Okay - who here works in Education? I work With education but not directly in it (i.e. I work for a company that helps US districts stay in compliance with their legal requirements for communicating with parents, families, and students). So, I found this article in the NYTimes on Saturday, and I'm just curious what everyone thinks. I've got my wee little fingers on a lot of national data, and on tons of 'guides' that have helped me wrap my brain around a good portion of it (though I don't claim to understand all of it).
Good idea? Bad Idea? Worth a shot with modifications? If you're in education, how much of the law has hit you yet?
Bush Education Officials Find New Law a Tough Sell
February 22, 2004
By SAM DILLON
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 20 - It was 8 p.m., and Ken Meyer was
smiling gamely from a gloomy high school stage at an
audience of disgruntled teachers and parents to whom he had
been introduced as "a bigwig from Washington," come to Utah
to explain President Bush's centerpiece education law.
A former math teacher was at a microphone, arguing that it
would cost $1 billion for the state to carry out the law's
requirements, while the federal government gives Utah only
about $100 million.
"That's like sending a child for $10 worth of groceries and
giving him just $1 to buy them," the former teacher said.
"Let me correct that," Mr. Meyer interrupted wearily,
wading in as if with a fire extinguisher, spraying official
statistics on behalf of the Department of Education, where
he is a deputy assistant secretary. "Believe me, I've
traveled to 40 states to talk about this law, and I've done
the math. Its very well funded."
As he campaigns for re-election, President Bush hopes to
capitalize on the law, known as No Child Left Behind, as
one of the pillars of his domestic agenda. But the
Democratic presidential candidates have made it a frequent
target of criticism and ridicule. And things are not going
that well even in this, one of the most Republican of
states.
Not only the law's financing, but provisions that expand
standardized testing to raise achievement and that label
schools as underperforming when even small groups of
students miss proficiency targets have stirred discontent
nationwide among educators and local politicians. So Mr.
Meyer's job is to barnstorm the country, part good-will
diplomat, part flak-catcher, calming emotions and
clarifying misunderstandings.
He is one of many Bush administration officials traveling
to explain the 700-page law. Since Feb. 8, at least 10
other department and White House officials have spoken in
nine states, although Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the
Department of Education, said the pace of travel had been
consistent for the last year.
"I've been in some, I don't want to say hostile, but very
contentious environments" in recent months, Mr. Meyer said.
"Places where I wondered whether I'd get out of there with
my skin intact. This law is largely misunderstood by the
public because of its enormity, so people get emotional
about it, and you've got pent-up frustrations."
Mr. Meyer's trip this week was the second Bush
administration mission in two weeks to Utah. A five-person
delegation this month defended the law to lawmakers, but
the Republican-controlled Utah House nevertheless voted 64
to 8 on Feb. 10 not to comply with any provisions not fully
financed by federal money. That measure now awaits Senate
action.
Senator Dave Gladwell, a Republican who is the Utah bill's
Senate sponsor, said many of his colleagues felt ambivalent
about the measure.
"We don't want to embarrass President Bush or his
administration, and yet we're kind of sensitive to our
state sovereignty," he said.
Gov. Olene S. Walker, a Republican, said in an interview
that she expected "heated discussion" of the bill in the
Senate. She declined to say whether she would sign it if
approved.
The Feb. 10 vote by the Utah House was the strongest action
by any state legislature to date, but more than a dozen
other states have passed or introduced laws or resolutions
challenging the federal law or commissioning studies of the
costs of carrying it out.
Last month, the Republican-controlled Virginia House of
Delegates passed a resolution, 98 to 1, urging Congress to
exempt Virginia from the law. That vote came after Rod
Paige, the education secretary, and other administration
officials met with Virginia lawmakers, said James H.
Dillard II, chairman of the House Education Committee.
"Six of us met with Paige," Mr. Dillard, a Republican,
said. "He looked us in the eye and said, `It's fully
funded.' We looked him back in the eye and said, `We don't
think so.' "
"We got platitudes and stonewalls, but no corrective
action," he said.
Secretary Paige took action on one part of the law on
Thursday, announcing that test scores of recent immigrants
who did not speak English would no longer be considered in
determining whether a school was meeting annual targets for
academic progress.
That should mean that fewer schools will be judged as
"needing improvement," a label that requires schools to
carry out costly remedial measures and can result in
removal of their staffs. Still, experts predict that within
a few years a majority of the country's 90,000 schools will
receive the label.
