The football version of what is going on in education right now

1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time, even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!

3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. This will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind. If parents do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.

And the football version before it?...

No rules, no playing field, coaches given lifetime contracts with no incentives clauses, no actual footballs to play with and no score is kept...

Go out of your way to make sure no one is accountable for anything...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

1. Disappointing Results

The chief indicators of educational progress in the land - the NAEP Tests (National Assessment of Educational Progress) have remained stagnant since NAEPs heavy handed policies went into practice in 2002. Considering the claims made, the results are "full of sound and fury signifying nothing." Note "Flatline NAEP Scores show failure of test-driven school reform. NCLB has NOT improved academic performance." Flatline NAEP Scores

2. Failing Schools

One of NCLB/Helter-Skelter's main effects has been the labeling of thousands of schools as failures even though some of those schools have made admirable progress under trying circumstances and have been judged favorably under state standards. The burden of these failures and the shaming strategy has fallen most heavily on the very children and neighborhoods NCLB was claimed to assist.

Note AP article, "Florida lags in No Child Left Behind; Jeb wants law changed," August 19, 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Jacksonville's George Washington Carver Elementary is a B school in the state's eyes and barely missed getting an A this year.
Yet, Carver, which once got D's and F's, still is considered a failing school under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which was adopted in 2001.
It is one of 2,278 Florida schools - 71 percent of the total - that have failed to make the adequate yearly progress, or AYP, required by No Child Left Behind in 2006. That's in sharp contrast to the state's report card that this year gave an A or B to three of every four Florida schools.


3. Lack of Quality Teachers

Although NCLB requires that all states fill all classrooms with qualified teachers, no state has met that standard yet according to a report issued by the Ed. Department:

No State Will Meet 'Highly Qualified' Requirements
The U.S. Department of Education has announced that no state will meet a requirement under the so-called No Child Left Behind law that calls for 100 percent of teachers in core subjects to be "highly qualified" by the end of the current school year.

As Deadline Looms, Report Says States Showing Little Progress in Addressing Teacher Quality
Education Week July 6, 2006

"At times it seems the architects of NCLB were engaged in wishful thinking, believing that proclamation and accomplishment were one and the same. As is all too often true of zealots, the very strength of their convictions can blind them to crucial realities. Given the national shortage of qualified teachers, it is hardly surprising that it is difficult to find teachers willing to work under difficult conditions. Once again, it is the poor and disadvantaged populations who end up suffering most from this NCLB failure."

4. Lowering of Standards

NCLB has made shame and punishment such a condition of life for schools that many states have been "gaming the system" by adopting easier tests and lowering standards. They create the false impression of educational progress - one unsubstantiated by testing of their students on a demanding set of tests such as NAEP.


5. Narrowing of Curriculum

Because NCLB initially looks at just the reading and math scores of schools, schools at risk have taken to handing out double doses of math and reading while eliminating other types of learning that go untested and seem little valued. The notion of "the whole child" has been sacrificed as time previously devoted to social studies, science, art and music is often switched over to the basic skills.

New York Times article, "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math."
Published: March 26, 2006

By Sam Dillon in the New York Times.

Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it.
6. Ignoring of Children

In direct conflict with NCLB's professed goals, Ed Department officials conspired with some state officials to allow unconscionably large group sizes to apply before a sub category of student might be counted in judging AYP. Those states that set high numbers thereby allowed their affluent and suburban schools to ignore the plight of their disadvantaged and minority students. According to a story from the AP, nearly two million minority students went uncounted because of this collusion.


7. Fear, Shame and Threats

NCLB is quick to label schools and programs as failures when subgroups do not make AYP. Once labelled, a school may suffer extreme punishments as children and families are allowed to transfer elsewhere and the school staff may be shifted around or fired. While conservatives have been unable to put into place their dream of privatization, lurking behind the blame and shame is the hope that failing the public schools will set the stage for a free market approach.

Bloomberg "Bush's `No Child' Goals Aren't Met by Quarter of U.S. Schools."

March 28 2006 -- More than a quarter of U.S. schools are failing under terms of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, according to preliminary state-by-state statistics reported to the U.S. Education Department.

At least 24,470 U.S. public schools, or 27 percent of the national total, didn't meet the federal requirement for ``annual yearly progress'' in 2004-2005. The percentage of failing schools rose by one point from the previous school year. Under the 2002 law, schools that don't make sufficient academic progress face penalties including the eventual replacement of their administrators and teachers.

8. Bad Tests

The sudden national obsession with high stakes testing combined with the Ed Department's curious insistence upon annual testing has led to a dilution of test quality as states have opted for easy and inexpensive tests that measure less challenging aspects of performance and as testing companies have found their product development resources severely strained.

"Standardized Tests Face a Crisis Over Standards"

Published: March 22, 2006
By Michael Winerip in the New York Times.

Pressure to test all students has led to a series of serious problems with the quality of the tests being administered and the kinds of learning goals measured. Costs have dictated lowered standards in many places.


9. Fake Results

NCLB has created enormous pressure to achieve the appearance of progress but has done nothing to guard against educational fraud so that schools and states have engaged in an array of practices that range from actual cheating to gaming the system in ways that make students appear more proficient than they really are.

On cheating, note: "TAKS rates fall at probed schools - 17 Houston campuses accused of cheating see larger drop than district"

AP Article: March 19, 2005

Nearly all of the Houston elementary schools being investigated for possible cheating on the state's standardized achievement test produced sharply weaker exam results this year.

Passing rates at all but one of the 18 schools under scrutiny dropped at a greater rate than the overall Houston school's passing rate on the third-grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS, reading exam.

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As a parent of two school-aged children, I've seen first-hand the waste of this program in "accountability", teachers pressured to help kids get test scores up, without actually teaching.

Nice touch...

In typical media fashion, Ted Kennedy writes the bill and when it's up for a vote again, Ted Kennedy endorses it's reauthorization on his own website, but when others don't like it, it becomes "Bush's 'No Child Left Behind'"...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd