NCLB+Amended?+What?

> =By Timothy D. Slekar= > =//Published in the Huffington Post//= > =//4/26/11//= > > = = > = "Last month, Mr. Duncan predicted that by the end of this year, 82 percent of schools will miss their goal. At this rate, it is highly likely that in a few years, every single public school in the United States will be labeled a failure." Michael Winerip, In Public School Efforts, a Common Background: Private Education, April 18th, 2011, New York Times = > = "Now we have a new federal administration, and it has proposed doing away with the 2014 deadline for proficiency. Surely, that's a good thing, no?" Phillip Harris, Bruce M. Smith and Joan Harris. "The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do," Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (January 16, 2011) = = = = = = = =NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!= =I know this is going to sound a bit irrational considering the positions I have taken against standardized testing, but I can assure you that I do know what day, month, and year it is.= =That said, I don't want No Child Left Behind revised. Leave it alone! Please don't mess with perfection. To be even more specific, do __not__ amend the 2014 deadline for proficiency. No waivers. If Republicans and Democrats amend the law, then it will allow the disaster of NCLB and the market-based reform movement to escape the spotlight of failure.= =On January 1, 2014 I want to stand back and watch when all the major media outlets cover the story: 100 percent Proficiency Not Achieved. Now What?= =Imagine how reformers will spin this disaster? You can't spin a sham. All the people that predicted the failure will finally be vindicated. The so-called defenders of the status quo will get to say out loud, "We told you so!"= =I can also imagine children, teachers and parents finally saying,= > ="Enough is enough. Leave us alone. Go away and allow our communities to get back to the real mission of educating our nation's children for a productive life in a //democratic society//. You took our schools away from us for //13 years// and just about destroyed them. We are taking them back. Do your job and run our country -- not our schools. From what we see going on you all have plenty of work to do."= = = =NCLB amended? What? Doing so would just permit more federal intrusion and allow the reformers to continue to push market-based reforms on public schools. Amending NCLB will //allow// the reformers to "keep kicking the can down the road." It will allow the continued dismantling of one of the greatest American ideas -- public schooling. Parents, teachers, and children continue to speak up! They are listening. Make the government and corporate reformers admit failure.= = =

=//Timothy D. Slekar is Head of the Division of Education, Human Development and Social Sciences, Penn State Altoona//= = = =//**Follow Timothy D. Slekar on Twitter: [| www.twitter.com/slekar]**//= = =

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