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Valerie Strauss: Why So Many People are So Angry At Arne Duncan
- 25-9-09
- Categorized in: EducationNews Today, K-12 EducationNews, No Child Left Behind - EducationNews
Why So Many People are So Angry At Arne Duncan
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s speech today about the future of No Child Left Behind explains why people who had hoped that President Obama's education team would make a clean break with "No Child Left Behind" are angry.
Duncan called today for changes in the NCLB law that sparked an era in which high-stakes standardized tests drove K-12 education.
But he sounded less like he had seen the real folly in NCLB and more like someone who thinks “tougher†standards will solve what ails many public schools. He said:
“Until states develop better assessments.... we must rely on standardized tests to monitor progress – but this is an important area for reform and an important conversation to have.
“I also agree with some NCLB critics: it unfairly labeled many schools as failures even when they were making progress -- it places too much emphasis on raw test scores rather than student growth -- and it is overly prescriptive in some ways while it is too blunt an instrument of reform in others.
“But the biggest problem with NCLB is that it doesn’t encourage high learning standards. In fact, it inadvertently encourages states to lower them. The net effect is that we are lying to children and parents by telling kids they are succeeding when they are not.â€
Duncan should know better than to declare that the biggest problem with NCLB is that standards weren’t high enough. We can have the highest standards in the universe, and they can have no affect on achievement if the school environment around them is unhealthy--and if kids being taught the standards don't eat properly, can't see well and don't get enough sleep.
NCLB did not improve student achievement because its prescription for reform--high-stakes standardized tests and a sanctions regime that penalized schools for failing to raise test scores--has nothing to do with the way students learn or real academic achievement.
Standardized test scores alone are not valid indicators of how well anybody does their job--not a teacher and not a student. Researchers have shown this over and over, yet policymakers continue to ignore the evidence.
So far, Duncan has made clear that he plans, at least for now, to continue the use of standardized tests that we know are driving teachers to narrow curriculum, to continue NCLB’s sanctions regime, and to pay and evaluate teachers based on student test scores.
Duncan now presides over a $4.35 billion “Race to the Top†fund that is giving out grants to school districts that propose reforms that the education department approves.
Among the things the department has said it will be looking for are plans that tie teacher evaluations to standardized test scores and a push for more charter schools--even though there is no evidence that charter schools are by and large any better than the traditional public schools in their neighborhoods. (Yes, some are, but many aren’t, and it is unclear why Duncan would want to base any policy on such an uneven record of success.)
Andrew Coulson, director of the non-profit Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, wrote today:
“In light of the abject and expensive failure of federal intrusion in America’s classrooms, it is irresponsible for the Secretary of Education to assume without debate that this intrusion should continue. Cutting all federal k-12 education programs would result in a permanent $70 billion annual tax cut."
The sorry state of education affairs has persuaded some educators to change their minds about key education issues. Author Diane Ravitch, a former education official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush and a research professor at New York University, wrote this week in the blog that she writes with progressive educator Deborah Meier, Bridging Differences:
“I have only recently recognized the ways in which pressure to raise scores, mainly prompted by NCLB, has corrupted testing and accountability.
Our policymakers have fallen in love with the idea that incentives and sanctions can "drive" educational improvement. They believe that if we promise rewards when test scores go up, we will see test scores go up. So they commit hundreds of millions of dollars to give "merit pay" or "performance pay" to teachers and principals, even to students—if the scores rise. Simultaneously, they threaten to inflict serious sanctions on those schools, principals, and teachers if their students’ test scores do not go up. They don’t dock their pay, but do something worse: They threaten to close their schools, fire the staff, and tarnish the reputation of anyone who taught there.....
“I fear that American education has now entered into a twilight zone, where nothing is what it appears to be, where numbers are meaningless, where public relations and spin take the place of honest reporting, where fraud is called progress."
Many people were hoping that Duncan would lead K-12 education out of this twilight zone. So far there aren’t many signs that he will.
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While I'm offering my uneducated opinion of the intentions of NCLB, I can tell you it was the beginning of the end for a family member (who should have been saved by it.) In fact, it destroyed our entire family forever. The premise was a good one...but it quickly met up with corruption on the part of the school system. It's easy to do well on the stats if you can successfully make conditions impossible for struggling students (to tolerate.)
