further the distance between the haves and have nots. By suckering the “average citizen” to believe “They’re for them,” steal their very income to supplement their segregated private education (which can’t be afforded by that average citizen). They did a heck of a job. Sadly, they’re too shortsighted to see that they, too, lost. Rome burns.
Anonmom
September 3rd, 2011
9:19 pm
Again — I return to the fact that we (as a State) could either (a) say “up yours” to NCLB and just say that the ‘costs outweigh the benefits” like Ct. and Utah did and just move on or (b) say “okay” we’re going to use technology, we’re going to use the ITBS (IOWA tests) — each year, every child will be given an IOWA test. The test will be “tied” to the child and will follow the child from school to school and year to year and will be updated as each year concludes. At the end of each year, the state/county/system, etc. checks: did the kid make any progress? (not is the kid at a point certain but did the kid progress — if the kid began at 2 levels above grade level, kid must move beyond that; if kid began below grade level, kid must improve from there, etc.). If kid did not improve, were there some extenuating circumstances? (e.g. kid entered classroom mid-year or moved 3 times during the year or parent died, etc.). If not, teacher was not effective vis a vis that kid. If the kid is below grade level, we consider retaining kid for the next year, for the kid’s benefit. All we ask of the teacher is improvement…. not that kid be at some point certain, which I think is impossible and sets up this mayhem for cheating. Use the ITBS because it’s been working for 50-75 years, is less likely to be “gamed”, actually gives teachers and parents “real” information at the start and end of the school year regarding where the kid is instructrionally so there’s a basis to begin the teaching year and to move forward. I understand that the Iowa is not ‘critereon” based but it’s a much more useful test and and would be cheaper, overall, to use and I don’t understand why there isn’t an outcry of people, teachers, administrators and politicians screaming to be using it. I understand why those who financially gain from adminstering the CRCT want to use the CRCT and I understand that Georgia may start to show itself for being really weak educationally if the Iowa really gets used and reported, but in the long run, it would be best, financially and educationally. Vouchers could, also, be used to make the public schools compete and to become more functional and less corrupt.
Teacher/Mom
September 3rd, 2011
9:39 pm
Some of our schools ARE failing students. I think it is only fair to allow vouchers and transfers. This allows children to go to schools where the levels of instruction and expectations are high. So many times in lower economic communities, the expectiations are low and the educators at those schools are not on the same level professionally as those at high achieving schools. Students in low income communities deserve the same level of education as students in affluent communities. There are SEVERAL schools all over the country in low income communities and their students are high achievers and perform on the same level as others. The difference…the teacher and the instruction. NO MORE EXCUSES!! I have worked in several schools in Georgia and have seen fabulous teachers and I have also seen weak teachers who are not repremanded and are allowed to continue to provide inadequate instruction to children. This to me is the issue. Just like other profesisions, there needs to be an uncompromising level of quality. Our children deserve this!! As educators, it is our job to challenge and educate students no matter what neighborhood or zip code they are from.
Anonmom
September 3rd, 2011
9:52 pm
I do think that we need Teacher Standards that are more akin to those being used by Mass. — Mass. has standards that actually require that teachers be able to read, speak and write proper English and that they know their US and local history (no teachers there are thiniking that there are 52 states…. — yes, these folks exist in DCSS). I do think we have some very weak teachers who can’t do these things. We do need to “cull” the bad teachers away from the children. We also need to make sure that administrators only get to be administrators after at least 10 years in the classroom so that they actually know what it its like to teach. Right now, DCSS has an dire need for experienced, well trained, brillina teachers as administrators and upper level administrators. This lack of experence and quality works it’s way down the “pecking order” and hinders success. Childern thrive with teachers who can teacher freely in a way that encourages learning. If someone like Dr. Beasley is insisting on silly mandates to force little machines to practice for the test (even when the little machines are level 3s who are going to pass the tests anyway), the end result is bored and miserable kids and teachers and not successful students. I’ve hit a point where I really do want vouchers — I think they would go a long way towards eliminating the massive corruption we’ve currently got going on and would begin to get children educated across the board. Newsflash: the upper middle class is taking care of their kids — vounchers would level the playing field for everyone else. Keep in mind that we’re currently spending, just in DCSS, approximately one billion taxpayer dollars a year to fail to educate nearly 100,000 school children…..
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 4th, 2011
5:07 am
Dr. Ravitch,
Standardized testing does not preclude extensive and deep curricula. Rather, it should enhance it.
