Wth? Bush lies about No Child Left Behind, Too!

I don't believe that the Bush administration did this on purpose I believe that this, like a lot of what goes on in this administration is due to "an intelligence failure" :lol: Seems like the majority of the U.S. population is joining the rest of the world in understanding just who's intelligence has failed...

 

Hey. I wholeheartedly support any and all attempts to subvert NCLB. Hopefully, all states will find these loopholes and it will be rendered a lame duck.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ghostofjk @ Apr 20 2006, 05:50 PM) [snapback]242819[/snapback]</div>

I have to say that you're the first teacher I've come across that supports NCLB. In my (rather extensive) conversations with teachers, I've found that most think that it squelches their creativity and makes them "teach to the test." However, all I have is second-hand knowledge, so I definately respect your opinion that it'd be a "good thing" if properly funded.

 

My wifes a teacher, she does not think the NCLB is a good idea. She teaches special ed, and these children have severe learning issues and still have to take the states FCAT tests.... I get to hear the bitching everytime the FCAT rolls around

 

Most teachers would agree that education needs restructuring, improving, adjusting, whatever.

But...NCLB isn't the solution. Neither is standardized testing.

Our current educational system is based on a way of life that no longer exists. Our students do not need July and August off so they can help the family with the harvest. Neither do our graduates go on to work on assembly lines. Public schools were designed to provide just enough education for a worker to work sucessfully on an aseembly line or in a factory. Schools are no longer teaching what a 21st century graduate needs. But the system hasn't changed with the need. And the WAY information is taught is extremely outdated. Standardized testing and NCLB does nothing to address the problems.

Sure plenty of educational professionals can't agree exactly what can be done. But I'll tell you what's not going to happen.

Class sizes. Teaching the same thing to every child in a classroom of 35 is cheap. It's efficient. And it's ineffective. But it's not going to change because the taxpayer isn't going to pay to cut classes in half. It was good enough to provide workers for Henry Ford....it's not good enough for Bill Gates.

Instructional methods. Currently teachers spew out information in a lecture style format, students then regurgitate it back on a test. Sometimes if you're lucky some learning takes place in between. It has very little to do with the real world. When you work in an office, you look up things, you talk with co-workers. No one has to memorize formulas and equations, they have to know how to use them. If you don't you ask someone who does. That's how the real world works. We live in an "on demand" world. We can't afford the luxury of a "just in case" education.

I know of no job that requires you to bubble in circles on a form all day. I'm sure if Lil' Abner were still in the comics, he'd be bubbling in bubbles instead of being a mattress tester. So a great deal of class time is being wasted on a skill that has no practical application.

But again....neither the government nor taxpayers are going to pay what it takes to change schools from lecture/vomit to guide and explore. You'd need more teachers, more buildings and much lower class sizes. You need different schedules, different materials and resources. Teachers would need more freedom to meet the individual needs of each students rather than one size fits all. Again....lower class sizes. You'd also need to keep current with technology like businesses do. No school can afford to replace their computers every 18 months as they do in the private sector. Or even every 2 years. Or 3 years. Or 4 years. Or 5 years. My school's computers are 6 years old or older. They are Macs running classic 9 and there is no wireless in the school. In fact...the classrooms only have one ethernet port...for the teacher's computer. Why? Because they have to take attendance online.

But the biggest problem is up beyond managment. Yes, the top down model of educational management is also obsolete and less than effective. But up beyond the administrators and superintendent is a Board of Education making decisions about how students are taught. These are usually amateurs. They are elected by the community and for most the only experience they have in education is as students. They've never taught a class. They've never taken any classes about teaching, curriculum or educational philosophy. They're housewives, salesmen, lawyers, whoever has free time and visions of a political career. They serve a few years on the school board, then move on to City Council, State Assembly and then maybe Congress. Boards of Education are also an archaic throwback to a time when teachers were teenagers that had graduated from school and hadn't gone out into the real world to work, or married yet. They didn't know anything about budgets so the local business men had to make decisions. And up beyond them are politicians at the State and Federal level making laws without any background, education or expertise in education. In fact, they will intentionally ignore experts in the field if those experts are opposed to any aspect of what they plan to implement. Because popularity with voters is more important. An even larger group that knows nothing about educational practice.

It is such a huge, archaic, ineffective system in desperate need of restructuring. NCLB is designed to kill public education, not fix it.

Think of it this way. If you have a system that is failing, if you make that system more efficient you only have a more efficient failure. You have to change the system.

Teachers are working harder than ever, in many cases for less than they've ever had. I have fund raisers to buy books for the library because my budget is 0, and it's going to be 0 next year too. But no matter how well teachers do...there is no way to meet NCLB standards because they are quite simply impractical.

Example. Special Education students will NEVER be at grade level. If they were at grade level they wouldn't be in Special Education. They are put in Special Education because they cannot work at grade level for many different reasons. And there is nothing a teacher can do about many of those reasons. What are you going to do about it? Legislate that there will be 20% fewer students with dyslexia every year? That's like making a law that every year there must be an increase in blue-eyed Americans until 80% of the population has blue eyes.

