NCLB reality TV idea......put supporters of NCLB in a school for a year.

[madfloridian]

This caught my eye in an area paper's blog. The blogger lists some items from a chain mail joking about a reality show idea about NCLB.

The retired teacher in me thinks this is a great idea.

Put six of the supporters of NCLB in a school.

"No Child Left Behind" and Reality TV

Six "No Child Left Behind" supporters - three men and three women -- will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for one school year. Each will be provided with a copy of the school district's curriculum, and a class of 28 to 32 students.

Heck, one year I had 40 second graders. 28 to 32 ain't so bad. :7

Then bring the special education students who were mainstreamed because legislators said it was fine and ok and no problems.

Each class will have a minimum of five learning-disabled children, three with ADD, one gifted child and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.

One year I had four ADHD, three of whom were off medication because they were having other symptoms. Two spoke no English, and our school in a poorer district only had a language assistant once a month.

Now we add the lesson plans, curriculum objectives, daily, weekly and monthly goals, goals to handle misconduct since there is no help anymore, report cards, conferences, nightly phone calls to keep in close touch....and that is just getting started.

Each person must complete lesson plans at least three days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives, and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.
In addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and Code Red drills for shooting attacks each month.

They must attend workshops, faculty meetings and attend curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor students who are behind and strive to get their two limited-English speaking children proficient enough to take the FCAT tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show.

And then comes the most important tenet of the NCLB problem...be sure to put all the blame on the teacher.

If all students do not wish to cooperate, work or learn, the teacher will be held responsible.

Yes, that happens. Once I had two refuse to take the test which would determine my teaching skills. I had an aide for the test, she coaxed and pleaded to no avail, as I did. They sat the whole test out, with a score of zero. They grinned at us the whole time.

This blog was written by someone whose wife is a teacher. I can tell. If something like this could really be implemented, that NCLB program would be dropped in a heartbeat.

[YvonneCa]

1. The almost-retired...

...teacher in me thinks this is hilarious! And sadly true. Thanks for posting.

[madfloridian]

2. Almost retired is good.....retired is much better.

:D

[YvonneCa]

6. That IS what I...

...have been told. :7

[madfloridian]

10. And don't let them talk you into substituting.

Because they really will try. The day I retired I did not set foot back in a classroom. But then...this is Florida. :evilgrin:

[Reader Rabbit]

3. I love it!

Who goes first? I'd say Bush, but you have to think of the harm he could do to the kids.

[hootinholler]

4. kick

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. They also need to give them at least one kid who is mentally retarded

And one who is explosive and disruptive.

That is, if they want to have a real experience.

Oh and several whose parents have no phone numbers.

[YvonneCa]

7. Only one who is...

...explosive and disruptive? I've had at least two or three every year I have taught. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Yeah me too

I was just trying to make sure they would stay past lunch.

[Initech]

8. I'd actually PAY to see that!

:rofl:

[knitter4democracy]

11. This idea actually has some merit.

Think about it: take six people who go on and on about how teachers are stupid and lazy and it's all their fault, yadda yadda, and put them in the real classroom. I think this could work. I remember something one of my ed. profs always said: "Just remember, when you deal with parents, they're remembering when they were kids. They don't understand what it's like now." I think this would open some eyes.

[madfloridian]

12. It would really open some eyes.

:hi:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I LOVE that idea!

Anyone who thinks teaching is a cushy, overpaid job has never done it.

There was a newspaper columnist in Portland who used to rail against teachers all the time until some high school teachers in a suburb asked him to come and teach the school's journalism class for a week.

The first thing he learned was that teenagers don't automatically respect you. The second thing he learned was that you can't just stand up in front and bullshit, or you run out of things to say long before the hour is over. The third thing he learned about was grading 150 writing assignments at a time.

It was an extremely educational experience for him.

[madfloridian]

14. Amen...you have to earn that respect.

And from 4th grade on up, you do not use BS talking points. They will jump you.

I would love to see some of our arrogant politicisns in front of a class.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Let's see, which grade would have the snarkiest, most disrespectful kids...

:evilgrin:

[ulysses]

16. middle school.

:7

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Yes, send them to a middle school--it wouldn't have to be inner city

An affluent twelve-year-old can be a formidable creature.

[ulysses]

18. that's certainly true

(I've had adolescents from wealthy families in classes before and wanted to strangle them sometimes), but I'd really like to see your average NCLB supporter deal with the kid in the inner city who, when not allowed to leave to go to the bathroom for the fifteenth time in a day, whips it out and pisses on the bookshelf. :D

[madfloridian]

19. 6th grade is the turning point.

For real.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Agreed

We added 6th grade to elem school this year in our district and it has been interesting. We now get to deal with sex and gangs.

It's been such fun!! :sarcasm:

[WinstonSmith4740]

26. I got back into back into teaching full time this year...

I CAN NOT believe the ATTITUDE (snap!) that high school freshman girls can have!

[ChazII]

34. at the elementary

the kdg. or the 5th graders. While the kinders are not snarky, have their own set of problems. For most it is their first all day school experience. and they just shut down during the first few weeks of school.

[jazzjunkysue]

20. Tell them they can't use the bathroom until lunch or 2:30.

They won't believe it. Overheated/frozen rooms, loud noises, mold/dust, bells ringing mercilessly every 40 minutes, school lunch, no parking, parent phone calls from home all evening, report cards, overcrowding.....

Yup. Real cushy.

The best one is the new rule this year that all kids who have been in the country 12 months have to take the standardized tests in english. If too many fail, the school loses it's federal/state funding and has to do relentless paperwork. So, schools with high immigrant populations look like they're failing, and it's just because George can't close his own borders.