Last fall, 245 of Utah's 810 schools were put on a watch
list because they had failed to make "adequate yearly
progress," said Steven O. Laing, Utah's state school
superintendent. Many had been considered excellent schools,
but ended up on the list because one small group of
students - fifth-grade special education students, for
instance - had failed to reach academic targets.
In a meeting with Mr. Meyer on Tuesday, several Republican
senators asked questions reflecting concerns about schools
put on watch lists in their districts. Mr. Meyer described
the law as a tool that helps states to measure school
performance, while giving them the flexibility to set their
own proficiency benchmarks.
"It's a pretty dynamic business management model," Mr.
Meyer said.
After the meeting, Senator Bill Wright, a Republican who is
chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said Mr. Meyer
had done "a great job."
"But we still have a difference of opinion about how
N.C.L.B. would affect Utah," Senator Wright said.
An hour later, Mr. Meyer met with school superintendents.
He heard Steven C. Norton, superintendent of a rural
district in northern Utah, report that parents were upset
that two schools had been put on a watch list because the
law required that 95 percent of students take the
standardized tests and one student less than that
qualifying threshold had shown up on testing day.
"These are die-hard conservative Republicans, and they feel
that this is like crying wolf when they see their school
labeled for frivolous reasons," Mr. Norton said in an
interview that he had told Mr. Meyer.
That evening, addressing 50 educators and parents at Kearns
High School in a Salt Lake City suburb, Mr. Meyer said that
American schools needed to improve so that workers could
compete for jobs in a globalized economy. The law, he said,
empowered educators by identifying students who needed
special help and resources.
Russel Sias, a retired engineer and registered Republican
whose daughter is a middle school teacher, said to a
reporter at the meeting: "I feel like we're hearing the
best vacuum cleaner salesman in the world. They're going to
label every school in the country as failing, and they call
it empowerment?"
Rebecca Christensen, who earns $26,000 a year teaching
sixth grade, told the crowd of the frustrations of trying
to raise test scores at a school where student turnover was
high and parental involvement low.
"How many of the congressmen who wrote this law have ever
been in a classroom?" she asked.
Mr. Meyer listened, and then congratulated Ms. Christensen
and the other teachers in the audience for working in
education under difficult conditions.
"You're all on the front line, and I applaud you," he said.
Then he added, "I like to quote the president: `There's not
a school in this country that doesn't need improvement.' "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/national/22CHIL.html?ex=1078410065&ei=1&en
=ca1c765da0cb97a1
Good idea? Bad Idea? Worth a shot with modifications? If you're in education, how much of the law has hit you yet?
Bush Education Officials Find New Law a Tough Sell
February 22, 2004
By SAM DILLON
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 20 - It was 8 p.m., and Ken Meyer was
smiling gamely from a gloomy high school stage at an
audience of disgruntled teachers and parents to whom he had
been introduced as "a bigwig from Washington," come to Utah
to explain President Bush's centerpiece education law.
A former math teacher was at a microphone, arguing that it
would cost $1 billion for the state to carry out the law's
requirements, while the federal government gives Utah only
about $100 million.
"That's like sending a child for $10 worth of groceries and
giving him just $1 to buy them," the former teacher said.
"Let me correct that," Mr. Meyer interrupted wearily,
wading in as if with a fire extinguisher, spraying official
statistics on behalf of the Department of Education, where
he is a deputy assistant secretary. "Believe me, I've
traveled to 40 states to talk about this law, and I've done
the math. Its very well funded."
As he campaigns for re-election, President Bush hopes to
capitalize on the law, known as No Child Left Behind, as
one of the pillars of his domestic agenda. But the
Democratic presidential candidates have made it a frequent
target of criticism and ridicule. And things are not going
that well even in this, one of the most Republican of
states.
Not only the law's financing, but provisions that expand
standardized testing to raise achievement and that label
schools as underperforming when even small groups of
students miss proficiency targets have stirred discontent
nationwide among educators and local politicians. So Mr.
Meyer's job is to barnstorm the country, part good-will
diplomat, part flak-catcher, calming emotions and
clarifying misunderstandings.
He is one of many Bush administration officials traveling
to explain the 700-page law. Since Feb. 8, at least 10
other department and White House officials have spoken in
nine states, although Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the
Department of Education, said the pace of travel had been
consistent for the last year.
"I've been in some, I don't want to say hostile, but very
contentious environments" in recent months, Mr. Meyer said.
"Places where I wondered whether I'd get out of there with
my skin intact. This law is largely misunderstood by the
public because of its enormity, so people get emotional
about it, and you've got pent-up frustrations."
