Posted on 07/12/2008 5:49:29 AM PDT by shrinkermd
President Bush has often spoken about education reform as a civil rights issue. So we're not entirely surprised to see civil rights groups now defending the No Child Left Behind law against attempts to gut its most effective provisions.
Last month, Representative Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, introduced the NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act, which would essentially suspend the law's accountability provisions but not the funding. Under Mr. Graves's bill, schools would no longer have to file progress reports that expose achievement gaps between kids of different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Since NCLB passed in 2002, minority parents in particular have come to rely on this information to find out if a school is serving the needs of their children. But apparently Mr. Graves and his co-sponsor, Democrat Timothy Waltz of Minnesota, believe that the problem with public education today is too much accountability. Not surprisingly, teachers unions like the National Education Association are supporting their efforts.
What's heartening about this story is who has lined up to block this nonsense. The coalition includes the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the National Urban League, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and more than a dozen other liberal outfits.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ah - reviewed the article you posted earlier - fascinating - and I’m glad additional articles were referenced. Good reading - Thanks for posting
My direct link no longer works; however, you can get La Griffe du Lion and look down the left column. You will come to an article summarizing the 85 problem.
I read the WSJ article before you even posted it, and would have posted it myself except that you already had done so.
I agree that taking the accountability provisions out of NCLB would be unconscionable and defeat the entire purpose of the law. Personally, I think the accountability provisions should be stronger.
Mostly because they aren't smart enough to get real jobs, I think.
Teachers get paid little considering what most have to have to be certified.
That's certainly a possibility.
That could be it, too. :-)
I thought most special education youth could be excluded from testing requirements.
Oh, no, we’re vastly overpaid considering that we’re just glorified babysitters and get 3 months off in the summer! ;-)
No, there is a certain percentage that can take alternative assessments, but those are usually the profoundly retarded students...most of the mildly retarded are not excluded at our school.
With all due respect and kindness, you thought wrong. Only 5% of all special education students in a system are exempt from testing. Those slots are reserved for the severe/profound population and the non-communicative autistics. After those are taken care of, then the trainable mentally retarded (IQ's from 50-59) get exemptions in their worst subjects, then on up to the educable mentally retarded get any slots left, and generally there are none.
However, there are some benefits to this as now kids teachers would have previously not have thought could learn, are being included and there are some successes, especially in the areas of reading. Math is still tough, but when the reading is high enough, the civics and science exams become doable. The reading level is key.
Is that federal?
You think you’re underpaid? I dunno, I think I’m overpaid considering all I do is sit in a class and let kids run around like chickens with their heads cut off whilst I read a trashy love novel and eat bon bons
Thanks, I didn’t know. I did know it depends on the qualifier for the classification and what a Psychologist from testing may determine.
That is per NCLB - and it’s district wide, not school based. So one school may have fewer than 5 exempt, another could have 10, but the numbers are handled by the district testing office
Apparently some schools used to encourage the SpEd populations to stay home on test day so they wouldn't bring down the scores, so attendance is part of it too.
I knew a special education teacher who had three education PhDs and was making 50,000 a year. To me, that’s being underpaid.
The exemptions are determined year by year through the IEP. So some kids may be exempt some years and not others. Districts look at their numbers several months before testing and if they are over, they ask teachers to look at their students and see if sufficient progress has been made. If not, and the numbers don’t change, then the school takes the hit on non-compliance.
Apparently in some states a teacher with a master’s degree can make over $100K. In my state, the highest a teacher can make is about $72K - that’s with a doctorate and maxing out on the experience scale...
“Apparently some schools used to encourage the SpEd populations to stay home on test day so they wouldn’t bring down the scores, so attendance is part of it too.”
That’s downright pure corruption.
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