Was anybody measuring how many students began and completed each school year? Did they wonder "why?" Where did they go? Did anybody  keep an eye on detentions and suspensions? It's a little known method of dealing with NCLB. It's more "NCL."
Does anybody look into the over crowded jails where (we read) the population is comprised of  mostly "mentally ill" inmates?You can maybe interchange that with "ADHD" and/or the comorbidities (hidden LDs like auditory and language processing disorders.) It needs to be reworded "The jails are over-crowded with those who were deliberately failed by the school system." They would have fared better (left behind,) than at the mercy of corrupt school districts. Nobody wants to use the money for the ones with true, hidden disabilities, or work with students with types of ADD . They just get rid of them...via alternate ed or suspension. I have heard the district still gets "credit" if the student goes on to acquire the GED. Courts mandate it.......and those who are STILL suffering with LDs are faced with more humiliation and failure. In my experience, the courts do not check the juvenile's educational history, nor do they order educational evaluations. They order "behavior programs" and/or the GED. LDs go unsupported. Strengths remain hidden...weaknesses define you and punishment and failure are the ultimate results.
If a person who can't see, is told he is excused from reading Ivanhoe, but should read "Fun With Dick and Jane" instead, how does that person feel when he fails? If you don't attend GED classes, you are non-compliant and you will not pass "GO." You will be forever lost in the system. I might be doing a disservice by saying this but, IN THIS TYPE OF SITUATION...GOING FOR THE GED IS TEACHING TO THE TEST. They are not learning how to "learn" They have nothing with which to move forward....IF they truly have LDs, they will interfere with every aspect of daily living. There will be no "pursuit of happiness," there will only be intense fear of what the next day will hold, or how to get through the present one.
In the lower grades; do parents know their children (in NCLB programs) are to be receiving evidence-based programs taught by certified sped teachers? I'm guessing "no."
The premise was good; the system is corrupt. Complaining it's about " teaching-to-the-test" is time wasted. It's like spending time dissecting what "is" is. Too much effort, time and money is spent on "how to avoid" the real intent of NCLB.
Our family member went to school so eager for the adventure. He had tremendous ability...but was suffering from hidden disabilities. He was being left behind, he was struggling and being punished daily (for not working to his ability.) Each year he was left furthur behind...each year he was humiliated and the punishment got harsher. Words used to describe him turned ugly. It's easy to place a kid at the edge of the cliff..........and our district was proficient in their ability to secure that placement.
Our family member has a superior IQ, and has completed eighth grade. He fought admirably, but he's sitting in jail today. He doesn't know how to be an adult, so he's punished for that failure. He had no experience/transition. He has an eighth grade education because the district failed him. But to the wordl, he's an unemployed, school dropout. He was described as a "disruptive, defiant, truant" when he was made to leave school. If you look at his paperwork; "defiant" was for not having the proper books (materials) and "disruptive" was for arriving to class late, or talking out. When you stand before a judge with all that written about you....and you have no idea what to do about it (no idea what IS wrong with you)..You stand there without the ability to process and respond on demand..... you don't honestly know what you did to be so despised. The judge thinks he/she sees that "defiance." It's over.....good-bye to the American dream and hello to the "mentally ill" prison population.
You would not believe how fast and easy the process is. Keep the focus on the corrupt school system...don't look away for a second.
 Valerie Strauss deserves a gold star for this article. She has accurately described the despicable harm wrought by NCLB, as well as the way Arne Duncan is viewed by teachers. Back when Vice President Biden was campaigning for the Presidency he said that "NCLB should be left BEHIND." I wonder if Biden has changed his mind (doubtful, considering his wife is a teacher), or if his opinion no longer counts.
As a teacher and educator, I understand that the NCLB has many flaws. However, the education system brought the NCLB on themselves by not being honest about what students were really learning…. All the public heard was glowing reports while students were being given diplomas despite the fact that they couldn’t read and write. Finally, people (or government) said enough is enough!