Mr. Meyer's trip this week was the second Bush
administration mission in two weeks to Utah. A five-person
delegation this month defended the law to lawmakers, but
the Republican-controlled Utah House nevertheless voted 64
to 8 on Feb. 10 not to comply with any provisions not fully
financed by federal money. That measure now awaits Senate
action.
Senator Dave Gladwell, a Republican who is the Utah bill's
Senate sponsor, said many of his colleagues felt ambivalent
about the measure.
"We don't want to embarrass President Bush or his
administration, and yet we're kind of sensitive to our
state sovereignty," he said.
Gov. Olene S. Walker, a Republican, said in an interview
that she expected "heated discussion" of the bill in the
Senate. She declined to say whether she would sign it if
approved.
The Feb. 10 vote by the Utah House was the strongest action
by any state legislature to date, but more than a dozen
other states have passed or introduced laws or resolutions
challenging the federal law or commissioning studies of the
costs of carrying it out.
Last month, the Republican-controlled Virginia House of
Delegates passed a resolution, 98 to 1, urging Congress to
exempt Virginia from the law. That vote came after Rod
Paige, the education secretary, and other administration
officials met with Virginia lawmakers, said James H.
Dillard II, chairman of the House Education Committee.
"Six of us met with Paige," Mr. Dillard, a Republican,
said. "He looked us in the eye and said, `It's fully
funded.' We looked him back in the eye and said, `We don't
think so.' "
"We got platitudes and stonewalls, but no corrective
action," he said.
Secretary Paige took action on one part of the law on
Thursday, announcing that test scores of recent immigrants
who did not speak English would no longer be considered in
determining whether a school was meeting annual targets for
academic progress.
That should mean that fewer schools will be judged as
"needing improvement," a label that requires schools to
carry out costly remedial measures and can result in
removal of their staffs. Still, experts predict that within
a few years a majority of the country's 90,000 schools will
receive the label.
Last fall, 245 of Utah's 810 schools were put on a watch
list because they had failed to make "adequate yearly
progress," said Steven O. Laing, Utah's state school
superintendent. Many had been considered excellent schools,
but ended up on the list because one small group of
students - fifth-grade special education students, for
instance - had failed to reach academic targets.
In a meeting with Mr. Meyer on Tuesday, several Republican
senators asked questions reflecting concerns about schools
put on watch lists in their districts. Mr. Meyer described
the law as a tool that helps states to measure school
performance, while giving them the flexibility to set their
own proficiency benchmarks.
"It's a pretty dynamic business management model," Mr.
Meyer said.
After the meeting, Senator Bill Wright, a Republican who is
chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said Mr. Meyer
had done "a great job."
"But we still have a difference of opinion about how
N.C.L.B. would affect Utah," Senator Wright said.
An hour later, Mr. Meyer met with school superintendents.
He heard Steven C. Norton, superintendent of a rural
district in northern Utah, report that parents were upset
that two schools had been put on a watch list because the
law required that 95 percent of students take the
standardized tests and one student less than that
qualifying threshold had shown up on testing day.
"These are die-hard conservative Republicans, and they feel
that this is like crying wolf when they see their school
labeled for frivolous reasons," Mr. Norton said in an
interview that he had told Mr. Meyer.
That evening, addressing 50 educators and parents at Kearns
High School in a Salt Lake City suburb, Mr. Meyer said that
American schools needed to improve so that workers could
compete for jobs in a globalized economy. The law, he said,
empowered educators by identifying students who needed
special help and resources.
Russel Sias, a retired engineer and registered Republican
whose daughter is a middle school teacher, said to a
reporter at the meeting: "I feel like we're hearing the
best vacuum cleaner salesman in the world. They're going to
label every school in the country as failing, and they call
it empowerment?"
Rebecca Christensen, who earns $26,000 a year teaching
sixth grade, told the crowd of the frustrations of trying
to raise test scores at a school where student turnover was
high and parental involvement low.
"How many of the congressmen who wrote this law have ever
been in a classroom?" she asked.
Mr. Meyer listened, and then congratulated Ms. Christensen
and the other teachers in the audience for working in
education under difficult conditions.
"You're all on the front line, and I applaud you," he said.
Then he added, "I like to quote the president: `There's not
a school in this country that doesn't need improvement.' "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/national/22CHIL.html?ex=1078410065&ei=1&en
=ca1c765da0cb97a1
Yes.
