No Child Left Behind – It’s What We Suspected All Along
In an article written by Claudia Wallis for the June 8th issue of Time Magazine, Susan Neuman, the former Assistant Secretary for Elementary & Secondary Education during George W. Bush’s first term, reveals that NCLB served as a Trojan horse for the school choice agenda and a way to expose the failure of public education. She states, “There were a number of people pushing hard for market forces and privatization.” While she and a number of others argued that many schools would fail to reach the NCLB goals and needed more flexibility while making improvements, they were ignored.
The current Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has modified the NCLB approach to school accountability by going to the ‘growth model.’ Ms. Neuman says, “Going to the growth models is the right way to go. I wish it had come earlier. It didn’t because we were trying to be too tough. Vilifying teachers and saying we are going to shame them was not the right approach. There’s so much anger that it (NCLB) might not be fixable.”
In Case You Missed It
According to a new report from the International Institute of Management Development, the United States is still the world’s most competitive economy. The World Competitiveness Year Book for 2008 rates such factors as economic growth, quality of life and enviornmental responsibility. It ranks 55 economies based on more than 250 criteria. The rankings are based, in part, on an annual survey of top and mid-level executives in 55 countries.
Twenty years ago, Japan topped the ratings -before the financial crisis of the late 1980′s and ’90′s. China’s ranking fell to #17 from #15 this year because of higher inflation and the fast-growing economy’s strain on the environment. But Brazil’s ranking rose to #43 from #49 in 2007.
Selective listings are below:
US #1 in 2008, In 2007: #1
Singapore #2 in 2008, In 2007: #2
Hong Kong #3 in 2008, In 2007: #3
Canada #10 in 2008, In 2007: #8
Netherlands #8 in 2008, In 2007: #10
Germany #16 in 2008 In 2007: #16
United Kingdom #20 in 2008 In 2007: #21
Japan #24 in 2008 In 2007: #22
India #27 in 2008 In 2007: #29
Korea #29 in 2008 In 2007: #31
Spain #30 in 2008 In 2007: #33
Philippines #40 in 2008 In 2007: #43
Brazil #49 in 2008 In 2007: #43
Mexico #47 in 2008 In 2007: #50
South Africa #50 in 2008 In 2007: #53
This should not be an opportunity to gloat. Here in the United States, the conservative media enjoys criticizing the school’s when negative news appears. But when Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat discusses the globally competitive world and that India and China have become more globally competitive, we need to realize that American schools have kept America globally competitive.
What the headlines do not tell you.
The “Diploma’s Count 2008″ report (www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/06/05) criticizes the schools in its Executive Summary by stating, “About 71 percent of 9th graders make it to graduation four years later, according to data from 2005, the latest available. And that figure drops to 58 percent for Hispanics, 55 percent for African-Americans, and 51 percent for Native Americans.” These figures have made the national and local news media.
What has not been reported is the following quotation from the Executive Summary: “Those rates improved slightly from 2004 to 2005 for all groups.”
I do not have a problem with negative reports about schools in the press and a 71% graduation rate is nothing we should be jumping for joy about. But I would like all of the evidence reported.
National Dropout Prevention Center’s National Conference, Atlanta, GA
| November 16, 2008 12:00 pm | to | November 19, 2008 12:00 pm |
2 Sessions
“Helping Students Graduate: Tools & Strategies To Help Students Graduate
Today, almost one-third of our K-12 students never graduate – increasing the likelihood of their imprisonment, single parenthood, poverty and the use of alcohol and drugs.
Using the 15 effective strategies developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center and tools developed as “best practices” by some of America’s outstanding schools and programs, workshop participants will not only learn what to do but how to aid at-risk youth to graduate.
Presenting on the topic, “From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do”
- How do school leaders build school cultures that diminish the likelihood of children dropping out of school?
- What are the determinants of school success
From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do,
Based upon Franklin Schargel’s recent book, From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do, this seminar will bring together the wisdom and experience from over 50 schools that have been categorized as “high performing, high minority, high poverty.” Mr. Schargel will show us how the leaders of those schools succeeded in raising academic achievement, motivating students, boosting parent and community involvement, and applying the Three R’s””Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.
Educational Service Center, Region 17, Lubbock, TX
| August 5, 2008 |
“Helping Students Graduate: Tools & Strategies To Help Students Graduate
Today, almost one-third of our K-12 students never graduate – increasing the likelihood of their imprisonment, single parenthood, poverty and the use of alcohol and drugs.
Using the 15 effective strategies developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center and tools developed as “best practices” by some of America’s outstanding schools and programs, workshop participants will not only learn what to do but how to aid at-risk youth to graduate.
National Staff Development Council (NSDC), Orlando, FL
| July 14, 2008 | ||
| 9:30 am | to | 11:30 am |
Presenting on the topic, “From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do”
- How do school leaders build school cultures that diminish the likelihood of children dropping out of school?
- What are the determinants of school success?
Based upon Franklin Schargel’s recent book, From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do, this seminar will bring together the wisdom and experience from over 50 schools that have been categorized as “high performing, high minority, high poverty.” Mr. Schargel will show us how the leaders of those schools succeeded in raising academic achievement, motivating students, boosting parent and community involvement, and applying the Three R’s””Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.
Session B21- Tuesday, 9:30 -11:30
New Report from Centers for Disease Control on Risk Taking Students
We know that our non-traditional students take greater risks than traditional students. In a report issued by the the CDC, these facts are confirmed.
The study is the latest in a series of survey of US high school students taken every two years. The findings come from a survey of about 14,000 high school students. The 2007 data showed higher rates of risk-taking by Hispanics in several areas.
Hispanic students were more likely than either whites or blacks to attempt suicide, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, or use cocaine, heroin or ecstasy. About 10 to 11 percent of Hispanics said that they attempted suicide, compared with around 17% of whites, and 9% of blacks. The report noted that black and white students are reporting less sexual activity than in previous years but there was no decline among Hispanics. Hispanics also most often drank alcohol on school property, were offered or sold illegal drugs, and occasionally skipped school because they feared for their safety.
Whites reported the highest rates of smoking and heavy drinking, while blacks reported the highest rates of obesity, violence and sexual activity.
New Dropout Report Issued
The 2008 Diplomas Count Report was issued today by “Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the people who publish Education Week. The report is revealing for those in the United States. It shows that U.S. Public High Schools are losing 6.829 students per day. (This works out to 171 school buses, per day, loaded with children dropout in a 180 school year.) The state of California, which educates the most students, is losing 900 students per day. Texas is losing 656 per day while North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming are losing 10 or less. You can visit your state’s results by accessing (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/06/05/40sgb.h27.html).
Take the time
Educators know that the school year has time built in to recharge batteries. As summer approaches, you need to take some time for yourself. Turn off your internal clock. You do not have to get up at an unearthly hour. Your do not have to time your physical functions around your break or lunch.
Take this time to read the book you have been promising yourself you would read. Get to know your husband/wife/children. Play some golf. Take a vacation. Or simply do nothing!
You’ve earned the time. Now spend it. Enjoy yourself.
Hope to see you back here soon.
Something to Remember From Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Writes:
We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better.
I’d really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.
I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.
I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.
And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.
It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.
I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.
I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he/she wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s/ she’s scared, I hope you let him/her.
When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him/her.
I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.
On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.
If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.
I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.
When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.
I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.
May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.
I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he or she is not your friend.
I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma and Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.
May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.
I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hanukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.
These things I wish for you – tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life.
Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I’m here for you. And if I die before you do, I’ll go to heaven and wait for you.
Please do send this to all of your friends. We secure our friends, not by accepting favors, but by doing them. A friend sent this to you didn’t she? Be a friend pass it on!