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Duncan is right when he says that one of the problems is that states have set low standards. Many states have shown massive gains on their state exams while showing little or no improvement on any other outside measures. I don’t totally fault the states for this problem however…. If you tell me that you will give me a raise if I improve my work habits and then allow me to define what those improvements will be, I guarantee you that I will define those improvements as something that will give me a raise…..duh!Â
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If schools had been honestly evaluating students throughout their educational careers we would have never had the NCLB in the first place. As it is, schools still pass students on no matter what they know. This finally catches up to students when they have to pass a high stakes test in order to graduate. Most of these high stakes tests are based on a 10th grade level…. Unfortunately, many kids enter high school many years behind this level and have no real chance of passing any high stakes exam.  The NCLB is forcing schools to deal with this problem for the sole reason that the schools refused to even acknowledge this problem much less do anything about it.Â
Come on! This is how we got into this bind. We simply don't want to believe that parents are not providing a learning environment for many of our kids.
Why do so many of our special ed and ADD students come from homes where the flat screen takes priority over a book and the Wii is a given?
The idea that education is the pathway to success is clearly missing for a great number of kids and is fruther nurished by schools that do not impose consequences for continued belief in this?
"Compassion" has overtaken any other objective in our schools which have become juvenile social halls with attached teenage playgrounds.
If education was taken seriously we would find that achievement of NCLB standards wouldn't be much of a problem. As it is, sports, electronic diversions, and "relationships" have overtaken Trigonometry.
Does this happen in Sinapore, Taiwan, Korea or Finland? I doubt it.
When kids understand that achievement is number one priority and their "happiness" and "satisfaction" with school is of little concern we can re-enter the developed world's education race.
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Charles,
This sounds like a pet peeve of yours. Like many pet peeves, it may be very satisfying to you, but it may or may not have much much to say about what is actually going on. Special education is meant to serve students with many different kinds of learning disabilities and physical disabilities. It's a huge challenge and one that many schools and school districts are not up to, but not for the reason you give. Blaming blindness, auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention problems, autism, traumatic brain injury, developmental delays, etc, on TV or video game usage doesn't make much sense to me. Slinging pet peeves around is operating off of prejudice. Aren't you really saying that disabled students wouldn't have a problem if only they had the correct attitude (like you?)? That hardly contributes to the discussion at all.
After reading all responses to this article, I have to say that NCLB definitely needs to go. Children with disabilities should be given accommodating work to show progress. Elementary children need at least a 10 minute break in the morning to release their own tensions. When elementary starts at 8:15 a.m. and their first break from learning isn't until 11:30 a.m. That's an awful lot of time sitting and trying to understand your lesson for that day when you are 8 years old. I get frustrated when school districts punish a child for not being able to follow along, or can't do 80 math problems in 2 min. If my child knows his addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts why should it matter how fast he can write them. Let me see our political parties sit and do this facts in 2 min. Children will constently drop out of schools if the amount of testing does not stop. They also will not be able to retain without 10 or 15 min. breaks to release the energy that builds up while they are sitting. Not only do our children get the standardized tests, but they take the 4 sight at the beginning of school, then again in the spring, and followed with standard tests. China doesn't test this much. Why do we? And while I'm ranting, schools complain that they don't get parent support. Well, I know of parents who have been very supportive. They have noticed that in kindergarten their children are not reading where they should be to get into 1st grade. When they bring it up to school officials they hear "wait and see how next year goes." When that year comes and their child still isn't meeting levels they hear that speech again. Well we as concerned parents are sick of it. We have children who can accomplish own their own. We have children who have IEP's and they have to push educators to help their students meet their goals. Some educators are not following those IEP's, and then we wonder why Jack is in detention for not finishing his math work again, when IEP says to cut problems in half and teacher did not do that.
I know none of what I wrote makes sense to a lot of people, but when I get emotional about what I need to say everything comes out. A lot of run-on sentences, but hey I can read. That was all they worried about. Schools don't push for grammar anymore. Nor do they push for history, social studies, science, or geometry. I know 5th grades who don't know what county, city, or sometimes state that they live in. I know students who don't know what a continent is or that France is a country and not a state. Lord help these children when they get older.Â