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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 30597
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 10:48 pm: | 
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No Child Left Behind Worsened Education, 48 Percent Of Americans 'Very Familiar' With The Law Say In Gallup Poll
Huffington Post
Aug. 21, 2012
More Americans think No Child Left Behind has made education in the U.S. worse rather than better, according to results from a Gallup poll released Monday.
Of those surveyed, 29 percent believe the Bush-era education law has worsened education in America, compared with just 16 percent who said it has improved the system. Another 38 percent said NCLB hasn't made much of a difference, while 17 percent are not familiar enough with the policy to rate its effectiveness. Of those who say they are "very familiar" with the law, 28 percent say it has made education better and 48 percent worse.
 Another decade of hope-ium sold to the public with no improvement. That makes 40 years in a row. Until you end classroom instruction, no amount of brilliance or effort can possibly produce dramatic improvements. Still, I'll bet lots of people are fired up for Common Core Standards, teacher evaluations and merit pay. Billions more for boondoggles.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 30457
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 7:23 pm: |
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States With Education Waivers Offer Varied Goals
By MOTOKO RICH / NEW YORK TIMES
July 27, 2012
In excusing more than half of the states from meeting crucial requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law, the Obama administration sought to require states to develop more realistic tools to improve and measure the progress of schools and teachers.
A report being issued on Friday by the liberal Center for American Progress shows that while some states have proposed reforms aimed at spurring schools and teachers to improve student performance, others may be introducing weaker measures of accountability.
“The increased flexibility of the waivers means that some states will experiment and move ahead,” said Jeremy Ayers, associate director of federal education programs at the organization, “while others may backtrack.”
They will ALL backtrack. "More realistic" is a euphemism for backtracking.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 30363
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2012 - 10:51 pm: |
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‘No Child’ Law Whittled Down by White House
By MOTOKO RICH / NEW YORK TIMES
July 6, 2012
In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 30211
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 6:34 pm: |
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State wins federal school waiver
No Child Left Behind act eased as unrealistic federal rules end; focus put on improvement
By Rick Karlin / Albany (NY) Times Union
May 30, 2012
ALBANY — Starting in September, New York's poorest-performing schools will be called "priority schools," while those making the most progress will be "reward schools."
Well, I certainly expect the media and teachers to falsely call "priority schools" failing schools just as they falsely called "schools in need of improvement" "failing" under NCLB. It's incredible the rhetorical assault that the media and educators used to sabotage NCLB.
School districts that need to improve will be called "focus districts."
In addition, schools will to some extent be freed from the goal that all students are "proficient" in reading and math by 2014, as outlined in the original No Child Left Behind act, now more than a decade old.
Most importantly, failing schools will have more flexibility in how they spend money on efforts to improve academic results of students, with a new emphasis on getting parents involved and taking a district-wide approach.
The changes are detailed in a NCLB waiver that New York and seven other states were granted Tuesday, bringing to 19 the number of states that have gotten more flexibility from the 2001 school accountability law. Another 18 states are under review for waivers; no state has been denied.
"The waiver lets New York move away from NCLB requirements that were unproductive or unrealistic," state Education Commissioner John King said in a statement.
From the outset, NCLB has drawn criticism for what educators said was the stigmatization of poorly performing schools and overly prescriptive solutions that were required to fix them.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in a phone conference to announce the waivers, said the original law included "one-size-fits-all" mandates that proved unworkable.
New York received a waiver by proposing a number of alternative improvement plans, including efforts to show that schools are instituting college- or career-readiness programs.
Also playing a role was the new teacher evaluation system the state has adopted, albeit with some controversy, as part of its application for federal Race to the Top grants.
Part of the evaluations include looking at student test scores at the start and end of a school year. And rather than looking at the absolute scores by students, the waiver will emphasize how much youngsters in a school or district have improved over time.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 30209
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 5:49 pm: |
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Any State With the Right Reason
Nineteen states now get a pass on No Child Left Behind.
A WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial
May 29, 2012
What do you call a federal law from which 19 of the 50 states have been formally exempted? That would be the No Child Left Behind Act, the 2001 law passed by bipartisan majorities that is now disowned by both the left and right.
On Tuesday, the Obama Administration continued its administrative rewrite of the statute by adding eight more states to the 11 it had already exempted from the law's main requirements. "These states are getting more flexibility with federal funds and relief from No Child Left Behind's one-size-fits-all mandates in order to develop locally tailored solutions to meet their unique educational challenges," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.
Locally tailored solutions, flexibility with federal funds, no more one-size-fits-all mandates—sounds as if Mr. Duncan has had a mind-meld with Jim DeMint. Alas, no.
