Lost in Space
Sandy Kress – What a sad journey for Arne Duncan. He started out a bold reformer, with a lot of cash in stimulus money to lubricate the way for major change.
But now, without the cash and seemingly desperate to pass legislation, he seems lost in space.
States that did not receive Race to the Top funds appear – predictably – to be moving off in a variety of directions on their own. And even states that did receive the funds seem to be aligned as long as the tie through the funds lasts.
With diminishing influence through cash, the Administration apparently now is panicking to find new leverage through legislation. And nowhere has the panic been more clear than the Secretary’s testimony last week in which he tried to scare the Congress into thinking that 82% of the schools are going to be treated as failures by NCLB.
Mind you, only slightly over 30% are missing AYP currently ,and less than 20% are facing any kind of consequences at all. It wasn’t long ago that the Secretary wore a totally different Chicken Little mask, decrying how terrible we’re doing academically against international competitors. One might have concluded from those speeches that the inevitable railing against NCLB would have been that it identified too few schools, rather than too many, as needing improvement!
But, no, the President shows up at a middle school and showcases it as an example of NCLB’s over identification of schools. This, he does, despite the fact that only slightly above half of the Blacks, Hispanics, and the economically disadvantaged in the school are proficient in math.
http://education.nationaljournal.com/2011/03/upping-the-ante-on-an-educatio.php#1913818
Subscribe
Enter your email to subscribe to daily Education News!
Hot Topics
- Education Technology
- Teachers Unions
- Charter Schools
- California Education
- Education Research
- New York Education
- Online Education
- UK Education
- STEM Education
- School Choice
- Cost of College
- Education Funding
- New York City Schools
- Julia Steiny
- Florida Education
- Education Reform
- Parent Involvement
- Texas Education
- Los Angeles Schools
- Math Education
- C. M. Rubin
- Obama Administration
- Chicago Schools
- Testing
- Vouchers
- 2012 Election
- New Jersey Education
- Pennsylvania Education
- Tennessee Education
- Teaching
- Teacher Training
- UK Higher Education
- Early Childhood Education
- Louisiana Education
- College Admissions
- School Health
- Ohio Education
- Teacher Evaluations
- Illinois Education
- Literacy
- MOOCs
- Arne Duncan
- Cheating
- UK Politics
- Michigan Education
Career Index
Plan your career as an educator using our free online datacase of useful information.
- Select a City Subject
- Physical Therapy Schools in Abilene
- Physical Therapy Schools in Amarillo
- Physical Therapy Schools in Beeville
- Physical Therapy Schools in Clarendon
- Physical Therapy Schools in Dallas
- Physical Therapy Schools in Denton
- Physical Therapy Schools in El Paso
- Physical Therapy Schools in Galveston
- Physical Therapy Schools in Hillsboro
- Physical Therapy Schools in Kilgore
- Physical Therapy Schools in Lubbock
- Physical Therapy Schools in Lufkin
- Physical Therapy Schools in San Angelo
- Physical Therapy Schools in San Antonio
- Physical Therapy Schools in San Marcos
- Physical Therapy Schools in Waco
- RN to BSN Schools in Boca Raton
- RN to BSN Schools in Largo
- RN to BSN Schools in New Port Richey
- RN to BSN Schools in Pensacola
- RN to BSN Schools in Saint Petersburg
- RN to BSN Schools in Tallahassee
- RN to BSN Schools in West Palm Beach
- RN to BSN Schools in Winter Haven
Comments
….and I just heard from a colleague last week that Gifted and Talented Education for the REAL outside of the box thinkers is NOT even INCLUDED in the National Blue Print for Education. Moral of that story is that it is not accepted to be a bright inquisitive student in the USA.
My son worked at an Alternative High School where it was not necessarily the naughty disruptive students as the attendees, BUT the gifted and talented students who wanted to work at their own pace, i.e., faster, as well as be allowed to explore the aspects of their favorite subjects rather than be limited by the textbooks.
My personal belief is that we as a nation have bought hook line and sinker INTO Rigor, Relevance and Relationship as the only order that teaching must be done. Since RIGOR is a precursor of RIGORmortis it is NO surprise that our students are frozen in their learning.
Let us have the courage to put RELATIONSHIP first since if the students know that we care about them as human beings then they are more willing to respond to us as the teacher. Once a teacher has a relationship with the student it is easy to show them the RELEVANCE of what they are learning…relevance for life, relevance for human interactions, and relevance for advancing humanity. Once that relevance is established it becomes extremely easy to teach using RIGOR because then, and only then, does the student see the need for the precision RIGOR requires.
By the way, personally I would rather participate in a VIGORous education versus a RIGORous education. Education includes ALL of the senses.
It is painfully true that the NCLB proposal has not met its intended goal. That is because merely routing federal tax monies into to local school districts never has had its intended effects. One of the preponderous weakness of this practice is that it ignores the fact that students’ academic progress is affected most greatly by the kind of families in which children are raised. In short, students in low-income homes continue to score much below those from upper-income families, on standardized tests of academic skills and knowledge,regardless as to hard their teachers work to reduce this enormous gap. There also is a further, cruel treatment of the teachers of the first group of youngsters above. Teachers here are the ones that are fired when that action is taken each school year. Teachers of children from economically favored backgrounds only rarely suffer that indignity. As well, teacher unions only rarely ever challenge that unfair practice. Finally, how many commentaries about education ever deal with this conspicuosly unfair practice? Almost none!
Dr. Patrick Groff
Profesor of Education Emeritus
San Diego Staet University