But the combination of short-sighted, self-interested educrats’ obsession with low-validity, low-reliability, low-curricularly relevant, high-cost testing and my professions’ obsequious, uncritical acceptance of such testing are to blame, not standardized testing itself.
Sandra
September 4th, 2011
8:19 am
The special education requirements have always seemed absurd to me. These kids are in special education because they are not performing up to expectation. We dismiss them when they catch up. They come in at varying times of the year. But NCLB now requires 90% of them to be proficient. If 90% of them were proficient at the time of testing, it really says that they do not need this specialized instruction– but we met AYP. Seriously, if my logic is missing something, please set me straight.
Shadowlighter
September 4th, 2011
8:20 am
“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”
Vouchers are nothing of the sort. Look at Pell Grants, and see how stupid this claim is: Pell Grants are just vouchers for college. But we’re supposed to think that paying for poor people to attend different schools is a wild conspiracy? What nonsense.
Shadowlighter
September 4th, 2011
8:26 am
This guy just hates vouchers because his income is derived from a system in which almost all kids are forced into his schools, inflating his salary. Public school superintendents hate the idea of kids actually having more freedom to choose different schools, because that would mean their own budget, power, and control would go down. So this guy, predictably, comes up with reasons to oppose freedom and autonomy for anyone but himself.
Besides, the notion that vouchers are segregating is unspeakably dumb. All voucher programs in the US are aimed at poor people, who already attend “segregated” public schools run by superintendents like Mr. Arnold here. Vouchers have an INTEGRATING effect, if anything, because poor kids have a greater chance of going to a school that isn’t full of kids from their own segregated neighborhoods.
Sol
September 4th, 2011
11:23 am
Quality of Life
The quality of life afforded to Atlanta’s citizens is directly linked to caliber of education our schools deliver. Who, whether one has children or not, wants to live in an area where people are largely uneducated. We are acutely familiar with the litany of ills that are associated with this phenomenon such as: unemployment, crime, poor health, homelessness, etc..
How can an educated, financially secure group live among a mass of those deprived of the primary rudiments to be viable citizens. Its perverted for me to say to my child, “I’m proud to be from Atlanta” or “I’m proud to be an American,” if the streets are crime ridden, beggars are omnipresent, and so many are ridden with health related maladies.
We are on a path that will soon have our city and nation resembling some of the globe’s most troubling location’s. Truthfully, a large segment of Atlanta’s population closely parallels that of third world inhabitants.
Anonmom
September 4th, 2011
11:44 am
Yes! If we continue to deliver 50,000 a year in DCSS (50% of 100,000 kids with the current drop out rate) of uneducated kids and under-educated kids, who can’t read, write and speak English, who don’t have appropriate job skills, who are not employable: just how long will it take before we look like a 3rd world country? Where do those masses wind up down the road? This really is how Hitler and Stalin (and currently the Imams and dictators in the middle east) get their morons to commit their massacres for them against innocent civilian populations… people who can’t or won’t think and react against evil dictators (we’ll see what the current “Arab Spring” ultimately produces….). We, as a civilized nation, need a middle class of educated people who are employable and who see and understand how if they work hard there is a reward at the end of the tunnel. We do not need a “gimme” population or a population who just believes in stealing it from other folks who are working hard for their lives… A functional society needs everyone putting their best foot forward to work hard. That hard work is supposed to have a pay off at the end. The Soviet Union fell because if you “take” from everyone to “distribute the wealth” people just don’t work hard — they give up… crime results. Take a look at what happens in the 20s, 30s and 40s in the Soviet Union…. People need a motive to work hard and to be able to see the fruits and rewards of that work. Education, our topic here, is the great equalizer. I can grow up lower middle class or poor (one poster above); I can work my bottom off in school; go to college and grad school and I can become middle class or upper middle class. If I create google or facebook, I can become really rich. If I put all of my given talents to work for me and use them well, within the confines of the law, I can do really well. If you deprive me of my education, I don’t have the ability to do this. Vouchers level that playing field — Pell Grant analogy is awesome — so that everyone is entitled to this same education. Remove the fraud and corruption that permeates the current system and that the media absolutely refuses to investigate and let’s just see how the paradigm shifts for the better (it really can’t be any worse).
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 4th, 2011
11:44 am
Sol,
Ideally, the Truth will set you free. In Hotlanta, telling it has a less sanguine consequence. Ask Top School.
