Gov. Richardson OPED: NCLB fails our schools

[seasat]

His article was published in USA Today in opposition to an OPED by the USA Today editorial board that called for renewing NCLB with some changes.

I have a one-point plan for No Child Left Behind: Scrap it.
...
Just look at the facts. The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows a slight narrowing of the racial achievement gap over the past three years. This narrowing, however, is due to a decline in overall reading scores, not to improvements in minority student performance.
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We need to move beyond the empty rhetoric of No Child Left Behind. We must provide our public schools with what the National Education Association refers to as the three R's — Responsibility, Respect and Resources.
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True education reform requires more than a set of unfunded mandates and a list of failing schools. It requires a vision for success, the state and federal funding to match, and the experience to bring real reform to America's failing schools.

Richardson will provide even greater details on his education plan in a policy speech in a couple of weeks. He's already got quite a few details such as calling for national minimum wage for teachers, college loan forgiveness in exchange for national service, and increases in arts and science programs.

Both my wife and mom are teachers. I'm currently working as a research assistant finishing up my PhD in oceanography. I've heard plenty of first hand horror stories about NCLB here in Florida.

The local public schools used to contact us to speak to science classes. However there have been dramatic cutbacks in science courses due to the need to teach to the NCLB tests in reading and mathematics. One professor reported that they were told that science classes were cut to one day a week in most elementary schools. We now rarely get calls to speak.

My nephew,when he was preparing for the 3rd grade achievement tests, became so worried that he started throwing up. We're putting so much pressure on young kids that we're making them sick.

The St Pete Times recently had an article on how the state test had a 8% increase in 3rd grade reading scores the year before followed by a 6% decline this past year. Apparently a single high stakes test is not as accurate as they thought. Testing is important but to accurately classify a student's progress you need more than a single test that is mostly multiple choice. You need a teacher's input and other factors to gauge their overall academic progress.

Florida has used the NCLB bill to move kids out of public schools and into private schools by offering tuition for kids in failing schools. Fortunately the FL Supreme court ruled that they couldn't offer tuition for religious private schools. Few of the secular private schools were willing to accept tuition as low the cost of educating kids in public school so most of them were religious.

The state didn't require private schools that accept these vouchers to test all their kids under the FL FCAT. They tested the voucher students but never published the data. Apparently allowing kids to attend private schools that can hire unaccredited two year associate degree teachers didn't produce a significant boost in their achievement. Who could have imagined that?

I could rant on about NCLB for pages and have in my 5 years here on the DU. I'm with Richardson, scrap the whole thing and put in place a more sensible strategy that emphasizes critical thinking skills instead of being able to do well on a single multiple choice test. I've been against the NCLB bill since it's inception. It's not fair to the students or teachers.

[bluestateguy]

1. it's too bad we don't have elections for Secretary of State

I'd vote for him.

[LWolf]

2. Governor Richardson has my heartfelt thanks, and

enthusiastic support for this oped, and for this stance on public education.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[countingbluecars]

3. Wow!

Governor Richardson tells it like it is.

K&R