illustrating the lunacy behind No Child Left Behind.

Pacomc79

not sure if it's been posted before. This is a pretty good piece from an unknown to me Author providing a pretty decent look into the idiotic "education reform" program instituted by the US federal government called No Child Left Behind.

No way no how should our Federal Government ever have ANY say over local public education. This is the kind of bullshit you wind up with.

P.
_____________________________________

No Tooth Left Behind

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget
checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never
hurts me, and I've got all my teeth.

When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard
about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.
"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of
dentists with their young patients?" I said.
"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of
cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to
determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent,
good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents
will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage
the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists
who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."
"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we
should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"
"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is
practicing good dentistry."
"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't
all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we
can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high
percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my
colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the
parents I work with
don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of
problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also, many of
the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an
early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship
between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients
have well water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you
have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that
you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great
job, and you needn't fear a little accountability."
"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as
anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count
is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose
to work where I am needed most."
"Don't' get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was
clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to
damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up
being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated
patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called
rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a
dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy
patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of
that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent
dentists to my practice if it is labeled below
average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse-making
and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a
leading member of the DOC," I noted.
"What's the DOC?" he asked.
"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of
mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved"
"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't
buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you
measure good dentistry?"
"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."
"That's too complicated, expensive and time- consuming," I said.
"Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom
line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will
think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.
"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."
"How?" he asked.

If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated
excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.
"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele
to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which
I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at
all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading
schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's
progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the
community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so
unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."
I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to
write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school
analogy. Surely they will see the point."

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed
anger that I, a teacher, see in the mirror so often lately.

soulsinging

good article. id love to see the department of education disbanded.

floyd1975

soulsinging wrote:

good article. id love to see the department of education disbanded.

I am with you on this.

sonicreducer

as a soon to be biology teacher,... well, im asking for it

soulsinging

sonicreducer wrote:

as a soon to be biology teacher,... well, im asking for it

asking for what?

sonicreducer

soulsinging wrote:

asking for what?

putting up with no child left behind,...

soulsinging

sonicreducer wrote:

putting up with no child left behind,...

oh yeah... you're fucked

sonicreducer

soulsinging wrote:

oh yeah... you're fucked

ill be teaching at a blue ribbon school where 1/3 of the sophomores are driving BMW's,...


i will do my part as an individual to try and change the education system, though.

soulsinging

sonicreducer wrote:

ill be teaching at a blue ribbon school where 1/3 of the sophomores are driving BMW's,...


i will do my part as an individual to try and change the education system, though.

i wouldnt... that's a cushy assignment. id be milking it for all the perks i could. live comfortable and easy, and nail all those hot suburban girls once they come back from college all slutty.

but then im a total bastard so...

chopitdown

soulsinging wrote:

but then im a total bastard so...

i thought you were a law student...err, nevermind

soulsinging

chopitdown wrote:

i thought you were a law student...err, nevermind

i know :( im going to have to settle for secretaries and interns... *sigh* it's hard making sacrifices to pursue a labor of love (of money)

chopitdown

soulsinging wrote:

i know :( im going to have to settle for secretaries and interns... *sigh* it's hard making sacrifices to pursue a labor of love (of money)

someones gotta do the dirty work...lucky bastard

Pearl Jam and toast

We gotta get rid of that shit. Frankly there's so much wrong with our education system it's hard to know where to begin.. It's gotta be done locally though.

Like how the art program at my school's budget just keeps getting cut.. and cut.. and cut.. every year.. less and less. Last year we couldn't afford paper towels (and that was after the teachers bought nearly all of our supplies out of their own pockets). Football team got brand new equipment, uniforms, helmets.. And that was last year.. we've got less this year.

One of the two teachers went to complain to the administrative office yesterday because they keep throwing the worst most disruptive kids they can find into one her classes (that already has over 30 people in it). They told her (exact quote) "Your class is just a holding cell anyway". Those people should not be in charge of our budget. Every art teacher we get comes in hearing about how terrible our program is (east forsyth, forsyth county, north carolina..) planning on fixing it. That teacher i mentioned has been trying for 12 years and things just get worse and worse so she's quitting next year.

*sigh* :(....

dreaminincolor

i'm moving and hoping for a slightly better situation....basically hoping for a district that does not TOTALLY teach to the test as mine does now......with NCLB since everything rides on the damn tests then that is all we do drill the test which i disagree with!!....had a student last year say "why do we still come to school when we are done taking the test?"...........i just smiled...............i know i will never get away from it though....

jlew24asu

zstillings wrote:

I am with you on this.

I am totally ignorant to this issue. probably shouldnt be but why is this dept worthless (or not worth fixing) and why is the child left behind act a joke?

norm

The state of America's education system makes me sick and embarrassed.

Pacomc79

jlew24asu wrote:

I am totally ignorant to this issue. probably shouldnt be but why is this dept worthless (or not worth fixing) and why is the child left behind act a joke?

NCLB essentially forces all teachers good and bad into a corner. It forces them to create good standardized test takers so the numbers look good and god forbid someone miss that day of school the test is on. No good fundamental broad based education can be standardized. Parts of it can sure, but no student is equal, period. Every child is different, instead of giving good teachers freedom to take students who can handle more difficult subjects early on or (vise versa) depending on thier calling we force everyone into a ridiculous standard. Say you have a school with lots of parental involvement but average to bad teachers that winds up with good test scores. NCLB sends those average teachers into check on and give tips to teachers who might be doing a hell of a good job educating but thier kids have a hard time with tests and might have no parental involvement etc.
This is a political program brought about so political people can take numbers and boast about them in forums it has no roots in reality.