Dr. John Trotter
September 4th, 2011
12:17 pm
Diane Ravitch pretty much summed up the complete failure of NCLB in about 10 or 11 lines. Right to the point. I appreciate Diane Ravitch’s public renunciation of NCLB because she had been part and parcel with the national testing movement, from what I remember reading in her recent book. It takes a lot of courage to admit when one has been wrong on a position. I believe that Diane’s latest book about this fiasco of NCLB and the entire standardized testing mania, accountability, and the cheating culture has done more to expose the emperor’s nakedness than any other single event/occurrence. I for one appreciate the heck out of what Diane Ravitch has done. Her book is replete with documentation and cogent arguments. I recommend that all educators buy it.
DeKalb Elementary Teacher
September 4th, 2011
12:26 pm
Let’s get rid of standardized testing in the early grades where learning and instruction should be developmental. Each schoo districtl/state has curriculum goals and standards they expect a student to have before that student is promoted. There is more than one type of instruction and more than one speed of instruction that can get students to meet those goals and standards.
Teaching to a test encourages our kids to be passive/rote learners; a good learning environment encourages active discovery learning and develops the whole child.
I feel confident that after reading all the insightful preceding comments that I am preaching to the choir…but, at least it’s cathartic.
Jesus responding to APS cheater
September 4th, 2011
1:50 pm
In any situation where the outcome of a single test is all-import¬ant, the temptation to cheat on it is great, and some people are going to cheat. Teachers are no better or worse than anybody else.
In this case, there is also the fact that the test outcomes have little intrinsic meaning–e¬ven primary school children are quick to see the test as a waste of their time in which they, personally¬, have no stakes at all, and may simply bubble in the answers at random
Even if students take the tests “for real,” the scores can reflect the ethnic compositio¬n of the class more consistent¬ly than than they measure any real learning that has taken place. (I sometimes give tests or quizzes that include exactly the same questions in different formats–m¬ultiple choice, and in another place on the same test simply writing an answer to the same question. Some students, especially Latinos,fo¬r some reason, will choose the wrong answer to a multiple-c¬hoice question that they have just answered correctly in sentence form on the previous page!)
Cheating is not cool, but high-stake¬s standardiz¬ed testing is a big mess.
Ed Researcher
September 4th, 2011
1:58 pm
Jim, you are right. Those who believe standardized test scores are useful in making teachers and schools accountable don’t know much about standardized tests, assessment in general, or people. First, the tests don’t measure what they purport to measure and sample only a tiny portion of what the schools are trying to teach. Second, by placing such emphasis on these tests, the curriculum has restricted to what is on the tests with no evidence that the tested items measure what is important to the child’s success in life. Third, the people who are being held accountable for the scores (not the real learning of their pupils), are human beings with all of their foibles. Just see Michelle Rhee and the test cheating scandals in D.C. during her regime.
Jerry Eads
September 4th, 2011
2:50 pm
‘Come on out’ and join the fun, @ed researcher. Lest ye be inside the gummint as I was for many years and had to psuedonym. That said, We’ve been hammering those points for nigh on four decades to deaf ears. People WANT simple answers like test scores to actually mean something so they don’t have to face the complexities of the real world. AND Jim’s ‘conspirators’ know that all too well, and have taken superb advantage of it. THAT said, I have a modicum of hope: it may be a very biased sample that responds to Maureen’s pieces (sorry, HATE the term “blog”), but there seem to be some rays of understanding even beyond the wonderful teachers who post here. AND the literature is beginning to reflect a realization that the emperor has no clothes. We’ll see.
Kerri
September 4th, 2011
3:27 pm
Spot on.
It has never been about accountability. NCLB has been and is about those in power framing the entire discussion about education, blaming teachers for everything, and using federal funds as a means to blackmail just about everyone into passivity.
Teachers are told that their judgment, their ability to assess students’ progress, is insufficient. A flawed testing system — impersonal and absolutely subjective — is esteemed above humans who are trained in education and experienced in the classroom.
An assumption was made years ago which may never have been true. Were students truly not being educated? The generation that was slapped with the “failure” label is now rising to power. Those in the public school system while NCLB was being devised are now responsible for advances in various technologies. We are professionals and entrepreneurs. We read. We can create. We can protest racist and classist policies and we can redesign the law.
APS Teacher & Proud of It
September 4th, 2011
4:02 pm
If someone is going to hold a club over my head & threaten my livelihood and under Maslow means numero uno is protecting the roof over your head & keeping food on the table for you & your family where a “Test” becomes measuremen¬t of that outcome, trust me..keepin¬g a roof over my head & for my family is going to win – hands down.
