Beside the moronic testing demands of the American Schools, Bush ADVOCATED for the inclusion of "I thunk it up" (click here) as a science. It's theology. There is absolutely no scientific proof available and even with funding there is no scientific proof available in this imagineering by the Neocon Republicans that simply WANT Americans dum as doornails to service one purpose and that is the aggressions of the military. Why have a scientific community 'inhouse' in the USA when everything can be outsourced and the political rhetoric that guarantees 'the opiate' of the American people as the most Godly Christian Righteous people stay intact.
There is a method to the madness that has beset the American people. Dumbing down Americans insures their grateful indulgence of an aggressive military.
CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE
...The across-the-board success standard demanded by the law is politically attractive. It seeks to ensure that no student is allowed to languish because of economic, ethnic or racial reasons, nor because of disabilities or language barriers. Indeed, for too long, schools in poor and minority communities did not receive the attention they deserved.
But the notion that all students will reach proficiency is simply folly -- what UC Berkeley Professor Bruce Fuller calls "well-intentioned pie-in-the-sky."
In almost any social science experiment, perfection is unattainable unless the bar is set too low. If every student succeeds, we haven't demanded enough of our students.
Moreover, the standard encourages states to game the system. Under No Child Left
Behind, the definition of proficiency and the design of the tests to measure it are left to the individual states.
Consequently, states are rewarded for keeping standards low because it allows them to claim greater success. One study this year found that Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan generally set the lowest bar, while South Carolina, California, Maine and Massachusetts have the highest.
To the extent that No Child Left Behind has jump-started our K-12 schools, it's because of a shrinking measuring stick rather than academic gains....
Empowering Teacher Unions prevents tragedies such as "No Child Left Behind." The strongest and best educational advocate a child has is the teacher at the front of the classroom taking pride in how the student is achieving. We are a good country, full of work-a-day people that believe in the profession they practice. I don't care if one is a teacher, a preacher, a common laborer, when it comes to having pride in their professions all take notice of each other and the community of piers they seek to be a part.
If Teacher Unions were strong and intact across this nation they could have easily stood up 'in masse' to the legislation that would come to hurt the best outcomes of their students, causing a failure chain proven to be at the top of the chain in high school graduating classes falling in achievement on SATs.
The 'landscape' of the American Colleges and Universities will be institutions unable to find candidates qualified for their programs while turning to open more seats to foreign students willing to serve as teachers and medical workers in the USA to satisfy enrollment costs. The current and present 'task' for educational institutions Pre-K through PhD in the USA is to stop the escalating costs by demanding DC to return much needed dollars to the function of all schools and to hold the line on academic achievement realizing the damage done to the American student. Not to rollback achievement standards, but, to report regularly the standing of the students and perhaps needed remediation to return function to the American student.
Why Teacher Unions Are Good for Teachers and the Public (click here)
They Protect Teachers' Rights, Support Teacher Professionalism, and Check Administrative Power
By Diane Ravitch
We live in an era when leaders in business and the media demand that schools function like businesses in a free market economy, competing for students and staff. Many such voices say that such corporate-style school reform is stymied by the teacher unions, which stand in the way of leaders who want unchecked power to assign, reward, punish, or remove their employees. Some academics blame the unions when student achievement remains stagnant. If scores are low, the critics say it must be because of the teachers’ contract, not because the district has a weak curriculum or lacks resources or has mediocre leadership. If some teachers are incompetent, it must be because of the contract, not because the district has a flawed, bureaucratic hiring process or has failed to evaluate new teachers before awarding them tenure. These critics want to scrap the contract, throw away teachers’ legal protections, and bring teacher unions to their collective knees....
Teacher Union Members are people, too.
AFT Members Hit by Wildfires in Southern California (click here)
Contributions are urgently needed for the many AFT members across Southern California who have suffered devastating losses in the state's recent wildfires. More than a dozen fires have scorched communities from San Diego County to north of Los Angeles, leaving neighborhoods looking like "moonscapes" and "hell on earth," AFT eyewitnesses report....
The current Secretary of Education, Margaret Spelling, wants to taylor make the American School System to 'fit' the needs of business. No more free lance anything. No more scientific investigation for the 'simple knowledge' of it all. No more literary writing for whimsy. No more 'thought experiments' unless it is to serve A PRACTICALLY to society. In other words, ONLY RIGHT BRAIN thinking allowed in the USA and ONLY within the religious context of The Religous Right !
U.S. Education Secretary Spellings Meets with Business Leaders, Touts Success of Dunbar Magnet School (click here)
No Child Left Behind is Working and Should be Reauthorized by Congress this Year
FOR RELEASE:February 22, 2007
Contact: Katherine McLane, Trey Ditto(202) 401-1576
More Resources
Photos
Tampa, FL — Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings discussed with business leaders, teachers, students and parents the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act and its reauthorization this year.
The No Child Left Behind Act shines a spotlight on the nation's achievement gap and works to ensure that every child in America, regardless of race, income or zip code, receives a quality education.
In a roundtable discussion with local business leaders, Secretary Spellings commended the business community for their important role in ensuring America's students are prepared for college and the workforce.
"For the business community, competitiveness is a critical issue; especially considering the private sector is the largest consumer of talent coming out of our nation's schools," Spellings said. "With 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs requiring post-secondary education or training, a college degree has never been more important."...
