No Child Left Behind

[Claire]

The Center on Education Policy released its third report today on NCLB.

What do you think?

http://www.ctredpol.org/

Here's the press release:

http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/nclby3/press/nclb3press.doc

Here's the complete report:

http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/nclby3/press/cep-nclby3_21Mar2005.pdf

I can't open the complete report....stupid computer/pdf stuff, so I'm looking elsewhere for it for myself.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, I disagree that improved test scores is an indication of anything other than improved test scores. Honestly, improved test scores are to me a likely indication of decreased understanding of actual material as teachers are spending more and more time teaching kids to pass the tests rather than teaching them actual information.

[Ponine]

Hmmm what are you interested/dispuiting Claire?
Working in a school district and very close with the Nickleby stuff, I hear things and get more explanations than most.
The test scores are very hard to interpret because of the way they work.
Same with a school that gets put into Title 1 status, or that is now low performing...
I'd sound like a real geek if I went into it, and I'd go on forever. So give me a direction to go, and I'm all yours.

[Ghoulish Delight]

One more thought on the subject, the only proof I need of the failure of NCLB is to watch my parents, two of the most dedicated professionals to ever teach, clamboring to get out of the profession as quickly as possible. It's depressing, and they aren't alone. The teachers that truly teach, rather than cram test material down kids' throats, are being devalued and driven away. It's a disaster.

[Claire]

Hmmm what are you interested/dispuiting Claire?
Working in a school district and very close with the Nickleby stuff, I hear things and get more explanations than most.
The test scores are very hard to interpret because of the way they work.
Same with a school that gets put into Title 1 status, or that is now low performing...
I'd sound like a real geek if I went into it, and I'd go on forever. So give me a direction to go, and I'm all yours.

Run with it, lady! Go! Go!! :snap: Geek out! I want to hear it, seriously!

I know how it's shaking down here in Portland and it sucks. I'll go into more later, but I wanted others' perspectives on it.

[Ponine]

However, states and districts indicate they do not have the capacity or the funds necessary to reach all schools in need of improvement, and while most officials surveyed generally agree with the law’s emphasis on accountability for all student subgroups, a majority say they would like to see the accountability requirements for students with disabilities and ELL students changed or eliminated. Officials also cite problems in implementing school choice and supplemental education services.

The schools come from approximately 15-20 percent of all districts though the highest concentrations are in very large and urban districts. In addition, states now face the additional responsibility of carrying out sanctions for about 10 percent of Title I school districts identified for improvement under NCLB at the start of the 2004-05 school year, some of which may have missed AYP requirements for subgroups too small to be counted at the school level.

Let me attempt tackle these two paragraphs. I feel like poo poo.. but I will tackle these before I go lay down.
For us, in the districts, and the teachers and the admin, and prob very similar to GD's parents.. its a fine line between making a difference and running four your lives.
You can have a school that had jsut now been designated as aTitle 1 program improvement school for 05/06. Why is it now Program Improvement? Becuase one sub group, which has to have at least I think 50 kids to be a sub group, didnt preform up to snuff. Or didnt improve.
One group.. english learners, learning disabled, K's... that one group, puts the whole school into that name.
Now, on one hand thats fine. They get some attention. On the other hand that's bad.
The parents whom send their children, or will, to this school in 05/06 are notified that their school is now program improvement, and they have the option to move their children to another school.
Great.. so the families with the abilites to take their children elsewhere, will. Leaving behind the kids who might not have the parent support, and I feel thereby, decreasing the schools chances to get out of T1:PI.

If they eliminate the accountibility for the disabitlies and the (ELL) English learners, that may eliminate most of the problems. But, they have to make that choice first.
Its hard for the teachers and the admin. They are told WHAT they can spend thier classromm funds on, and its a very limited scope. THey have to bring those ELL and other kids up to PAR with the other kids in their class. So while tommy may be gifted, he is left to work on his own, because the teacher needs to work with Michael's developing English skills so that he can pass the tests.
It's put a whole other focus on teaching. And the teachers are the ones paying the price, and not truly being able to do what they signed on for when they went to college thinking they wanted to be a teacher.

I'm sick.. i need to go to bed and not ramble.