Brandon Granny
September 4th, 2011
4:19 pm
When my now rising college freshmen started elementary school back in, I was volunteering to make copies for his teacher. In front of me was a 5th grade teacher making copies of a worksheet that explained what a card catalog was. Even 13 years ago, libraries used computers not card catalogs.
Why? There were a couple of questions about card catalogs on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
What is scary about the situation in GA is that parents put stock in our state tests as though it means something if their child passes. However, the bar is already so low and if someone is changing answers so kids will pass it is beyond pathetic.
Making the Grade
September 4th, 2011
4:41 pm
In the mid 1990’s on my radio show, I covered the very beginning of the right wing’s aggressive decision to go after vouchers to pay for their private school education with tax payer dollars. Their tactics were also examined by a Yale professor. They involved continual bad-mouthing, even lying about public education, regardless of the facts. Their attitude was that the end justified the means. They did not want their children educated with “them”- whoever that might be in their particular communities. Politicians were urged to view teachers as incompetent enemies, and we entered this awful age of insane “accountability.”
Not only the arts, foreign language, and PE have been denied a generation of children, but recess and even coloring in kindergarten has become suspect! We’ve completely lost track of how children develop and what they need to be productive citizens. And we’re being surpassed by other countries!
Let’s get this straight — this has been an unrelenting power grab for tax payer dollars while undermining one of the central pillars of American society. Let’s not forget that America became great because it provides free public education to every student. We are not elitist like other countries where education is only available to those who can pay for it. We give this gift to every child, regardless of ability or ethnic background. Many countries think we’re crazy to attempt this. And it’s hard. I know. I’ve been in the classroom since I covered this story to help raise up responsible citizens in some very challenging schools.
Public education is a heritage from our Puritan ancestors! They insisted that everyone, even the native Americans whose land they were usurping, learn to read. Every town was expected to provide a school. Teachers were respected as the adults in the community who were/are willing to spend productive time with other people’s children. NCLB has done considerable damage to teacher morale and has run droves of top teachers out of the profession because they couldn’t stand what was happening to children and themselves. Bravo to those who have tried to make this insanity work — they have been standing up for kids through all this and being professional about it.
Common Sense
September 4th, 2011
6:16 pm
“It is unclear whether the rise in cheating on standardized tests is due to more incidents of actual cheating or increased public awareness. Either way, as federal education policies and state teacher evaluations increasingly hinge on testing data, observers worry that the mounting pressure to produce results will cause more teachers and principals to crack. ”
My mother recently retired from teaching. She loved teaching, but grew tired and cynical from all the bureaucracy involved in it these days. She would spend too much time prepping her kids for these standardized tests, instead of doing what she wanted to do with them and was to teach them to read, do math, learn science and art. But the administration above here dictated her lesson plans, as they were more concerned about government funding rather than the effects it would have on the kids. Ask most Teachers and they will point to the administration, and government programs like “Reading First” and “No Child Left Behind”, as the main problems in today’s education.
No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled | EdLead | Scoop.it
September 4th, 2011
6:40 pm
[...] No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled A while back, I ran a piece from Jim Arnold, superintendent of Pelham City Schools in Mitchell County. Source: blogs.ajc.com [...]
Struggling Teacher but Proud
September 4th, 2011
8:15 pm
Vouchers and charter schools weaken the public school system. Vouchers allow the “cut and run” mentality rather than the adult stay and fix the problem. Charter schools get to abandon the rules that are ruining public schools. They are a method of “cut and run” in order to attend a private school with no tuition. Dr. Arnold needs to be heard.
Teacher Forever
September 5th, 2011
1:14 am
Finally, finally more are speaking out against the multi billion dollar standardized testing industry. A generation is already lost and the billionaires making our kids cell phone and gaming junkies have been allowed to taint education. It was never about anything but money…NCLB? Right. Half of them can’t think anymore; they just bubble.
The White Shadow: Bill Gates, Charter Schools, & The Evil Twins « Living Behind the Gates
September 5th, 2011
2:24 am
[...] why, if not to fail public schools all along? Maureen Dowdy thinks so in her article entitled: “No Child Left Behind: A Conspiracy Against Public Education Too Few Called Out. [...]
Tired of stupidity
September 5th, 2011
5:57 am
Failed Ideas that lead to NCLB
1. Not keeping children who need to repeat back( aka social promotion)
2. Never allowing a child to repeat more than once.
3. Lack of standards because mommy and daddy go to the principal and yell about the mean teacher who insists their child do the work and behave so not to steal education for others.