The Federal Government has not and will never be equipped to run schools, it makes absolutely no sense to spend the resources federally that should be invested locally and honestly up to state governments.

If you asked me what was wrong with education I'd say too much standardization not enough individual teaching, parental involvement etc., but the issues are broad reaching and cannot be handled with the stroke of a pen signing a bill what have you.

Some of the issues have to do with a poor student to teacher ratio, severe lack of dicipline due to the same and the dumbing down of the curriculum to fit the lowest achiever in the class instead of the opposite. We are more worried about self esteem than we are with them learning anything relevant to thier future lives.

One need only look to the way money is appropriated to see some of the bigger issues. The Administration is paid far far to much for what they do. (to much overhead) There is not enough budgeted (in any school system anywhere) for teacher supplies and a lot of what they have comes from thier own pocket. Give a good teacher supplies and a workable class load (around 20-1) with the ability to adequately dicipline students (goes to parents somewhat) and they will turn out some brilliant achievers we simply start them on the difficult stuff far to late.

Which brings me the problem of teachers unions. Paying for performance and skill are prevalent everywhere else, why not in education? Teachers should be individually rated and individually paid just as people in the working world are. If the federal government wants to nose into education how about granting money for teacher rating positions in each field who will rate teachers per quarter and examine all aspects of their duties and how they do them to determine raises and bonuses etc in order obviously to retain good teachers and get rid of bad ones. It's not the schools per say that are bad. It's too much money in administration, not enough supplies, not enough space for too many kids and not giving proper respect (money) to people doing exceptional work.

But to get back on your question, NCLB is a bad program because it forces schools to stick with a specific range of standardized tests and maintain a certain score level or lose funding. (and then some I'm not a teacher perhaps one would like to elaborate)

This is a narrow politically based answer to a very broad scoping problem that in the end only creates more problems. That's why it's a bad program.

cornnifer

sonicreducer wrote:

ill be teaching at a blue ribbon school where 1/3 of the sophomores are driving BMW's,...


i will do my part as an individual to try and change the education system, though.

As an individual, you will not be able to do much. You can only concentrate on making a difference in the lives of YOUR students. This is a good thing, and, i know many here don't believe me, but the vast majority of public educators feel the same way which is also a good thing. More good goes on in the public schools than many like to give educators credit for.
NCLB is definitely shit legislation, and the vast majority of educators know it. Very few educators opt into the field because they think it will be an easy job with summers off. Most are intelligent individuals who could easily choose to do something else with much more physical reward, but choose to do what they do out of a genuine desire to do something meaningful. Very few educators are happy to teach to a test. They hate it in fact. I think its important to remember that NCLB is another piece of ridiculous Bush legislation. i have confidence that when he goes, NCLB will shortly follow him. In the meantime however, teacher's jobs, and meager livlihoods are threatened if test score goals are not met. This is a problem.
A quick word of caution, i think is to temper your noble and idealistic desire to change the world with an unfortunate, yet necessary small amount of conformity. Oherwise, you will end up extremely frustrated and ready to quit even before you get fired. You can't effect any sort of change with a teaching certificate you aren't using.
One more word of caution. Try not to feel to secure in your new seemingly "cush" gig. Personally, i have seen a very wide range of students, and the "rich" kids can be a much bigger pain in the ass and alot harder to reach than the poor ones.

sonicreducer

cornnifer wrote:

As an individual, you will not be able to do much. You can only concentrate on making a difference in the lives of YOUR students. This is a good thing, and, i know many here don't believe me, but the vast majority of public educators feel the same way which is also a good thing. More good goes on in the public schools than many like to give educators credit for.
NCLB is definitely shit legislation, and the vast majority of educators know it. Very few educators opt into the field because they think it will be an easy job with summers off. Most are intelligent individuals who could easily choose to do something else with much more physical reward, but choose to do what they do out of a genuine desire to do something meaningful. Very few educators are happy to teach to a test. They hate it in fact. I think its important to remember that NCLB is another piece of ridiculous Bush legislation. i have confidence that when he goes, NCLB will shortly follow him. In the meantime however, teacher's jobs, and meager livlihoods are threatened if test score goals are not met. This is a problem.
A quick word of caution, i think is to temper your noble and idealistic desire to change the world with an unfortunate, yet necessary small amount of conformity. Oherwise, you will end up extremely frustrated and ready to quit even before you get fired. You can't effect any sort of change with a teaching certificate you aren't using.
One more word of caution. Try not to feel to secure in your new seemingly "cush" gig. Personally, i have seen a very wide range of students, and the "rich" kids can be a much bigger pain in the ass and alot harder to reach than the poor ones.

thanks for your input. i was joking about the kids with beamers, though being at a school with funds and good standards is better than being in a critical need area with no money. i also should have stated that i plan to take a conservative approach that is somewhat idealistic, but also has reasonable goals. i will be coaching track and/or football too, hopefully. my goals are simple id like to think:

become an effective teacher
help young athletes grow
move to administration and make a difference on a bigger scale

surferdude

I understand what you are getting at but the allegory lost all power when it said "Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work." School is mandatory from a very young age.

cornnifer

sonicreducer wrote:

thanks for your input. i was joking about the kids with beamers, though being at a school with funds and good standards is better than being in a critical need area with no money. i also should have stated that i plan to take a conservative approach that is somewhat idealistic, but also has reasonable goals. i will be coaching track and/or football too, hopefully. my goals are simple id like to think:

become an effective teacher
help young athletes grow
move to administration and make a difference on a bigger scale

Sounds like you have it all figured out
A sincere good luck to ya. Fight the good fight.