[madfloridian]

24. Ain't that the truth? Teachers must use the restroom on schedule only

The kids can go most anytime.

[nemo137]

21. Anyone's who's ever written a letter to the editor

Propagating the "teachers get all summer off" meme or supporting NCLB, gets to be on the show. Having been s classroom aid for 3 years now, and having had 2 generations of my family be elementary and/or high school teachers, I'm all for this.

[mwb970]

22. I don't see how any real education can get done these days.

Disrepectful, uninterested kids; uninvolved (or over-involved), clueless parents; low pay; and now the burden of bush's destructive NCLB madness. It seems that there would have to be something wrong with someone for them to purposely become a teacher now. Or is it a triumph for eternal hope?

[greenbriar]

25. oh they need to do that in a middle school

elementary would be too easy

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Does anybody know anyone who works for a network or a production co.?

I'm serious.

This sounds like a great idea for a series.

[greenbriar]

28. I volunteer my group of kids

thugs in the making ;)

[WinstonSmith4740]

29. Got this from our principal back in September.

I swear, if NCLB had been presented like this, we wouldn't be dealing with this bullshit now.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ---The Football Version

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 put 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 work out 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. It 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.

I added this one:

5. If the students who don't want to play football miss too many practices or games, the entire program will be considered not meeting AYP, and will be put on probation.

[madfloridian]

30. "every school in America by 2013 will be a failing school."

2003 Howard Dean on NCLB... "every school in America by 2013 will be a failing school."

"The president's ultimate goal," said former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.), one of the Democrats who now harshly attacks NCLB, "is to make the public schools so awful, and starve them of money, just as he's starving all the other social programs, so that people give up on the public schools."

He urged governors to reject the program.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean on Sunday urged states to reject federal No Child Left Behind funding, and said he would if still governor of Vermont.

''It's going to cost them more in property taxes and other taxes than they are going to get out of it,'' Dean told The Associated Press following a campaign stop.

And from the Columbia Political Review.

..."The federal government can declare a school “failing” if its test scores do not rise five percent every year or if certain racial groups in the school do not improve five percent each year. Under the Act, the federal government can withhold funding from any school that does not meet its standards. But most successful states rarely increase their test scores by more than one percent each year

Impossible goals, impossible standards. Setting public schools up for failure.

[Snarkturian Clone]

37. Yup. I said it from the start.

It's setting us up to fail so they can turn around in 2014 and say "see, they couldn't do it! Guess we'll have to privatize/federally control/militarize public school!"

[teacher gal]

31. Thank you for this post

madfloridian! Just a note for those who might not already be aware of the petition to dismantle NCLB by the Educator Roundtable. If interested, go to http://www.educatorroundtable.org and sign!

Also, I have a little blog I started recently where I attempt to point out the absurdities of NCLB and expose some of the disinformation about our public schools.

http://aplacetorespond.blogspot.com/

[JCMach1]

32. Better yet, give the supporting politicians the exams they voted for and publish

their scores in the public record!

[ChazII]

36. That happened in AZ

and the Superintendent of Public Instruction flunked the math as did the journalist who was covering the story. Both passed the reading and writing sections of the test.

Edited to add: this happened about 6 years ago.

[robbedvoter]

33. I know a talented, dedicated teacher who left the profession over NCLB

Someone who was able to take a class of misfits (a la Mr Kotter) and make them all feel included and participate - mostly by using music.
The administrative nightmare the NCLB rained on him was more than he could stand. He quit.
So, I say, add some spice to your TV show: pick the meanest, least redeemable teens from the whole country. Pack them in classed of 40 - and have the NCLB supporters entertain us FOR AN YEAR - with their wacky antics. I'd pay to see that (nut not for their therapy/other medical expenses)

[ChazII]

35. I'd like to see this show in the 2008 fall line up.

It should air on ABC for obvious reasons. :D

[madfloridian]

38. Looks like many Democrats support renewal, will push it.

From Education Week, requires signing in but no cost.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/02/06/22nclb.h27.html?print=1

"Democratic leaders on education said they are restarting their efforts to renew the law and plan to move quickly. But the frayed relationship between Democrats and the president over issues such as NCLB funding and accountability measures may make it hard for them to work together, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Rep. Miller said that the Bush administration had been “very critical” of the draft bill that he and his Republican counterpart released for discussion last year, and that the criticism had contributed to last fall’s postponement of work on an NCLB bill. Meanwhile, Rep. Miller’s Democratic colleagues are upset that President Bush hasn’t proposed budgets with enough money to fully finance the law, he added.

“The track record has poisoned the well with members of Congress,” Rep. Miller said in an interview.

Rep. Miller said he and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, are working to send a reauthorization bill to the president this spring. The Senate education panel is planning to mark up, or amend and vote on, a bill in March, said Melissa Wagoner, the spokeswoman for committee Democrats.

As federal legislators work to reauthorize the law, the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first passed in 1965, they face several significant policy questions. Should Congress keep the law’s goal that all students be proficient in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year? Should the law continue to rely primarily on annual test results of students in grades 3-8, and once in high school, to track schools’ and districts’ success in reaching the proficiency goal? Should the federal government underwrite teacher pay-for-performance experiments in school districts?
Congressional leaders acknowledge that it may be difficult to generate answers to all of those questions that can elicit widespread support."

And here is the page that has the Aspen Institute Recommendations. Sounds like they have the ear of Democrats. It is pdf format.

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/atf/cf/%7BDEB6F227-659B-4EC8-8F84-8DF23CA704F5%7D/MediaExecSummary_FinalPDF020807.pdf

Sadly I don't think teachers have the ear of our Democrats, and I don't think parents care. :shrug: