is this petition by teachers fighting the ridiculous No Child Left Behind Act. I like the list of things that are wrong with it, and the many links to other sources of info. Good job. It's a horrible piece of legislation that not only doesn't do what it's supposed to do, it actually is making things worse by taking valuable resouces and time from truly effective programs and teaching.
AN ONLINE PETITION FOR TEACHERS and others to sign against the atrocious No Child Left Behind Act has already received 9,000 signatures and it's just getting started. Writes activist Susan Ohanian, "Democrats as well as Republicans supported this law, which really is a continuation of a Business Roundtable proposal that was picked up by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and his business crony Lou Gerstner. They helped it become America 2000 under Bush the Elder and Goals 2000 under President Clinton. Now it's NCLB. And Hillary is pushing for a national test, something she and Bill failed to get during his tenure."
A FEW THINGS WRONG WITH NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND1.
Misdiagnoses the causes of poor educational development, blaming teachers and students for
problems over which they have no control.
2. Assumes that competition is the
primary motivator of human behavior and that
market forces can
cure all educational ills.
3.
Mandates data driven instruction based on
gamesmanship to
undermine public confidence in our schools.
4.
Uses pseudo science and media manipulation to
justify pro-corporate policies and
programs, including
diverting taxes away from communities and
into corporate coffers.
5. Ignores the proven
inadequacies,
inefficiencies, and
problems associated with centralized, "top-down" control.
6. Places
control of
what is taught in corporate hands many times removed from students,
teachers, parents,
local school boards, and communities.
7. Requires the use of
materials and
procedures more likely to produce a
passive,
compliant workforce than
creative, resilient,
inquiring,
critical,
compassionate,
engaged members of our democracy.
8.
Reflects and
perpetuates massive distrust of
the skill and professionalism of educators.
9. Allows
life-changing,
institution-shaping decisions to hinge on
single measures of performance.
10.
Emphasizes minimum content standards rather than maximum development of human potential.
11.
Neglects the teaching of higher order thinking skills which cannot be evaluated by machines.
12.
Applies standards to discrete subjects rather than to larger goals such as
insightful children, vibrant communities, and a healthy democracy.
13.
Forces schools to adhere to a testing regime,
with no provision for innovating,
adapting to social change, encouraging creativity, or
respecting student and community individuality,
nuance, and
difference.
14. Drives
art, foreign language, career and technical education,
physical education,
geography, history, civics and other non-tested subjects,
such as music, out of the curriculum,
especially in low-income neighborhoods.
15. Produces multiple,
unintended consequences for
students,
teachers, and communities, including
undermining neighborhood schools and
blurring the line between church and state.
16. Rates and ranks public schools using
procedures that will gradually
label them all "failures," so
when they fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress,
as all schools eventually will, they can be
"saved" by
vouchers,
charters, or
privatization.
COMMENTS BY PETITION SIGNERS
