Educator Roundtable: Petition to Dismantle NCLB
If you want to sign a petition asking the Congress to do something besides just reauthorizing NCLB, here's your site. The Educator Roundtable is a group that has been started to counter the Business Roundtable's heavy influence on education law. That group started the petition. To view the Educator Roundtable site, click the link above. To go straight to the petition, click here.
A Petition Calling For the Dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act
We, the educators, parents, and concerned citizens whose names appear below, reject the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act and call for legislators to vote against its reauthorization. We do so not because we resist accountability, but because the law's simplistic approach to education reform wastes student potential, undermines public education, and threatens the future of our democracy.
The Educator Roundtable site lists 16 reasons the law should be changed. I don't think they mention the immense amount of teacher/administrator time and effort that has been wasted on paperwork rather than educating. The so-called "highly qualified teacher" problem is also given short shrift in their list of problems with the law. They don't mention any positive changes that have been associated with the law. However, if you want to register your displeasure, they've created a place to do that.
2 comments:
Yes, we have left a great deal off of the petition...we should have spoken more about the "highly qualified" point and the paperwork issue we completely glossed over...not to mention the recruitment issue. Despite a number of flaws, i'm pleased with the document.
once we have the new webpage up we'll have something for "amendments."
What, if you don't mind me asking, are the positive changes associated with the law?
Thanks for the press!
Positive changes? Most have to do with attention, I guess. Attention to student data (although it's only standardized test data in most places). Attention to some lower-achieving students. In some cases, I've seen teachers overcome their prior beliefs about groups of children.
Attention to lower-achieving students is a good thing ONLY if they get a better education, however. If they get more uninspired drill-and-kill, it doesn't help them much. If they get individualized attention to help them *understand* and learn, it's a good thing.
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