Put simply....it's stupid.

Most teachers would agree that education needs restructuring, improving, adjusting, whatever.

But...NCLB isn't the solution. Neither is standardized testing.

Our current educational system is based on a way of life that no longer exists. Our students do not need July and August off so they can help the family with the harvest. Neither do our graduates go on to work on assembly lines. Public schools were designed to provide just enough education for a worker to work sucessfully on an aseembly line or in a factory. Schools are no longer teaching what a 21st century graduate needs. But the system hasn't changed with the need. And the WAY information is taught is extremely outdated. Standardized testing and NCLB does nothing to address the problems.

Sure plenty of educational professionals can't agree exactly what can be done. But I'll tell you what's not going to happen.

Class sizes. Teaching the same thing to every child in a classroom of 35 is cheap. It's efficient. And it's ineffective. But it's not going to change because the taxpayer isn't going to pay to cut classes in half. It was good enough to provide workers for Henry Ford....it's not good enough for Bill Gates.

Instructional methods. Currently teachers spew out information in a lecture style format, students then regurgitate it back on a test. Sometimes if you're lucky some learning takes place in between. It has very little to do with the real world. When you work in an office, you look up things, you talk with co-workers. No one has to memorize formulas and equations, they have to know how to use them. If you don't you ask someone who does. That's how the real world works. We live in an "on demand" world. We can't afford the luxury of a "just in case" education.

I know of no job that requires you to bubble in circles on a form all day. I'm sure if Lil' Abner were still in the comics, he'd be bubbling in bubbles instead of being a mattress tester. So a great deal of class time is being wasted on a skill that has no practical application.

But again....neither the government nor taxpayers are going to pay what it takes to change schools from lecture/vomit to guide and explore. You'd need more teachers, more buildings and much lower class sizes. You need different schedules, different materials and resources. Teachers would need more freedom to meet the individual needs of each students rather than one size fits all. Again....lower class sizes. You'd also need to keep current with technology like businesses do. No school can afford to replace their computers every 18 months as they do in the private sector. Or even every 2 years. Or 3 years. Or 4 years. Or 5 years. My school's computers are 6 years old or older. They are Macs running classic 9 and there is no wireless in the school. In fact...the classrooms only have one ethernet port...for the teacher's computer. Why? Because they have to take attendance online.

But the biggest problem is up beyond managment. Yes, the top down model of educational management is also obsolete and less than effective. But up beyond the administrators and superintendent is a Board of Education making decisions about how students are taught. These are usually amateurs. They are elected by the community and for most the only experience they have in education is as students. They've never taught a class. They've never taken any classes about teaching, curriculum or educational philosophy. They're housewives, salesmen, lawyers, whoever has free time and visions of a political career. They serve a few years on the school board, then move on to City Council, State Assembly and then maybe Congress. Boards of Education are also an archaic throwback to a time when teachers were teenagers that had graduated from school and hadn't gone out into the real world to work, or married yet. They didn't know anything about budgets so the local business men had to make decisions. And up beyond them are politicians at the State and Federal level making laws without any background, education or expertise in education. In fact, they will intentionally ignore experts in the field if those experts are opposed to any aspect of what they plan to implement. Because popularity with voters is more important. An even larger group that knows nothing about educational practice.

It is such a huge, archaic, ineffective system in desperate need of restructuring. NCLB is designed to kill public education, not fix it.

Think of it this way. If you have a system that is failing, if you make that system more efficient you only have a more efficient failure. You have to change the system.

Teachers are working harder than ever, in many cases for less than they've ever had. I have fund raisers to buy books for the library because my budget is 0, and it's going to be 0 next year too. But no matter how well teachers do...there is no way to meet NCLB standards because they are quite simply impractical.

Example. Special Education students will NEVER be at grade level. If they were at grade level they wouldn't be in Special Education. They are put in Special Education because they cannot work at grade level for many different reasons. And there is nothing a teacher can do about many of those reasons. What are you going to do about it? Legislate that there will be 20% fewer students with dyslexia every year? That's like making a law that every year there must be an increase in blue-eyed Americans until 80% of the population has blue eyes.

Put simply....it's stupid.

 

I thought it was "No Child with a Big Behind" program. :huh:

 

Ghostofjk,

I can't believe you thought I was serious when I said I didn't think the Bush administration did this on purpose. I'm taking 10 points for not reading the whole post. It should be obvious from reading the full post what my true feelings were. Not that I would ever believe that gentlemen like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. would ever lie to the American public

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Apr 20 2006, 09:42 PM) [snapback]242924[/snapback]</div>

My best friend is a public HS teacher, I've heard many of these very issues discussed time and time again. I summed it up this way:

No one gives a crap about public education as there is no immediate money to be made off it.