NCLB – Coming To A College Near You? March 14, 2007
Posted by boundtoreact in Uncategorized.4 comments
I came across an article in the U.S. News from March 4, 2007 that had less to do with high school education than it did college, but discussed critical elements of NCLB and the possibility of applying it to higher education, a connection I feel is close enough to allow me to write on this really interesting article. As future educators, many of us college students going into teaching can be found griping and complaining about the flaws of standardized testing and the other standards that will likely be a hinderance to our creativity in the classroom. Just wait to see how we will react if the government starts demanding more accountability from its universities.
Before I start dissecting this article, I want to make one thing clear: I take an interest in college’s providing proof that they are giving their students a quality education because I am paying a lot of money and hope that it will translate into something. I think that taking on this issue at a federal level is in no way the solution. That being said…
Later this month, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will meet with college leaders to discuss the findings of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education and its plan to assess college learning through one or a number of standardized tests. “For years the colleges in this country have said, ‘We’re the best in the world; give us money and leave us alone,’” says Charles Miller, the chairman of the commission. “The higher-ed community needs to fess up to the public’s concerns.”
Amen. There is an idea among college students that you put up with ridiculous expenses, become your homework’s slave each semester, and cram all night for exams the night before all to get a piece of paper that says you did so. This becomes evidence that you are more qualified for a job that will pay a lot better than one you could have found before entering college, and eventually the student loans pay themselves off. It isn’t just other students I have heard this from, it is adults, successful adults, that admit to not getting a whole lot from college. Now I am sure they learned more than they realize, but is this really a system that will allow the U.S. to catch up academically with the countries that have recently been moving ahead of us?
I agree with the above quote in its message about making colleges accountable, but I definitely do not agree with the idea of standardized tests to do so. Why would we be so naive to believe that a standardized test could be created to measure how effective our colleges are when in reality we still have not a clue how to do so on the high school level?
“No one wants standardized No Child Left Behind-style testing in colleges—not parents, not students, not colleges,” says David Ward, president of the American Council of Education. Adds Lloyd Thacker, author of College Unranked: Ending the College Admissions Frenzy, “The danger is that the soul of education will be crushed in the rush to quantify the unquantifiable.”
I think there are other ways to measure colleges that seem a lot more effective than standardized testing. The article mentions employment rates or enrollment into higher education one year after graduation, and I think this is a start. The problem is colleges are obtaining a lot of information that would be a great measure of their universities, but are not coming public with the results. I think legislation passed on a state level that would require colleges and universities to make certain records open to the public would force them to fix any discrepancies in their education in order to keep students out of high school applying to their institutions, an easy solution that could have very rewarding results.
NCLB – The Power of Rhetoric March 6, 2007
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No one can deny the influential power of those who have the ability to manipulate words. For example, No Child Left Behind makes those who come out against it look as if they are, well, leaving children behind. In fact, rhetoric is something that seems to be a very large part of NCLB. This could have something to do with the fact that no one has time to actually read every last detail of the act, so we are subjected to countless opinionated summaries of what NCLB is all about. Sadly, many of us fall for the rhetoric… it could have something to do with being lazy.
I found an entry on a School Reform Blog by Whitney Tilson that brings up an e-mail that had been circulating that compared NCLB to football. The e-mail read:
No Child Left Behind: The Football Version
1. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.
3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don’t like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th and 11th games.
5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.
It is not hard to figure out where the original author of this e-mail stood on the issue. I could not help but read this and laugh at a few parts despite knowing how much it stretched the truth. Whether you agree or disagree with NCLB, you have to admit that this is a clever attempt to influence readers against it. Tilson did not see the humor in this e-mail, however, and decided she was going to make some changes. She wrote:
No Child Left Behind: The Football Version
1. All teams must play hard and do their best. If a team is poorly managed and disorganized, it will be put on probation until it improves, and the coaches will be held accountable. The children and their parents will not be blamed for the failure of the coaches.
2. All kids will be expected to play. Obviously, some kids will play with more skill than others, but all kids will be expected to work hard and perform at a proficient level. Some kids may need to work extra hours to achieve proficiency. The coaches will be expected to put in those extra hours with the kids to ensure their success.
3. Coaches will not focus their resources solely on the handful of players who demonstrate unusual proficiency at an early age. Coaches will be held accountable for the success of EVERY player.
4. Games will be played year round, and statistics will be collected, analyzed and widely disseminated frequently.
5. This will create a New Age of sports where every kid learns the necessary tools to succeed. Just because some children get ahead, it’s not acceptable that many children get left behind.
Once again, the author’s intentions are pretty obvious. Is this really the way to fight for your cause though? Is the only way to counter rhetoric by creating your own?
I wanted to discuss this e-mail and rewrite because I think it illustrates everything that is wrong with how change comes about in our political system. In an attempt to prove my point, I think in the context of this post it is appropriate to use my own analogy:
A man and a woman decide they should meet for lunch. The man often eats lunch at a small bar about a block from his office and wants to meet there. The woman usually spends her lunch break eating lunch at a coffee shop that is very close to her office and wants to meet there. Rather than spending their time finding a place perhaps halfway between their offices, the two think of creative ways to put the other down and desperately search for approval from others.
The facts are out there, but everyday are becoming buried deeper underneath the lies that those in favor or against NCLB are feeding us. I think the future of our children’s education in America would look a lot brighter if we could replace all of this rhetoric with a little bit of truth.
The Growing Irrelevancy of G.P.A., Passing the Blame March 1, 2007
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It seems like every week a new survey is put out describing how horrible our educational system in America has become. What strikes me as interesting about the survey mentioned in the article “Grades Rise, but Reading Skills Do Not” in the February 23 New York Times is that although test results are much worse than they were fifteen years ago, grade point averages are on the increase.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam commonly known as the nation’s report card, found that the reading skills of 12th graders tested in 2005 were significantly worse than those of students in 1992, when a comparable test was first given, and essentially flat since students previously took the exam in 2002.
So what does this mean? From personal experience, assigning grades in High School can be pretty random and completely different from one class to the next. There are teachers who weigh their tests very heavily, while others allow class participation and extra credit assignments as a way to boost grades. The ladder would be an explanation for the nation’s rising G.P.A., a statistic that is turning more and more irrelevant each day.
What implications does a survey like this have about No Child Left Behind? The Bush Administration sees it as proof that schools are not measuring up.
“The consensus for strengthening our high schools has never been stronger,” Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education, said in a statement released in advance of the report. “Schools must prepare students to succeed in college and the 21st-century work force.”
The reaction is a typical political response. What frustrates me is the fact that test results are not any better than they were in 2002, and this fact does not even seem to be acknowledged. All of this leads me to an important question that I feel needs to start being asked: How many years will we allow Washington to hold schools accountable for their lack of improvement before we start to question whether NCLB is a failed policy? I understand this question may sound uninformed because there are many opinions against the legislation, but it seems like those who support NCLB are able to comfortably hide behind it and pass the blame to the schools when results are not as they hoped. How long can this continue without seeing signs of improvement?
