|
|
|
|
|
|
October 2003 Newsletter |
|
Dates
to Remember 4pm ED211 Oct 13 – October meeting 3:30pm SC214 Oct 16-19 – Fall BreakOct 24 – PRE-I apps due Oct 30-Nov 1 – NSTA Convention Minneapolis, MN Nov 10 – Nov. meeting 3:30pm SC214 Nov 13-15 – NSTA Convention Kansas City, MO Nov 22 – OGET Nov 26-30 – Thanksgiving Break Dec 4*6 - NSTA Convention Reno, NV Dec 8-12 – Finals Week!! If any thing has been left out, tell us and we will add them |
|
Education
chief says schools failing minorities
WASHINGTON
-- The nation's top education official said yesterday that many
minority children are so badly served by public schools that their
circumstances can be compared to apartheid. Education
Secretary Rod Paige warned of an unrecognized educational crisis of
disadvantaged students who are written off at school and unready for
the world. He cited discouraging statistics about the performance of
blacks and Hispanics on reading and math tests in high school and on
college-entrance exams. "Those
who are unprepared will sit on the sidelines, confronting poverty,
dead-end jobs, and hopelessness," Paige said in a speech at the
National Press Club. The
majority of students falling behind are poor, and "effectively, the
education circumstances for these students are not unlike a system of
apartheid," Paige said. In
2001, Paige became the first black to serve as education secretary. He
has chosen increasingly sharp words in promoting the education law that
requires schools to expand standardized testing, improve teacher
quality, and break out student achievement figures by demographic
groups, among other things. Schools
that get federal low-income aid but fail to consistently improve face
penalties. Paige
focused on how an underachieving education system hurts the country. He
welcomed debate over the education law, yet criticized the resistance
of "significant, powerful forces entrenched in the old ways, mired in
self interest." A
spokesman for the nation's largest teachers union said that "opposition
and concern aren't coming from the status quo, but from the parents,
communities, and schools struggling" with the law. Kathleen
Lyons of the National Education Association added: "The reality is that
there are groups of children whose progress is being inaccurately
measured, and the consequences are huge." The
NEA contends that Congress and President Bush have not provided all the
money needed to carry out the law. Paige said the federal investment is
enough. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. |
|
National school law leaves no illusion behind I'm a recently retired Iowa elementary school
principal, and I can't figure out why educators all over the United
States aren't screaming and yelling about the federal No Child Left
Behind law. It's hard to tell whether this law is more a
product of arrogance or ignorance, but either way it's shaping up to be
a spectacular train wreck of a collision between bureaucracy and
reality. Its main thrust is its requirement that all
schoolchildren be "proficient" in reading, math and science by 2014.
Hard to argue with that, until you learn that proficiency has been
arbitrarily defined as the current 40th percentile of the nation. In other words, in 2014 every child will
score better than 40 percent of the nation today, or roughly 19 million
children. We will be essentially trying to get every child to be "above
average," and should probably change our name to something like the
United States of Lake Wobegon. But it gets worse. The law specifically
requires that children with serious learning problems (our current
special ed population) must also meet this standard. In my medium-sized
school district of about 4,800 students, last year's testing found 100
percent of special-ed fourth-graders to be below "proficiency."
Surprise? Apparently it is to the Department of Education. These children currently receive targeted
instruction and a specialized curriculum and are often in classes of as
few as eight students. They need these intensive services, but even
with this extra help they will probably remain well behind the average
student. A second group of targeted students is made
up of immigrant children who are just learning English. Is there some
educational strategy I've missed that can turn a non-English-speaking
third-grader into an average fourth-grade reader in one year? Who
writes this stuff? All schools are supposed to make steady
progress toward the outrageous 100 percent success level, and schools
that don't keep up face tough penalties. State departments of education have recently
released the lists of those who didn't make it this year. In my
neighboring state of Illinois, 627 schools were labeled as failing, and
estimates are that number will double. (In Michigan, the number is more
than 200.) In Iowa, a preliminary estimate found that up
to half our schools could make the failing list, though the final tally
for this year was much less. How could half the public schools be
failing in a state that has the second highest ACT college testing
scores in the nation? It's obvious to me that when 2014 rolls
around and everyone has to hit the 100 percent standard, almost every
school in the country will be labeled a "failing school." Is it
possible this bill is an elaborate setup, designed by those hoping to
usher in an era of vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to
public education? I don't know the answer to that, but I do
know the draconian provisions of No Child Left Behind will generate
increasing amounts of fear, anger and unjust blame as one year's
unrealistic goals give way to the next. Jerry Parks spent 32 years as a teacher and
administrator in elementary and secondary schools. Distributed by the
Washington Post. |
|
Websites
of interest: |
|
2003-2004
Year Officers |