Progress of Schools
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In mythical Lake Wobegon, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
Or at least that's what public radio personality Garrison Keillor says every week on "A Prairie Home Companion." That bit of would-be humor never made much sense to us. And neither does No Child Left Behind, the federal education act that seeks to establish the patently impossible goal of seeing to it that all public school students will be performing at or above their grade level by 2014.
Clearly, if every kid passes a particular test, then you might as well say nobody passed it. To attempt to meet the goals of the well-intentioned but seemingly rather silly legislation is to chase after the wind - and to worsen the already unfortunate trend of "teaching to the test."
Test Scores Held Even
This time around, only three schools in the Moore County system - Academy Heights Elementary, Cameron Elementary and Pinehurst Elementary - achieved "adequate yearly progress" on end-of-grade tests. That's down from 12 last year. And the system as a whole also failed to qualify.
That's bad news, supposedly - though the only reason we look as if we ran less yardage last year appears to be that they've moved the goal posts on us.
In Moore County, in fact, our public school students appear to have held their own on their test scores, compared to last year, though the numbers haven't been released yet. That's good news. But our schools still did much worse under AYP.
Why? Because the rules keep changing. You may be doing as well as or better than last year, but that's not enough. After all, the year 2014 is drawing nearer, and time will soon be running out to achieve that statistically meaningless, Wobegonesque milestone that sees every child in every school performing at or above average.
Unrealistic Expectations
Some suspect that No Child Left Behind, enacted during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, is a conservative plot to set the public schools up for a fall. That theory holds that when 2014 rolls around and the public education system has failed to measure up, it will give a boost to those lawmakers pushing for alternative programs like charter schools and vouchers.
We'd rather believe that NCLB has a legitimate goal of improving education in America. But by the way it goes about doing that, it often seems to succeed only in demoralizing most of those involved by means of its unrealistic and unfair all-or-nothing nature.
If a school can still perform well and still not make AYP, then what good is the whole exercise? Nobody seems to know - least of all our own Superintendent Susan Purser, who has trouble disguising the frustration the whole thing causes her and her colleagues.
The ideal of leaving no child behind sounds as American as apple pie. Who is against encouraging every student to progress? But as now set up, the program does not appear to be meeting the need for which it was ostensibly created. And the Obama administration has hardly lifted a finger to make sense out of it.
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Comments
TreadLightly 1 year, 9 months ago
A “Public” government school system is the cornerstone of the Progressive (socialist) movement. (Consult anyone from Karl Marx on down.) The William Ayers type bombers of the 1960's are now in "education." Ayers made more than four trips to Venezuela to help Chavez with his "education" system.
"No Child Left Behind" is the Cloward-Piven approach to the honest education of our children. The only thing, some children DON’T WANT TO GO! As these kids are mainstreamed into the class room, leaving two deep heel marks in the ground and while the system drags them against their will, they are dragging down the WHOLE SYSTEM. They disrupt, disturb and distract from the kids who want to learn and grow.
We can no longer doubt that government schools have dumbed down our kids. You may argue whether it is intentional or not, but the facts are obvious. Too many kids can't read, can't balance a check book, can't do entry level college work and very few know any U.S. history more than 150 years back. Too many have no values and too few learn to think. They are set up for socialism, and programmed against free markets.
When we old codgers got out of school, we knew that the free market would pay us according to our education, skill, persistence, ingenuity and investment in our dreams. Enough kids developed these qualities to keep our nation afloat.
Training kids to fit into the highly regulated (even nationalized) markets discourages all of those qualities, as well as incentives. Sports and classrooms alike promote a “fair” approach, and do not provide extensive rewards to those who excel.
Three simple issues explain why a mom with a high school degree can sit at the kitchen with two or three kids and outperform the government schools—CURRICULUM, DISCIPLINE and ENCOURAGEMENT OF EXCELLENCE. Is it too much to ask to bring these back to the government schools, and restore God to his rightful throne.
