| February
14, 2004
"Is our
children learning"
By Erika
Robles/HispanicVista.com
In order to answer
Bush’s widely quoted question:
“Is our children learning?” we
need to take a closer look at how public
schools are performing and how they have
been affected by the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act. The Act makes the most
sweeping change in decades in the role
federal and state governments play in the
nation’s schools.
While the ideals advocated in NCLB are
commendable, the realities of the Bush
plan are not. It imposes strict and
expensive mandates on public schools. A
recent study by the New Hampshire School
Administrators Association estimated that
even with the funding increases that the
Bush Administration is providing to fund
the Act, the federal government will give
New Hampshire schools only about $80 per
student, while costing the state $575 a
student to implement NCLB. According to
the House Appropriations Committee,
Bush's 2004 budget under funds the act by
$9.7 billion, leaving local communities
— many already facing severe budget
gaps — to make up the difference.
(The budget also eliminated funding for
rural education, gifted-and –talented
programs, small schools, and technical
education.)
On the other hand, the NCLB Act requires
that at least 95 percent of all students
enrolled in a school district take a math
and reading test. For the 2003-2004
school year, each grade level must have
at least 45 percent of the students at
the proficient or advanced level in
reading and 35 percent at the same level
in math. (Every state must set a standard
for the reading and math performance of
its students. Students who meet or exceed
that standard are considered proficient)
In addition to the above items, the
Junior-Senior High school must maintain a
graduation rate of at least 95 percent or
higher to make Average Yearly Progress
(AYP). Schools that fail to make AYP in
any of the above areas are put on a list
for a warning, school improvement or
corrective action.
Nobody argues that performance standards
aren’t good. But when those
standards fail to take into account the
realities of teaching children with
disadvantages – economically
disadvantaged, language barriers,
minorities, children with special needs -
fails to fully fund the federal mandate
and judges adequate progress using a
one-size-fits all formula, the neediest
children will certainly be the ones left
behind. Special education kids, for
instance, have to take these standardized
tests prepared for their age level,
rather than their “mental age”
or IQ. Also, the performance of
economically disadvantaged groups must be
compared to students who are not
economically disadvantaged. And the Bush
Administration pushing the testing has
reneged on the funds needed to help these
kids through testing and assist schools
full of kids facing the academic
hardships created by extreme poverty.
Educators know and research confirms the
types of programs which can close the
education gap: highly qualified teachers
and para-educators; sound professional
development; early childhood programs;
all-day kindergarten; small class sizes
in the primary grades; highly involved
parents, guardians and community;
mentoring and tutoring; and quality
summer programs. These services and
programs will make a difference in a
child's ability to meet and exceed NCLB
and established state achievement
standards; but there’s no funding
for such programs. Instead, schools
identified as “failing” or
“in need of improvement” get
sanctioned and Title I funds are further
reduced.
“Identify
schools as failures, order them to
improve, then take away the money that
will make improvements possible,”
said Houston of the American Association
of School Administrators.
The assumption of the NCLB system is that
the test results represent what an
educated person should know and be able
to do. Few would say that an educated
person only has high test scores. Most
would say good scores are desirable but
not sufficient to define an educated
person. Most would say that schools must
also produce good citizens, strong family
members, contributors to society, and
people engaged in democratic governance.
None of these characteristics are
measured by or deemed of importance in
the federal accountability system.
"You teach a child to read, and he
or her will be able to pass a literacy
test,'' Bush said (Townsend, Tenn., Feb.
21, 2001). One just needs to pay
attention to Bush’s grammar to know
that scores alone don’t mean you are
an educated person.
_____________________________________________
Erika Robles, a contributing columnist to
HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),
is a writer and translator now living in Eugene,
Oregon. She was educated in Mexico City; London,
England; and Melbourne, Australia.
Contact at: erikare77@hotmail.com.
Web page: http://www.geocities.com/oakspublishing
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