The law's expectation that 100% of students meet certain standards in math and reading by 2014 was unrealistic and needed to be changed. But Mr. Duncan is mainly responding to pressure from teachers unions that hate No Child Left Behind because its testing standards and transparency have let millions of parents know for the first time how truly rotten their child's school is. He's also exempting only those states that accept the Obama Administration's priorities (such as core national standards) that it couldn't get through Congress. This is faux federalism.
No Child Left Behind served a purpose in raising expectations for all schools and even the poorest students, but its accountability provisions are now in jeopardy. Better to return education cash and control to the states and drive reform with universal school choice in which the money follows the child.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 29520
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 12:05 am: |
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NCLB does just what it should do
An Albany (NY) Times Union Letter to the Editor
February 23, 2012
The No Child Left Behind Act has been successful. More than 90 percent of teachers were "highly qualified" under NCLB standards set by the states, according to a 2007 American Institutes for Research report.
Parents, have you seen your children's report cards this year? Have you compared the results to last year or, say, three years ago?
You should notice a difference and shouldn't some of that improvement be attributed to No Child Left Behind?
This act was established to improve students' educations, and it has. Students don't really have a say in their educations. Some don't care. But I say — as a student — students have to care; it's their future.
This law will be coming to a close in 2014. Ten states are already off the hook. That just can't happen.
We should be protesting for the betterment of education. I realize there are hardships, but adjustments should be made to make the law meet academic needs.
Students, parents, teachers, President Barack Obama: If you care about education, get this law renewed and improved for generations to come.
REBECCA CATELLI
Ballston Lake
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 29469
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2012 - 6:11 pm: |
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1325 SCHOOLS AND 123 DISTRICTS STATEWIDE
IDENTIFIED FOR IMPROVEMENT
UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER OF SCHOOLS ADDED TO LIST
NYSED Press Release
November 10, 2011
A total of 1325 elementary, middle and high schools and 123 districts statewide have been identified for improvement under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Of the identified schools, 1173 will receive Title I funds in 2011-12 and are required to offer extra help to eligible low-income students; 416 of these Title I schools must also offer public school choice (as appropriate) to all enrolled students.
S-G's middle school made the list. Every school that made the list deserved to be on it years ago. But the state finagled testing, statistics and grading to keep schools off the list, most for the sake of educator morale.
Every one of these schools needs improving, and can be improved, but, of course, the state wants to be exempted from NCLB, so things can go back to normal and people can feel good about mediocrity.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 29399
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2012 - 10:54 pm: |
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New Jersey among states to have No Child Left Behind education requirements lifted
By Jessica Calefati / Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger
February 09, 2012
TRENTON — The Obama administration has freed New Jersey and nine other states from the requirements of a sweeping federal education law that was widely criticized for labeling some of the state’s top school districts as "failing."
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The 5 percent of schools with the lowest test scores would be deemed "priority," and another group with low graduation rates or wide achievement gaps would be considered "focus." The state’s best schools would be called "reward." Many schools would not be in any category.
Notice what this is really about. It's NOT about improving all the schools that need improvement, but about putting a 5% cap on the number of schools that will be deemed sub par. It's a system constraint. 5% is all the state can handle at once regardless of the quality of education in the other 95% of school districts.
Do you think this is a plan to "improve" academic outcomes? Or is it a plan to avoid pejorative labels?
And look at the labels given to schools -- priority, focus and reward. All euphemisms. Education departments don't want to give the public any hint of any idea that the schools it sends children to are substandard. They don't want to give parents any idea that they should be thinking long and hard about placing their children in other schools. It's just as you would expect. A scam.
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Staff writer Jeanette Rundquist contributed to this report.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 29395
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2012 - 10:35 pm: |
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Student testing not make-or-break with state's No Child Left Behind waiver
By Nancy Badertscher / Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Feb 10, 2012
All the NCLB waivers have 1 consistent goal -- to take the NCLB "needs improvement" label and turn it into a "reward school" or A+ school for exactly the same performance. It's all about manipulating perceptions and practically nothing to do with improving student outcomes.
Student test scores won't be pivotal to how schools are rated now that Georgia has been allowed to opt out of federal No Child Left Behind requirements.
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Schools often complained their reputations were tarnished by a single test -- the CRCT in elementary and middle schools and the graduation test in high schools. Those tests were a key factor in whether a school made Adequate Yearly Progress, the main benchmark of achievement under No Child Left Behind.
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A key piece of Georgia's plan is a college and career readiness index. The state needs another year to develop the specifics of the index, which is why Georgia's waiver is deemed conditional, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
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Under Georgia's plan, the state will move to a five-star rating system for schools. Schools and districts also will be graded on a 100-point scale that includes measures such as graduation rates, test scores and how many student take advanced placement classes.
You can bet your bottom dollar that 95% of school will be deemed sufficiently rigorous and that the quality of education outcomes will barely budge.
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Staff writers Kristina Torres, Jaime Sarrio, Ernie Suggs and Wayne Washington contributed to this report.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 29010
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 4:16 pm: |
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Education law’s promise falls short after 10 years
Kimberly Hefling, AP Education Writer via the Boston Globe
January 07, 2012
The No Child Left Behind education law was cast as a symbol of possibility, offering the promise of improved schools for the nation’s poor and minority children and better prepared students in a competitive world.
Yet after a decade on the books, President George W. Bush’s most hyped domestic accomplishment has become a symbol to many of federal overreach and Congress’ inability to fix something that’s clearly flawed.
The law forced schools to confront the uncomfortable reality that many kids simply weren’t learning, but it’s primarily known for its emphasis on standardized tests and the labeling of thousands of schools as “failures.’’
Why put the pejorative in quotes when it is factually false. The law's haters said it labeled schools as failures. The truth is it labeled schools as "in need of improvement," which is factually unassailable.
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Associated Press writer Dorie Turner in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Online:
Background on the law: http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 28896
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2011 - 10:26 pm: |
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Report: Half of Schools Fail Federal Standards, Duncan Blames ‘No Child Left Behind’
The Blaze via Yahoo! News
Dec. 15, 2011
ATLANTA (The Blaze/AP) — Nearly half of America‘s public schools didn’t meet federal achievement standards this year, marking the largest failure rate since the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Law took effect a decade ago, according to a national report released Thursday.
The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools – or 48 percent – did not make “adequate yearly progress” this year. The failure rates range from a low of 11 percent in Wisconsin to a high of 89 percent in Florida.
The findings are far below the 82 percent failure rate that Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted earlier this year but still indicate an alarming trend that Duncan hopes to address by granting states relief from the federal law. The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal.
“Whether it’s 50 percent, 80 percent or 100 percent of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken,” Duncan said in a statement Wednesday. “That‘s why we’re moving forward with giving states flexibility from the law in exchange for reforms that protect children and drive student success.”
NCLB labels NO school as failing. If anyone is incorrectly labeling them failing, it's the press and Arne. NCLB labels schools as being "in need of improvement." That's accurate for at at least 95% of the schools in the nation. Yet, the politicians refuse to hold educators responsible for perpetuating a system of classroom instruction that robs both students and taxpayers. So, children will continue to be left behind while politicians hold onto their votes from the education lobby.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 28748
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 9:53 pm: |
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Schools officials: State list of those needing improvement is 'insulting'
Written by Gary Stern / White Plains (NY) Journal News
Nov. 19, 2011
New York school accountability list
Local school officials are highly critical of New York’s fast-growing list of schools in need of improvement, contending that the system is unfair to schools with many non-English-speaking students and students with disabilities.
“It is borderline insulting to our school district,” said Deborah Gatti, president of the North Rockland Board of Education, which has four schools tagged as needing improvement. “We do wonderful things and spend good money to help every child, especially if they’re not doing well. But this system punishes us and doesn’t serve a purpose.”
The insult that public schools not only don't recognize that they need to improve, but they also deny it! In what kind of system is dealing with multiple languages too big a task to deal with? In a system that clings to the classroom instruction model rather than create the computer programs needed to rapidly and effectively serve these students while eliminating teachers as instructors. The public schools are doing the best they can with the model they use. They don't deserve to be condemned for that. They need to be condemned for perpetuating an outdated, inefficient teaching system that can't possibly meet modern needs at reasonable costs.
In truth every school in the state is in dire need of improvement. Where is the public school educator who will admit that?
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Statewide, the number of schools on the list is soaring from 536 in 2010-11 to 1,325 this year. A state report refers to the increase as a “tsunami.”
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 28564
Registered: 01-2000
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - 11:51 pm: |
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At long last, New York says it will jump on the NCLB waiver train
by Geoff Decker / Gotham Schools
Oct. 17, 2011
ALBANY — New York is joining the vast majority of states seeking to escape some of the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The Obama administration announced in August that it would offer states a chance to skirt some of NCLB’s strictest provisions, including the one that requires all students to score proficient on state tests by 2014. Last month, federal officials fleshed out the requirements and states lined up to apply — 39 so far, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. New York seemed to be a strong contender but officials here had not said until now whether the state would seek a waiver.
Today, state education officials announced that they plan to file a waiver application by the federal government’s second deadline, in mid-February.
Between now and then, a “think tank” of representatives from nearly two dozen education organizations will advise the State Education Department on its application, officials said today during a meeting of the Board of Regents. The think tank — whose members come from teachers unions, advocacy groups, reform organizations, and rural and urban school districts — have met twice already to plan and will discuss substantive issues for the first time when it convenes on Wednesday.
Ira Schwartz, the assistant commissioner in NYSED’s accountability office, will oversee the application process.
New York already meets many of the waiver requirements, including adopting college and career-ready standards, officials said today.
What good are standards when testing practices pass students as if standards didn't exist?
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