4. Rewarding the families in #3 by giving their child more attention , stickers, and rewards because they won’t work otherwise.
5, People who never taught a day in their lives that have no clue about special needs, esl , or poverty issues making standards and creating tests to be given by those who do.
6. Just because education was always better a generation or two ago. In the heyday of the ’50’s my grandparents were told my high functioning mentally handicapped child should be warehoused . They sent her to a private school where the teachers put her in the corner with a coloring book and crayons. Today we teach these children. We don’t ignore children anymore so we are failing. ( right giving folks who were ignore what little education they can glean is a sin in some circles ,I guess.
So according to pols who have no education experience or listen to those who do think we are failing. Special populations, and ESL students should be tested where they are at. An IEP means you are not going to grow at the expected rate. So are we failing or are we educating as many as we can in a society too busy worshiping money, and fame ? Just look in the media smart people and education are denigrated every day. Kiddie shows that show grown ups, teachers, and smart people as fools while “popular” kids are oh so much smarter because of good looks and popularity. It’s time to teach kids, parents and society in general that education is important and must be valued. NCLB is what you get when a society speaks out of both sides of their mouths.
Teacher's Husband
September 5th, 2011
8:37 am
If you are a truly concerned imparter of knowledge, then you know there are no true failures. Only those that don’t recieve encouragement, allow themselves to fail. I would not have been able to travel the world and survive in this world without encouragement by teachers that knew my grades didn’t reflect my abilities.
That “magic” light bulb over the head goes off at different phases of developement. I remember my last year of high school after summer vacation. No one wanted to challenge me, as before, because my physical appearance suddenly changed the way I could move through society. I grew big. Many kids vary in their mental growth as well. Laws cannot regulate that, but an educator can help guide the growing mind to direct THEMSELVES to knowledge and to be proud of discouvering that knowledge.
A Lover of Learning
September 5th, 2011
9:26 am
Some of you believe that our children are graduating from public schools in Georgia, fully prepared to enter college or the work force, having learned what they should have in the courses they took in high school are wrong. What they have learned is: HOW to pass TESTS! That is not enough! Is that all you want teachers to do–teach our children to pass the tests? I am glad that I had teachers who did more than expend knowledge; they made me curious about the world in which I lived, they challenged my intellect, they encouraged me to become the best me I could be. THEY would be proud of the teacher I became. NCLB and eight out of ten months of the school year spent: preparing to test, testing-retesting-analyzing test scores is a ridiculous waste of TEACHING TIME!
A Necessary Optimism -neologophilia
September 5th, 2011
9:57 am
[...] A Necessary Optimism Filed under: public schools,school funding,school reform — wtucker @ 8:57 am Tags: accountability, Education Reform, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, School Reform, Teacher evaluation 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. http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/08/31/no-child-left-behind-a-conspiracy-against-public-e... [...]
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
10:01 am
I think that education has created small 3rd world countries… I think that it’s not a crime to recognize that the bell curve exists for a reason. If you give the parents vouchers, you can design a system to allow competition between schools and allow schools to become really good at a few things rather than mediocre at many things –let the schools focus on certain “types” (I don’t mean to denigrate here) of kids — some can be really good for kids with IEPs (ala the Speech School or St. Francis); some can be really good for gifted kids (ala the “top 10″ that don’t even make the Newsweek top lists — we don’t even come close to this with any of our schools in Georgia — not even our special “high achiever” magnets); some can be really good with other things that kids need help with (ala those that want to become carpenters and plumbers). Let’s stop this madness of spending billions of dollars making our schools be all things to all kids and having all of our kids — with so many different skill sets, loves, interests and abilities sitting together and teachers (some of whom are awesome and awe-inspiring and some of whom can’t speak English well, can’t be understood at all and don’t know that there are 50 states in the U.S.) and are dreadful and need to go — the same can be said for administrators. I am an American who actually believes in competition — I understand that phone service is better since MaBelle was split apart and plane tickets are cheaper and more available since deregulation — nothing is ever perfect — but competition infuses an incentive to make things better and currently, the public school system, at least in the metro area in Atlanta (and elsewhere around the country) is spending way too much tax payer money, with zero accountabilty and very little to show for it on the back end… We, as a society, will pay even more, in the future — this is not a “zero sum game” — these are children involved — who will grow up and become a part of society — they can be positive members of society or they can be negative members of society — a handful of negative members always have existed and can be addressed but when the numbers of negative members of society reach into the hundreds of thousands, then what does society really start to look like? Why am I the only one seeing things this way….. I want my kids and grandkids (who are really getting their educations and will have a future for themselves if society allows for it) to have a life almost as nice as mine and my husbands — I’m not sure it’s possible to hope for a better life…..
