Burnt Orange Report

February 23, 2004

More Planoization (Special NCLB Edition)

By Jim Dallas

The New York Times today has a story about grassroots reaction to the No Child Left Behind Law. Seems that in more than a few states, the people are on the verge of revolution.

It's both sad and amusing to read the comments people are making about the law after they've discovered just how hard it is to meet federal expectations:

Last fall, 245 of Utah's 810 schools were put on a watch list because they had failed to make "adequate yearly progress," said Steven O. Laing, Utah's state school superintendent. Many had been considered excellent schools, but ended up on the list because one small group of students — fifth-grade special education students, for instance — had failed to reach academic targets.

In a meeting with Mr. Meyer on Tuesday, several Republican senators asked questions reflecting concerns about schools put on watch lists in their districts. Mr. Meyer described the law as a tool that helps states to measure school performance, while giving them the flexibility to set their own proficiency benchmarks.

"It's a pretty dynamic business management model," Mr. Meyer said.

After the meeting, Senator Bill Wright, a Republican who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said Mr. Meyer had done "a great job."

"But we still have a difference of opinion about how N.C.L.B. would affect Utah," Senator Wright said.

An hour later, Mr. Meyer met with school superintendents. He heard Steven C. Norton, superintendent of a rural district in northern Utah, report that parents were upset that two schools had been put on a watch list because the law required that 95 percent of students take the standardized tests and one student less than that qualifying threshold had shown up on testing day.

"These are die-hard conservative Republicans, and they feel that this is like crying wolf when they see their school labeled for frivolous reasons," Mr. Norton said in an interview that he had told Mr. Meyer.

That evening, addressing 50 educators and parents at Kearns High School in a Salt Lake City suburb, Mr. Meyer said that American schools needed to improve so that workers could compete for jobs in a globalized economy. The law, he said, empowered educators by identifying students who needed special help and resources.

Russel Sias, a retired engineer and registered Republican whose daughter is a middle school teacher, said to a reporter at the meeting: "I feel like we're hearing the best vacuum cleaner salesman in the world. They're going to label every school in the country as failing, and they call it empowerment?"

Truth be told, many schools are probably getting unfairly labeled as underperforming for frivolous reasons. But what irks me about this story is that it seems to attribute too much to the law's mistakes and too little to the fact that some schools simply weren't as good as people believed they were.

The "big lie" of the 2000 Election (discounting the Florida recount and Social Security privatization), was that there was an education crisis sweeping America. Strangely, though, many folks came to believe there was a crisis - but that this crisis only affected other people's children.

The NCLB law's tough accountability stance seems in part based upon this "crisis" mentality, which is why I find it funny people are suddenly having to confront the reality that, for the most part, most American schools could be criticized if you just set the bar high enough (even though the reasonable and non-panicky thing to say is that most schools are doing a fairly good job for most of their students).

(And the reality that federal intervention in public education - particularly one that metastasized into a multi-billion dollar unfunded mandate - is going to be a real pain in the neck).

On the other hand, if NCLB it has had one positive impact, has been that it has forced people to recognize that there was real educational deficiency - and it wasn't just being ghettoized in the inner city; it was being pushed out of sight into special education and other dark corners (the real crisis we weren't being told about).

I hope we all learn something from this experience.

Posted by Jim Dallas at February 23, 2004 08:17 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Jim,

You're not buying into the argument by the terrorist teachers unions that education in this country is fine, are you?

You know, I agree with some critics of public schools, particularly some of the home schooling crowd, that the centralized authority is a poor learning environment, especially when people should learn to learn continually for themselves. NCLB does nothing to rectify this problem.

But this statement is just plain ignorant:
Mr. Meyer said that American schools needed to improve so that workers could compete for jobs in a globalized economy.

Americans are not losing jobs to other countries because of a lack of skills or knowledge. It's about 1/6 or less the pay for . . . well, not the same productivity, but perhaps enough. IBM and other large U.S. companies are not outsourcing because deficiencies among their workers. It's because we're too good.