[mousepod]

Thanks for the post, Ponine. Our school's situation is very strange and NCLB rules make it even stranger. We're a Charter High School operating inside the SF County jail system - what's unique about our situation is that since all of our students are 18 or over, we're at least partially exempt from many of the rules. However, since all of our students are "special needs" (they are all in jail, after all), there's a whole other set of rules we have to follow.

It's no wonder that half of our board members are attorneys.

I look forward to more of your take on this subject (and thanks Claire for starting the thread).

[Ghoulish Delight]

Bingo, Ponine. And that's EXACTLY what's happening at my parents' school. They WERE title 1 and were one year away from getting an improvement bonus. Then they blinked and they were 1 year away from losing funding and losing administrators. Huh? What the hell changed? It's silly. Nevermind that the solution to an ailing school is, "Take money away and drive students away." Uuuuuh, I don't have any teaching degrees, but geeeezus does that not sound right.

[wendybeth]

Try being the parent of a special needs kid in this climate. No child left behind, my ass- that's why we homeschool, and our public school was very happy to point us in this direction. Special needs kids tend to dilute the scores of the schools, and they stand to lose funding as a result.

[Claire]

The parents whom send their children, or will, to this school in 05/06 are notified that their school is now program improvement, and they have the option to move their children to another school.
Great.. so the families with the abilites to take their children elsewhere, will. Leaving behind the kids who might not have the parent support, and I feel thereby, decreasing the schools chances to get out of T1:PI.


Bingo! That's what is happening here and it happened immediately. The schools that were initially in trouble are now severely in trouble, like ghost towns. The savvy parents took their kids and split. The kids that are left have no real parental support, are often the most poor, or don't speak English. The kids whose parents paid attention, volunteered in the schools, etc., all split, taking their kids and their support with them.

The high school kids (maybe middle schoolers, too, I'm not sure) get paid Trimet busfare, so they are bused in to better high schools. My neighborhood high school is the second more desirable school in Portland. The parents are involved, the kids are generally good kids, no campus trouble, and educationally a strong school There's a huge Trimet bus stop/transit center near us, and everyday I see the NCLB kids (I'm estimating about 100 of them) after school everyday waiting for buses to head back to their neighborhoods and these kids look just like the kids that already went to the high school. I guess what I'm delicately trying to say is that these kids are well-dressed, well-behaved, and um.....primarily white.

Edit: Also, when the district report card came out last month, our high school's enrollment had increased by more than 100 kids, and the overall GPA had only dropped by .04%. And test scores were largely unchanged. These kids who transferred from the troubled high schools have pretty much the same test scores and grades as the kids at our local high school

Are these the kids NCLB was written for?

I'm a substitute teacher and have been to several of the hollowed out schools this year. There are no parents around. There are no fund-raisers planned. There is a feeling of resignation in the air and in general, these schools are not pleasant places to be.

The funding is not there to support these schools, the staff, the students. It's so frustrating to see Special Education budgets get slashed federally, state-wide and then locally (remember, I'm a special ed teacher). Today in the paper, I read that the district will mostly lose $600K in support services for English Language Learners. The school that is in the most dire need/trouble is going to lose 35 staff members next year. Not because they're not good teachers (they'll most likely be re-assigned, then those with seniority will keep their jobs, while they bump out newer teachers), but because the staff-child ratio is too high. Teachers will be moved all over the district and they're proposing to cut 335 staff positions.

Now, of course, not all of that is due to NCLB, but it sure doesn't seem to help. It puts un-due and un-realistic standards in place....teachers are literally teaching to the test. I see it everytime I'm in a school. All I hear is fourth grade teachers sweating ten year olds on test taking skills. It's awful!

I don't see how NCLB is a good thing. Can someone point me in the direction of a district that is flourishing with this mandate? I've done a ton of searches, but the news is all bad it seems.

This wasn't at all what I was going to write....I had some different sites I've been looking at that I was going to comment on, but Ponine hit on the point that's been at the heart of all my concerns over NCLB. Savvy parents are pulling their kids and their support out of struggling schools and the schools are just tanking further. It's such a frustrating downward spiral, and yet I don't see a way out of it as long as NCLB exists.