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 5th, 2011
10:58 am
A thought: Is there an extreme negative correlation between the degree of hatred toward standardized tests and scores on such tests?
Making Sense of Cheating APS Teachers
September 5th, 2011
11:03 am
As we eat the end stages of NCLB, it will be easy to spot the schools where cheating has occurred– they will be the ones that haven’t been labeled “failing.” As we make the final approach to the requirement that 100% of students receive above average test scores, it becomes impossible to meet the federal educrat requirements honestly.
I wish school districts had the balls to simply let NCLB implode under the weight of its own failure. But the weak and the foolish will crack under pressure and cheat.
It’s a bad choice, a wrong choice, but since NCLB was implemented, success was never an option. If you’re generous, you may assume that the feds were simply foolish. If you’re cynical, you may assume that the purpose of NCLB was always to create massive public ed “failure,” thereby justifying dismantling public ed. But 100% success on a standardized test was never possible.
Mark Halpert
September 5th, 2011
11:31 am
NCLB had a few good components but it was flawed from the start.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige when told that 100 percent passing would defy the bell curve, commented, “That is our goal”. That is absurd
We help students with disabilities and have a 90 percent passing rate, and believe 100% goal to be idealistic and wrong — NCLB was set-up to help and to make schools look like they are failing
What one should take note of are the public and charter schools that have made huge progress — while charter schools deserve a mixed report card — one should really look at their successes — some of them are great
Also, school districts like Valle Arizona have done an outstanding job of improving their students’ reading and math scores
The law needs to be changed — and it needs to keep the disaggregation, so that students with disabilities, African Americans and Hispanic students are given the attention, and the scorecard needs to be far more focused on student growth — how much better students are getting
A Teacher in McDonough
September 5th, 2011
12:00 pm
A great article! Unfortunately it’s not on page one of the AJC, the feature article in Time magazine, or the lead story on the evening news. Most Americans will never see the perspective from the educator’s side. When educators do speak out, they are criticized as moaning and crying.
Tamara Hamlin
September 5th, 2011
12:00 pm
When you are knee deep in NCLB (ie working inside the system), you know how true this rings. If you are an observer, a parent, or a politician, you have no idea how idiotic the testing grind really is. Reform we needed; however reform based on testing and graduation rates does not lead to excellence in education.
Surprise. Big Surprise
September 5th, 2011
12:03 pm
What did they expect would happen?
Do the impossible¬. If you don’t, we will fire you – both teachers and administra¬tors. No excuses. We KNOW that it can be done and if you can’t do it, we will find somebody who says they can.
So they cheat. If they didn’t cheat, they would be fired immediatel¬y for not meeting objectives¬. If they cheat, they may be fired for cheating, but that could be many years from now.
When APS schools were held to impossible objectives and rigorously punished for failure, you destroy the organizati¬on and the lives of countless children. The self-engrossed Beverly Hall and her loyal band of perpetrators deserve the harshest of consequences.
Digger
September 5th, 2011
12:29 pm
This is the result when one attempts, at the expense of everything else, to close gaps which can never be closed.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 5th, 2011
1:23 pm
ATNMD and TH,
We teachers erred in our opposition to the deficiencies in NCLB and to the abuse of standardized testing under its color when we spoke out and spoke out and spoke out and spoke out but went no further.
My maternal grandmother, who never graduated from HS but who was as sharp as any razor blade I’ve ever handled, cautioned me, “Actions speak louder than words.” Talk may be a prerequisite for action but it certainly is no substitute for it.
What have we as practicing and retired teachers DONE to reform this law in a manner consonant with our best educational practices and beliefs?
Civics 101
September 5th, 2011
1:58 pm
How disappointing:
Cheating on tests that don’t really contribute to student learning.
Cheating on tests that are used to beat teachers over the head with.
Cheating on tests that are imperfect and measure a minute area of a student’s true talent/knowledge/skills
Cheating on tests that too many administra¬tors obsess over
Cheating on tests that force teachers to teach to a test that’s incredibly flawed
Cheating on tests that sadly don’t do anything to truly improve this country.
