Anti-public school zealots go down to defeat in America's most conservative state.
Yes! Now to dismantle the fraudulent, anti-public education No Child Left Behind law, which has inflicted a disastrous rise in senseless test mania on America's schools. NCLB has one purpose above all--to set a standard so high that no school can reach it, thus allowing the right wingers to declare public education a failure and push for replacing it with private schools that teach that Adam and Eve were real people.
Yes! Now to dismantle the fraudulent, anti-public education No Child Left Behind law, which has inflicted a disastrous rise in senseless test mania on America's schools. NCLB has one purpose above all--to set a standard so high that no school can reach it, thus allowing the right wingers to declare public education a failure and push for replacing it with private schools that teach that Adam and Eve were real people.
Good to see good sense prevailing in the Mountain West.
5 comments:
Joe - Amen brother! But do you think that NCLB is in trouble now because of this resounding defeat in Utah? Unfortunately, I don't see it going away because of its so-called accountability of the schools, which most parents I talk to like, even though they agree that using standardized tests to base it upon should not be the only criteria used. NCLB is a great public relations tool for the right-wing, no doubt. A seriously flawed one, however.
The purpose of NCLB is to find out how far behind grade level a child has fallen before the standardized tests in 8th grade. What's wrong with discovering a child in 2nd grade is already behind when there's still time to help him, instead of waiting 6 more years? I think it's the teacher's union fear of competition that teaches to test instead of teaching to learn.
Anonymous, I don't know if you've taught high school, but in my experience NCLB has been a disaster. It has fueled rampant test mania. It has one underlying goal: to discredit the public school system.
Please, please, read this post here:
http://jamillerrampant.blogspot.com/2007/06/on-retiring-after-33-years-as-teacher.html
It will explain my position very clearly. And hauling out the old right wing bogeyman of the "teacher's union" won't fly. I am proud to put my school up against ANY private school or charter school. The Union at my high school has ben overwhelmingly beneficial to the school itself.
Talk about the left wing bogeyman of the Teachers Union is the only answer. Are you afraid of competition? (Ironically, teachers made up one-third of the delegates at the last Democratic Convention.) But you didn't answer the question. What's wrong with discovering a child in 2nd grade is already behind when there's still time to help him, instead of waiting 6 more years? If you're not opposed to this, and as a former teacher I assume you're not, then how do you determine one's skill level without testing?
Anonymous, the problems with NCLB pile up progressively as kids get older. Testing becomes an end in itself rather than a means to an end. The process distorts the entire school. Did you read the posts I suggested? You will find I am not afraid of competition at all. And the Teachers Union bogeyman is a right wing tool.
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