[Don't bother the school board with these issues. They have "administrative" duties, and have no control over anything else.]
teufelhunden 1 year, 9 months ago
TreadLightly-THAT WAS A GREAT POST! Thanks.
invmc 1 year, 9 months ago
Spot on. The age of technology is a great thing, but I realized there was an big problem when I handed my 14 yr old son an encyclopedia, told him to look up something, and he had no idea how to use it.
pgericson 1 year, 9 months ago
Could he have found the same answer quickly on the internet without your help?
invmc 1 year, 9 months ago
Yes he could have, but I had given him a particular assignment to complete for me because he had got in trouble. Part of the assignment was to collect his information from books, newspapers, etc. and no use of the internet. Dont misunderstand me, he's very proficient with computers and the internet, as he should be in this day and age, but I just feel like sometimes we as a society are getting away from the basics.
ProudPatriot 1 year, 9 months ago
Why use the paper version when everything is just about available on internet these days at your fingertips? Yes, he should know how to use an encyclopedia, but really, how difficult is it? I find it hard to believe that a 14 year old boy could figure it out.
What's going to happen when books, newspapers, encyclopedias, etc ... are no longer published? Do you consider that "getting away from the basics"? I don't. Welcome to our world. We soon won't have books --- we have kindles. Newspapers are slowly dying out --- it's all available on the web. Encylcopedias? Really? Do they even print them still?
invmc 1 year, 9 months ago
I agree with you 100 percent. I was just trying to get him to utilize some alternate resources.
invmc 1 year, 9 months ago
Exactly. You took the words right out of my mouth. Case in point, Wikipedia.
Bflat 1 year, 9 months ago
I never let my schooling interfere with my education. --Mark Twain
TOYTIME 1 year, 9 months ago
Neal Boortz, has often said that if you send your kids to a "government school" rather than a private one, if you can afford the private one, you're guilty of child abuse. I'm certainly not prepared to agree with that, but I see his point. We just enrolled our child in Sandhills Classical Christian School, mainly because of the academics. Their MEDIAN 4th graders are testing at average 8th grade levels in both math and reading skills. Our tuition costs are less than what NC spends per student in public schools. While we have to sacrifice in order to afford to send our son there to us it is well worth it. How is it, that a small private school can accomplish so much, with a lot less than public system that has a huge bureaucracy and teachers union to support it?
Arestorer 1 year, 9 months ago
You just answered your own question...
TOYTIME 1 year, 9 months ago
yep
Alistener 1 year, 9 months ago
TEACHERS HERE DON'T HAVE A UNION!!!!!! Legislators and administrators can do whatever they want to and teachers can't complain or they get fired. Will you please get your facts straight before you condemn? And think about what you just said: OF COURSE a small school with small classes and individual attention will achieve more - just like in a small family. In larger schools, like larger families, there isn't so much attention for each child. Please stop hammering on this worn-out "bad teacher" argument. By far, most teachers are kind, love their students, and work ungodly hours to help them. The public only hears the negative stuff ad nauseum until the public thinks that's all that goes on. Let's try judging another profession with the vitriol used on education. Let's legislate how doctors can treat their patients - everybody is herded into a room and given the same treatment regardless of the illness. Crazy right? And no doctor would support that. SAME WITH TEACHING. Teachers know that the current system has flaws - but they work miracles everyday anyway!!!
love2teach 1 year, 9 months ago
Bureaucracy is the problem! There is no teachers' union in North Carolina. The most frustrating part of working as a teacher is to hear, from many different arenas, what should be happening in the classroom. The common thread among all of us is that we have had experiences in a classroom somewhere, so we automatically feel we are experts on what should be done for students. Now, I am not saying this is a bad thing--children should have many advocates. However, the 2 biggest advocates they should have are their parents AND their teachers. Unfortunately, teachers and parents are the last to be consulted when determining what is best for their students.
Alistener 1 year, 9 months ago
Amen, amen, amen! You are so right, love2teach!!!! When will the public realize that sitting in a garage doesn't make you a car? Attending school 20-30 years ago doesn't mean you know anything about teachers and education. AND TEACHERS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES DON'T HAVE A UNION!!!!!! Yes, unions and union contracts in other states are often counter-productive and I don't agree with all that they do. But teachers in the southeastern states endure things you wouldn't believe - and they can't talk about it because...yes, you guessed it, they don't have a UNION to protect them! Teachers who try to gain fairness and equity are simply ELIMINATED.