Julie Underwood, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of ed, explains in the Wisconsin State Journal why Adequate Yearly Progress has little to do with how a school is really peforming. “AYP merely masquerades as accountability and adds nothing of value toward the goal of providing the best possible education for all children,” she writes.
The Bangor [...]
Well, this isn’t what you’d call “on message.” The Washington Post reports today that former Bush aides are speaking out against NCLB, including former Deputy ED Secretary Eugene Hickok, who admits, ”I had these second thoughts in the back of my mind the whole time.”
File under R-E-S-P-E-C-T: The The Frederick (MD) News-Post acknowledges that “Working to help schools and students meet the complex, arduous requirements of NCLB has just as often taken a toll on teachers.”
Celebrating Maryland’s recent state test score gains, the paper advises:
[I]t would behoove each of us to stop right now, contact every Maryland teacher we know, and say one [...]
In a survey released today by Educational Testing Service, a majority of the Americans polled think the federal No Child Left Behind law should be reauthorized, but with major changes, when Congress rewrites it this summer.
They also:
* Agree with teachers and administrators that lack of parental involvement is the biggest problem facing schools today. [...]
Thanks to A Shrewdness of Apes for this one:
A fed-up teacher tells Tulsa World readers she’s had it with public education critics who’ve never spent time in the classroom. Specifically, who’ve never spent time in a classroom with these kids:
These students talk while the teacher is talking, throw things when her back is turned and sometimes when [...]
More fallout from last week’s DOE and CEP reports.
A Fort-Wayne News-Sentinel editorial says Indiana was getting a handle on testing students until NCLB derailed the state’s efforts — and shudders that the dawn of national standards is upon us.
The Des Moines Register’s editorial page charts Iowa’s pre-NCLB efforts and says, “Iowa’s best course is to aim [...]
American Association of School Administrators Executive Director Paul Houston names what he calls the 7 Deadly Sins of NCLB in Phi Delta Kappan. Before he gets into sloth, greed, and – wait, make that testing, accountability, etc. – he argues that NCLB is flawed because it’s looking at the wrong things.
“The deadly sins of NCLB are largely the result of [...]
Quite the week for NCLB in the news. The CEP study tried not to definitively link NCLB to rising test scores — despite headline writers’ best efforts – and now the DOE’s own study shows that high test scores ain’t all that, since state standards are, well, all over the map.
Earlier this week, the Salt Lake Tribune looked at [...]
There’s the headline, and then there’s the story.
The MSM is lousy this week with headlines along the lines of “Test Scores Up Since NCLB,” in reporting the Center on Education Policy’s new study. The articles themselves tend to get it right, explaining CEP’s finding that yes, math and reading scores are up, but no, we can’t definitively give [...]
So, public schools got ignored again in Sunday’s Democratic debate. Disappointment abounds.
C’mon candidates — education issues consistently top the public’s domestic concerns. And we know you’ve got something to say.
The Republicans take the stage this evening. Stay tuned.