NCLB, I take my hat off to you. You put these districts to the “test” and when they couldn’t pass muster (that means AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress), then they found another way to meet their AYP targets.
This sordid episode of American history is just beginning to reveal itself.
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
2:36 pm
There’s a famous Holocaust quote about how important it is to speak out and to do what is right and ethical — it was by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), an ardent nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Hitler (he spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps):
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Cheating isn’t the answer. Just dealing with it, isn’t the answer. A monopoly isn’t the answer either.
long time educator
September 5th, 2011
3:14 pm
@Anonmom,
What you seem to be talking about with charter schools that would deal with particular groups of students, such as those with IEP’s, gifted, and vocational, was what we called tracking in the olden days when we took care of all groups under one school building.. Tracking became a “bad word” denoting discrimination and the sun shone on “inclusion” and graduation with one diploma track only. Parents of students with IEP’s did not want them pulled out and treated like second class citizens; they wanted them “included” in the regular classroom even if they could not do any of the curriculum. Teachers are expected to differentiate instruction. In reality this means a fourth grade teacher is expected to teach the same science standards across the second through sixth grade reading levels of the students in her classroom. This requires getting mucho materials on different levels and planning small groups within the room to meet the needs of all the different levels in the inclusion classroom. It also includes color sheets for the way below grade level special ed students in her room. This doesn’t even touch on the extreme behavior problems included, which would have been pull-out before. It is a zoo.This one concept – inclusion – has created more chaos in the classroom than anyone wants to admit. Tracking would be easier and makes alot of sense, but it is not politically correct. When parents of gifted students see the inclusion classroom, they often pull out their kids and go to private school if they can afford it. Private schools can track as much as they want.
A Sympathizing DCSS Colleague
September 5th, 2011
3:58 pm
To APS teachers:
I want to start with a strong statement. I do not, in any way, condone cheating. That said…
This honestly does not surprise me. The pressure to show improvemen¬ts on tests – with negative reinforcem¬ent if you do not (which, by the way, is noted to be a terrible practice in teaching, one wonders why we use the “stick” when we know the “carrot” works much better) – would put strains on even the most honest of people. Teachers are not “supermen/superwomen,” we are humans just the same as you. I have been pressured to cheat on standardized tests. I was able to resist because it was one small incident, the pressure was not systematic, and the person pressuring me was not really in any position to do anything if I refused to do as he asked. But I felt the pressure all the same. I can only imagine what teachers feel when their administra¬tors or peers pressure them significantly and systematically. Until you have walked a mile in their moccasins, you have no place to judge.
Disgusted
September 5th, 2011
5:21 pm
Sure there are teachers who cheat, but I find it offensive and ridiculous that the media continues to label this as “teacher cheating.” As a teacher who has administered a countless number of standardized assessment¬s in multiple states, I have never had more than 10-15 minutes with completed tests in my possession. During these 10-15 minutes, I was also supervising my students and it would’ve been impossible to cheat.
It is the administrators who spend countless hours unsupervised with completed assessments. And yes, my colleagues and I have often wondered if the principal was cheating because of the lack of transparency. If a teacher was going to cheat on an assessment, they would do it by steering children toward correct answers while proctoring.
Stop calling it “teacher cheating” because it is the leaders who are truly at fault here. But, once again, in the eyes of the public, teachers are to blame for something that is beyond their control.
Ignorance begets Ignorance
September 5th, 2011
7:07 pm
Ignorance begets Ignorance
Education is geared increasing¬ly toward the lowest common denominato¬r. What the education establishm¬ent seems to want is complete consistenc¬y. Teachers are to teach to the test. Any sign of creativity¬? Crush it. Nonconform¬ity? Punish it. Initiative¬? Bury it. Here’s the book; here’s the test; pass it. Oh, and by the way, anyone interested in Latin Club? Spanish Club? Band? Orchestra? Dramatics? Debate?…no funding available. Schools increasing¬ly want students to be equipped with pre-ordain¬ed abilities, the old cookie-cut¬ter principle. It’s no wonder the kids are dropping out.
Standards…? | Just questions!
September 5th, 2011
7:52 pm
[...] via No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled. [...]
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
8:03 pm
Yes: long time educator — tracking — I was a product of it — my kids had it and my youngest really excelled with it in 8th grade at a DCSS school last year (it was a fluke) — I’ve now pulled private — I get it. I really do. But what I’ve come to fully understand and appreciate, in addition to the fact that “differentiated instruction” is bogus and next to impossible to pull off with so many different levels in the classroom, along with behavior problems, is that the system is absolutely corrupt. There is no accountabilty for the dollars being spent. So long as billions of dollars are being put into the system in a “top down” funding model and the state and the media won’t make the sytem account for the outcome being produced, there’s too big of an incentive for the money to be skimmed off the toip (via the employment of unqualified people for inflated salaries and actual embezzlement) and, therefore, I believe, that vouchers, is a better system, becuase it would fund from the bottom up so the dollars would be spread out among more people and there would be a greater incentive for the system to actaully produce results — no, results, than the parents, take the voucher and take the money elsewhere — less of an ability for skimming off the surface. The state can then watch what is happening to the money — there would be more checks and balances in place for the money going in and the outcome (the education being received) coming out and the bonus is that the if the vouchers could be used private (even if only half a voucher) then the tracking could actually again begin to take place…. the current system is such a failure that I fail to see how the system I’m proposing could be any worse — particularly if the “privates” half to leave “half vouchers” in their local public schools (necessary so there’s a ‘ding’ to the public to motivate the public to compete to get the kid back…..). I want accountability and actual education. I’d really love real, honest to pete, thorough annual forensic audits of our billions in taxpayer money.
To Disgusted From Good Mother
September 5th, 2011
8:19 pm
To Disgusted,
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Of course teachers are to blame for the cheating and “teacher cheating” is not just a media term. It is accurate.
Did you read the blog from the teacher who cheated and is proud of it? She or he claims they pointed to the correct answers and will continue to do so. Did you not read about the teachers who had “changing parties” where they changed the answers in their own homes?
Administrators are guilty — they are the mafia that hired the hit man but the teachers are the ones who pulled the trigger and they deserve the very accurate title of “cheating teacher.”
Pardon My Blog
September 5th, 2011
8:21 pm
I am reading a lot of the comments from teachers and there seem to be a lot of excuses for not getting the job done and doing the right thing. It is always someone elses fault, the program doesn’t work, etc. Unfortunately, it is a combination of totally incompetent teachers, administrators and a program that does not work. We see administrators more concerned with their “panels”, etc. that are complete nonsense but it gives them a sense of importance. We see teachers who can not spell, speak proper english, or even know the basics of world geography. Yet, they are the ones that are hired for the classroom. As one teacher said, there ought to be certain standards (GPA, SAT, etc.) for a student to get into the college of education at an accredited University (and only graduates from said universities be allowed in the classroom). Colleges ought to seek only the best and brightest for the programs. This might lead to a shortage of teachers but that will not necessarily be a bad thing.
For all of its warts, NCLB was trying to address the total incompetence we see at the schools but it seems to have opened the doors wide for more. It is time to get back to the basics and instead of testing to the students, let’s start testing the teachers.
City Profile
September 5th, 2011
8:38 pm
The credibility of the school system that Hall led for a dozen years is in tatters.
The entire 12 year record of APS’ supposed improvement in the quality of its education has been rendered a complete lie. When all these corporations who relocated to Atlanta from the North start leaving in droves because they realize their kids aren’t receiving much more than a Third World education around here, leaving this city bankrupt and good people unable to escape the suction of the city going under, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Pack your bags now and prepare to flee, folks.
No Justice
September 5th, 2011
9:01 pm
School administrators like Hall and Augustine will eventually go on to other supervisory titles in other school districts in this country, and you know they’ll be predominantly black districts. What a shame we are allowing these cowards to just go on and wreak havoc without being punished properly, and we wonder why our kids are so far behind.
Everybody Left Behind
September 5th, 2011
9:13 pm
What does it matter? There will be no jobs for these kids anyway.
With “no child left behind” and each generation becoming more stupid than the previous, I don’t blame the teachers for cheating. I would too. The younger generation feels they’re entitled to big paying jobs just for being alive. Reality will hit them like a ton of bricks when they realize all the jobs have been offshored and they’re fighting for table scraps by flipping burgers
Lady J
September 6th, 2011
7:10 pm
Mr. Arnold is correct. So is that statistics guy. You can’t measure a teacher’s effectiveness by one test and what we are doing to kids is horrendous. Thank God some are finally beginning to stand up for both kids and teachers.
RxSpence
September 6th, 2011
9:53 pm
When something is so wretchedly broken we don’t need to be told it is broken.
Make it work, promote alternatives, or move into the private sector and design programs that work.
Unless you recognize that it is the political lobbying that is destroying our education system.
Or maybe you do !