Posted by: Tx Bubba at February 23, 2004 11:14 PM

Tx Bubba is correct. If anyone quickly reviews AEIS data for Texas, for LAST year BEFORE NCLB nonsense was implemented only ONE PERCENT of Texas' schools were considered 'failing' or 'low performing' and out of over 7,000 I would consider those pretty damn good odds. The fact that any schools are labeled failing is disturbing, but if you look at WHY the situation is what it is in Texas you will find that many of the failing schools occur in ONE of two places: Inner city (social problems) or REALLY RURAL (sparse funding and support). I am not saying that all schools are perfect or throwing more money AT them will solve the problem, but certainly addressing this with silliness like 'vouchers' for FAILING KIDS, or mediocre (and financially irresponsible) Charter schools or LOWERING THE TEACHER CERT standards will hardly help. I am just watching the anti-public ed people rally their forces and scream 'the sky is falling' and watching everyone believe the rain they see is something else....

Posted by: ProfK at February 24, 2004 09:38 AM

I think one of the most important factors we tend to ignore when discussing our schools is how the judgment is made on how well schools are doing. As far as I am aware (I have a Ph.D. in education), there are no studies that prove standardized tests indicate how much students have learned. In fact, studies have shown that scores on the standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT have almost no correlation to how well students do when in college.
By setting up dubious standards to be met, the NCLB law encourages schools to teach to the test, not to teach students. I am aware of schools in Texas that spend one entire day every week teaching to the state test. I can't see how that is improving what students know.

Posted by: former-teacher at February 24, 2004 10:49 AM

And for those of you worried as to how our dear governor will handle the problems associated with "No Child Left Behind" - not to worry - he has been getting sound advice while prepping for the upcoming special session to address the matter:

PERRY, DONORS GO TO BAHAMAS

Watchdog groups decry trip; governor's spokesman calls it a working retreat

09:12 PM CST on Monday, February 23, 2004

By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry, his wife and staff and some of the state's largest GOP donors traveled last week to the Bahamas, where they talked about school finance, officials said Monday.

The three-day trip was a working retreat during the Presidents Day weekend, said Robert Black, a spokesman for Mr. Perry.

Citizens watchdog groups slammed the trip, confirmed after inquiries from The Dallas Morning News, as an example of how well-heeled donors gain access to the governor.

"The fact is that they're on a very plush island with some of the biggest contributors to Republican causes," said Suzy Woodford, state director of Common Cause.

"It's the heavy hitters who clearly have the governor's undivided attention, during their schmoozing. It leads to a question of undue influence," she said.

On the trip to the Abaco Islands were contributors James and Cecelia Leininger, who gave Mr. Perry more than $75,000 since 2000, and John and Bobbi Nau, who have donated more than $100,000 to the campaigns.

In addition, the Perrys were accompanied by political adviser Dave Carney; chief of staff Mike Toomey; deputy chief of staff Deirdre Delisi and her husband, GOP political consultant Ted Delisi; and budget director Mike Morrissey.

Also on the trip was Grover Norquist, a Washington-based anti-tax leader, and Brooke Rollins, director of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, and her husband, Mark.

The group traveled by private plane.

Mr. Black said that the governor and Mrs. Perry used political campaign funds to pay for their trip and that the staffs' expenses were provided through private funds, about which he could not elaborate Monday.

He said the governor was interested in the public school financing discussion that was part of a conference last month hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

"You can describe it as a continuation of the TPPF conference," Mr. Black said.

Ms. Woodford said that when the campaign pays for such trips, it is merely another way of saying that large contributors picked up the tab.

"You could have continued talking about this in Austin ... instead of a nice, secluded island," she said.

Ms. Woodford also pointed out that Mr. Leininger, a leading charter school proponent, was one of the top donors to the Texans for a Republican Majority. A Travis County grand jury looking at whether that group illegally used corporate money to fund GOP Texas House candidates in 2002.

"Common Cause has a huge problem with all of these discussions that are happening behind closed doors without any public input," she said.

Mr. Black said campaign donations being used for the trip are from "people who have given to Governor Perry from all over Texas," and not only large donors.

Next month Mr. Perry and his wife, Anita, are traveling to Italy for 10 days on a trade mission paid for by the Texas Economic Development Corp.

The corporation secured trip funding from corporate sponsorships to a consulate luncheon

Posted by: Tug at February 24, 2004 11:08 AM

News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas

February 23, 2004

More Planoization (Special NCLB Edition)

By Jim Dallas