Harvard study blasts Bush education policy

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-02-14T160320Z_01_N13297787_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-EDUCATION.xml

Harvard study blasts Bush education policy

BOSTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind education policy has in some cases benefited white middle-class children over blacks and other minorities in poorer regions, a Harvard University study showed on Tuesday.

Political compromises forged between some states and the federal government have allowed schools in some predominantly white districts to dodge penalties faced by regions with larger ethnic minority populations, the study said.

Bush's 2001 No Child Left Behind Act was meant to introduce national standards to an education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics.

But instead of uniform standards, the policy has allowed various states to negotiate treaties and bargains to reduce the number of schools and districts identified as failing, said the study by Harvard University's Civil Rights Project.

[central scrutinizer]

1. unfunded mandates

hit hardest at the most underfunded school districts - this should come as no surprise.

[earthboundmisfit]

2. And the kids who lose will be more likely to join the military

as their "only way out".

[mom cat]

3. Bingo. Good call.

[ugarte]

4. No Suburban White Child Left Behind

I am so, so surprised.

[LizW]

5. This is exactly what is happening in our schools

NCLB is an incredibly cynical law. It pretends to be based on principals of equity and fairness and the concept that all children can learn. But in practice, it sets impossible goals and time frames, forces school systems to spend much-needed funds on expanded high-stakes testing, and ties what little funding it does offer for remediation to privatization of education.

This article is dead-on correct, too. If all school systems had to meet the same standards, even more schools systems would be screaming bloody murder for the law to be either funded or repealed. But the law provides loopholes for affluent and white school systems in order to keep them quiet. So it started out that only the poor and ethnically diverse systems were complaining.

However, as the required rates of proficiency go up each year, more and more school systems are getting labeled "failing" and are complaining about the unfairness of the law.

[rodeodance]

6. looky the last line by Spellings here--It is simply stupid.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has said the law works, citing data showing reading scores for 9-year-olds up more over the last five years than between 1971 and 1999, though some dispute whether this reflects the policy. Spellings has said states critical of the law simply fear the results.

[Trillo]

7. Yeah, I saw that, what a tool!

"Spellings?" Is that an alias for a tool?

Maybe when the Democrats get back in the Executive Branch, they should place someone as head of the department with an alias of "Braincells". lol

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