THE EDUCATION FRONT

The fundamental system and philosophy of education was never designed to serve all students. Until that system is changed all efforts will be a waste of time and money. Current testing has nothing to do with children!

This editorial is just a warmed up version of the same failed stuff.

www.WholeChildReform.com

Your comments today, illustrate one of the comments the Governor has made on Race To the Top and where federal legislation leads - ulitmately they water down standards because of the pressure from those States that have not been as active as Texas in setting standards and the decisions are made in Washington with unnamed people and the average citizen/parent/teacher has no real ability to impact the process.

NCLB was a bad law from the very beginning. The federal government keeps creaping in on what is a state's rights issue. If a district doesn't meet the Adequate Yearly Progress from the feds, you have a real problem. It is bad enough that we work so hard not to be labeled poorly by the TAKS test, but we have to worry about the Feds too. NCLB needs to be overhauled, and it needs to throw out the requirement that everyone has to be on grade by ANY date. How are kids who have severe disabilities - those on oxygen,in a wheelchair, can't talk, severely autistic, these are children that need to be cared for and taught by specialists, but be on grade level in all subjects, that's insane.

Do you know what runs our curriculum? It's not creativity nor subject knowledge, it's the TAKS test. Yes, folks, teachers do teach to the TAKS test - they have to. I've been in education thirty-nine years, and I can tell you the pressure on teachers and administrators is intense.

Maybe we should devise a survivor show and throw legislators in the classroom for a few weeks, then they would understand why TAKS and NCLB need serious, serious overhaul.

As a public service favor to the citizens of Dallas, how about doing some homework and writing about the faulty myths I often see repeated over and over. You could begin by reading:

“The Gates’ Foundation and the Future of U.S. Public Education: A Call for Scholars to Counter Misinformation Campaigns” By Philip E. Kovacs and H. K. Christie
See http://www.jceps.com/PDFs/6-2-01.pdf

The current myths are tired and disingenuous and we all know it. Especially the many teachers teaching in the field.

As a special education teacher of the Intellectually Disabled, I know it is an impossible, unattainable goal to expect students with a 40 I.Q. to be proficient on their grade level. To expect these children to obtain the same grade level proficiency as their peers of higher intellect shows lack of consideration and compassion for the special education population. Federal law requires teachers to write Individual Education Plans (IEP's) for each of these special education students on their ABILITY level. We are required by federal law to instruct them according to the goals and bennchmarks in their IEP's. Ironically, federal law also requires these same children to be assessed on GRADE LEVEL. It's asinine for anyone to expected these students to perform proficiently on grade level, especially after being taught on ability level all year. I'm teaching my students to add and some of them are learning to subtract, yet they are expected to be proficient in pre-algebra. It's asinine to think that Intellectually Disabled children will ever be grade level proficient, in the vast majority of cases. It is urealistic to hold students with 40 or 50 I.Q.'s to the same standards as those students with 130 I.Q.'s. That is exactly what No Child Left Behind requires! If this were realistic then the same would hold true for sports. For example, based on the insensible logic of NCLB, all children who play youth baseball from age 5-18 will be skilled enough to play professional baseball. I am no fan of NCLB with it's inconsiderate, negligent, and preposterous expectations.

NCLB is not a perfect law, but it's a good start. Districts that choose to accept federal funding must expect that the Dept. of Education will (on behalf of the taxpayers# hold them accountable. Some districts choose not to accept funds, and they are exempt from NCLB sanctions.

For almost a half century, we've spent untold billions on our most disadvantaged communities through free/reduced lunch, Title I funding of addtional staff, and Title III funding for language acquisition programs. The time for asking about the stewardship of those funds is long overdue.

And, even in Dallas ISD, graduation rates are rising--thanks largely to NCLB sanctions for graduation rate #that resulted in a state reaction to stiffen its own completion rate guidelines). Without a diploma, prison or welfare is almost a certainty--so increased pressure to track and keep kids enrolled in school may pay off in the long run with fewer people on those government rolls.

Next year's reading standard is 80%...which is the state standard for recognized. We will see many schools showing up on the "needs improvement" list if districts are not directing campuses to pay careful attention to SpEd, LEP, and EcoD (free lunch) students. Schools can also meet the requirement but still score under the 80% mark if they show a 10% reduction in their number of failing students and increase graduation (HS) or attendance (Elem/Middle) by .1%. That's the "improvement" track that was referenced under the Bush administration and Secretary of Ed Margaret Spelling. A 10% annual reduction in failures is reasonable and attainable.

I was a teacher, and I quit. My parents were also both teachers, and they also both quit. Why? because we couldn't stand spending 6 1/2 hours a day with our worst performing students, only to send them back home to dysfunctional families and see all our previous day's progress lost.
No child left behind should change its name and its policy directive to "NO FAMILY left behind"...only then will we see some real improvement in student scores.

Amen, Amalia!

You know that saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch?" Our families that get assistance with meals should be required to participate in the school community, whether by measuring student progress or parent visits to school for report card nights, etc.

When I read posts from those claiming to be a teacher, like Deanna's, my blood boils because this supposed special education teacher doesn't understand NCLB or IDEA at all, and without that basic understanding I know her students are being left behind. Please if you teach hold high expectations for each and every student.

Right now, the Texas public school system is embroiled in a major
battle over efforts to re-write our history and remove references
to our Judeo-Christian heritage from their textbooks.

The Texas State Board of Education will soon finalize the language
that publishers use to align their textbooks to current "acceptable
standards." Many of the suggestions that are coming forward are shocking:

+Replacing the term "American" with "Global Citizen."

+Stating that students need to be shaped "for responsible
citizenship in a global society."

+Removing all references to Daniel Boone, General George
Patton, Nathan Hale, and Columbus Day.

+Replacing "expansionism and free enterprise" with
"imperialism and capitalism."

+Even stripping "Christmas Day" from all textbooks.

And since it is one of the nation's largest states, Texas greatly
influences the textbooks and ultimately the curricula employed by
many other states. Tens of millions of children will likely be impacted.