It is hard to believe that I have had no time to write since early September. Life has been a blur. School is going well, love that American Studies class, after three months of antibiotics my staph (yup, the one in the newspapers that claimed a few thousand lives last year or year before) is gone (my wife is a much happier individual, come to think of it I am also), don't hear that NCLB is going away soon enough, finished my second Donald Miller book, which I highly recommend (Searching for God Knows What).
The school where I teach received its annual "report" card from the state, we failed to meet adequate yearly progress again. Our "sub-groups" just can't make grade level on their tests. Imagine that, a child identified as having learning difficulties can't score at grade level. 2014 is fast approaching America, ALL children have to be testing at grade level or we all fail. Here is your news flash, (reporters, I won't even ask for credit for being the first to break the news) it isn't going to happen. It never would have happened in our past, it isn't going to happen in our present and it sure won't happen in the future. NCLB is a poorly thought out program, I am all for accountability, reasonable accountability, say, a little tougher than the type that allowed a president to commit perjury and avoid prosecution or even tougher than the type that allowed a president to lead us into war over weapons of mass destruction that were never found (I know, they 're in Syria). I want the same accountability that our representatives have when they spend us so deep into debt that China (who controls vast amounts of our debt dollars), using lead-based paint, can get the CEO of an American corporation to admit on television that it was really all his fault.
my youngest son said that space periodically helps when reading a blog, here is your "space"
I have come to believe that this really was all a ploy by those who want federally funded vouchers, but wait, latest studies show that low achieving kids placed in high achieving private schools really don't score any better. What! There could be another reason than poor teachers?? It, it might, just might be that home environment has something to do with test scores? As Gomer Pyle said, "Golllllllllyyyyy!" You mean, growing up in a home where reading was modeled, family vacations were periodic, mom and/or dad were usually stable, worked, and brought home money might influence how well students do on standardized tests? We, as Americans, deserve to be slapped in the face (each cheek! Twice!) for allowing the largest intrusion into states terrain in recent history. I won't even address the fallacy of local school control because I fear too many school board members really believe they have a say in how their local school runs.
Space again
Those who are losing in this process are our students, I truly believe they are experiencing test strain. I know we, in the Social Studies, are losing ground because our subject isn't tested. How do you appease all ethnic groups in 40 to 50 questions covering ALL of world history? I know, you pick a huge voter group in your state, say. . . Armenians in California, and you quick introduce a resolution calling something that happened in Turkey, a few years ago, genocide. Where are the NCLB people to announce the Democratic leadership as "failing to make yearly progress" in using their brains? The nation finally wised up and pronounced the Republicans as "failing to make yearly progress" on controlling their spending spree and voted them out of control of Congress. What did we replace them with? Another group of failures, and these are the people who say educators aren't doing their jobs and if you don't do your job so that your students meet "adequate yearly progress" the teacher loses their job. What about our representatives losing their jobs? Balanced budget in 4 - 6 years or all of you are gone!! A 5% annual reduction in the deficit for the 4 - 6 years or out they all go! Social Security, a plan implemented within 4 - 6 years or all of you are gone!! All! Every member of the House gone one year and the next year (don't want to have too big of a shake-up) every member of the Senate. GONE! The next year the president, yes, could mean mid-term elections, so what, we want results, data-driven results. Measurable! Not going to happen. Oh well, it sure allowed me space and time to vent!
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