Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Killing No Child Left Behind
Killing NCLB in 2007
17 Reasons Why NCLB Must Go
By Jamie McKenzie
About Author
Congress must decide in 2007 whether to reauthorize NCLB/Helter-Skelter or let it die and replace it with a new law that makes sense.
The law is so badly flawed, it cannot be fixed. It is a wreck. It is un-American in its basic principles, relying upon fear, intimidation, threats and punishments in ways that would make Stalin happy. NCLB is the very kind of big government "state planning" that we were taught would be the downfall of the Soviets.
We need a new law with a focus on capacity building and encouragement rather than testing, fear and punishment.
Recent polls show growing public disillusionment with regard to NCLB's claims and promises.
See The 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools at
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpollpdf.htm
A National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) study of the experiences and perceptions of more than 2,000 literacy educators (April 2006) shows that among these teachers charged with implementing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 76% believe that the Act has had at least a somewhat negative influence on teaching and learning in English/reading classrooms.
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/chron/highlights/125383.htm
Pure Evil?
The Ed Secretary's recent comparison of NCLB to Ivory Soap showed a remarkable ignorance of the damage this program is doing to children, especially to disadvantaged children of color - the very children who were meant to benefit from the law.
Simple-minded right wing ideologues might be happy that 30% of the schools in Jeb Bush's state of Florida are judged failing by NCLB, but most of the world views these failures as remote from being good news or progress. Unless your purpose is to destroy the public system, NCLB ends up looking more like pure evil than Ivory Soap.
As mentioned above, the recent Gallup Poll reports that a majority doubts that NCLB has done any good. It is a policy lunge that must be reversed by the new Congress to be elected in November. Like Iraq and Katrina, NCLB is an example of monumental governmental failure - a set of policies and initiatives that have worsened the quality of life and damaged the prospects of many.
Seventeen NCLB Failures
1. Disappointing Results
2. Failing Schools
3. Lack of Quality Teachers
4. Lowering of Standards
5. Narrowing of Curriculum
6. Ignoring of Children
7. Fear, Shame and Threats
8. Bad Tests
9. Fake Results
10. Educational Triage
11. Factory Style Learning
12. Loss of Best Teachers
13. Loss of Future Teachers
14. Loss of Morale
15. Drop Outs and Push Outs
16. Reduction in Time for Learning
17. Stagnation
17 Reasons Why NCLB Must Go
By Jamie McKenzie
About Author
Congress must decide in 2007 whether to reauthorize NCLB/Helter-Skelter or let it die and replace it with a new law that makes sense.
The law is so badly flawed, it cannot be fixed. It is a wreck. It is un-American in its basic principles, relying upon fear, intimidation, threats and punishments in ways that would make Stalin happy. NCLB is the very kind of big government "state planning" that we were taught would be the downfall of the Soviets.
We need a new law with a focus on capacity building and encouragement rather than testing, fear and punishment.
Recent polls show growing public disillusionment with regard to NCLB's claims and promises.
See The 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools at
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpollpdf.htm
A National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) study of the experiences and perceptions of more than 2,000 literacy educators (April 2006) shows that among these teachers charged with implementing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 76% believe that the Act has had at least a somewhat negative influence on teaching and learning in English/reading classrooms.
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/chron/highlights/125383.htm
Pure Evil?
The Ed Secretary's recent comparison of NCLB to Ivory Soap showed a remarkable ignorance of the damage this program is doing to children, especially to disadvantaged children of color - the very children who were meant to benefit from the law.
Simple-minded right wing ideologues might be happy that 30% of the schools in Jeb Bush's state of Florida are judged failing by NCLB, but most of the world views these failures as remote from being good news or progress. Unless your purpose is to destroy the public system, NCLB ends up looking more like pure evil than Ivory Soap.
As mentioned above, the recent Gallup Poll reports that a majority doubts that NCLB has done any good. It is a policy lunge that must be reversed by the new Congress to be elected in November. Like Iraq and Katrina, NCLB is an example of monumental governmental failure - a set of policies and initiatives that have worsened the quality of life and damaged the prospects of many.
Seventeen NCLB Failures
Read details and evidence.
1. Disappointing Results
2. Failing Schools
3. Lack of Quality Teachers
4. Lowering of Standards
5. Narrowing of Curriculum
6. Ignoring of Children
7. Fear, Shame and Threats
8. Bad Tests
9. Fake Results
10. Educational Triage
11. Factory Style Learning
12. Loss of Best Teachers
13. Loss of Future Teachers
14. Loss of Morale
15. Drop Outs and Push Outs
16. Reduction in Time for Learning
17. Stagnation
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Real ID No Need
Briefcase Sized DNA Analysis System
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 26, @10:15PM
from the portable-paternity dept.
from the portable-paternity dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Japan's NEC Corporation along with Aida Engineering have developed a briefcase-sized DNA analysis system that enables the police to perform comprehensive DNA testing at crime scenes in as little as 25 minutes. The same test would take at least a day to a week (if re-testing or conformation is required) in the lab. The system is compact enough to be carried to crime scenes or other locations where quick DNA analysis is required, making it the world's first portable DNA analysis system."
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