News-Record.com

NCLB doesn't fairly measure standards for non-disabled children so I'm really not surprised at this. See my previous and recent website blog posts regarding my thoughts on NCLB. I think there's too much emphasis on testing and it's ruining our schools.

E.C.

Mr. Huey,

That's a fair comment and criticism of NCLB, but if you were king, or at least president, how would you change the law to bring a better balance between an over-emphasis on testing and accountability for the school administrators to ensure learning occurs?

This emphasis on testing wasn't always around.

NCLB is probably one of the few issues I disagree with Mr. Bush on. He hampers on "local-control" but the piggy-bank is hogg-tied to student performance on these exams.

I would've taken the more conservative approach...I'm a fan of disbanding the US Dept. of Education, giving the states block grants and telling the states, "you know what's best for your schools and systems, here's this black of money, come up with some standards of measure and you use this money as you see fit."

I then think things would change instantly, drastically and dramatically. The focus should be on the curriculum, not passing a test, and not telling teachers to teach to a test, as they are now. This would be putting it under "local control."

See my blog today for another take on NCLB.

E.C.

Dear Morgan: Great article (critics say law fails disabled kids).

I really think the test-taking stakes are too high, too early. When 11 year old children like Savannah Bruffrey are afflicted with test-anxiety, it can make a 12 year academic career unpleasant and un-ending.

Children should be screened for test-anxiety, which I call the invisible disability. At Columbia University (NYC)I specialized in teaching test-anxious children to relax, which raised their test scores. A hundred years of research supports the fact that achieving a "Goldy-locks" (just right) level of stress maximizes test performance, while building confidence.

Children should be both effective and happy at school. My motto with my college students is
"Your success is my goal."

The key to top test performance is developing the "whole child" by focusing 3 types of smartness
"Fact smart, Test smart and Stress Smart." If any of one of these typses of smartness is ignored, test-performance will fall (like a three legged stool with one leg pulled out).

With this in mind, I was fortunate enough to have an article published on test-taking (stress management)for the learning disabled at

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-928/stress.htm

Thanks again for training the spotlight on a very important fact. If test-anxiety can be addressed, children with desire to take tests, rather than dread taking tests. Tests will become stepping stones rather than stumbling block to building self esteem and skills.

Dr. Ron Rubenzer
Triad counseling/clinical services
272-8090
www.drrubenzer.com

Mr. Huey,

I understand yur position as stated above, but it still isn't clear to me how we would hold educational adinistrators accountable. We've seen a lot of boondoggles here in Guilford County with our education dollars, and graduation and achievement is lacking. I have no problem getting the feds out of education, but what do you do in a district that is unresponsive to the concerns and needs of students and parents such as GCS? How do we get more accountability and responsiveness?

Great article Morgan. It is hard to overstate how obsurd it is for kids like my son to be subject to NCLB. Several years ago, he was required to take one hour a week of Spanish.

Given that even now, at age 11, he is completely non-verbal, we would have prefered an extra hour of speech therapy.

Probably, Stormy, by a dramatic change in leadership and having a responsible and responsive GCS instead of what we have now, which is a joke. That means electing leaders to the Board who can make some real changes and getting a supt. who is progressive enough to make changes. Change is inevitable, it's just a matter of when and how. I would not object to a citizens advisory committee made up of citizens, teachers, parents, PTA members among others who would be independent of our school board and who could suggest real changes to the board.

Thanks for your input Dr. Ron. I will highlight this on my blog.

That would hopefully not include Guilford Education Alliance and Action Greensboro.

My take on NCLB:

1. Education is the responsibility of the state, not the federal government. All 50 states should stand up together and tell the feds to keep their stupid Title 1 money. By the way, to be a Title 1 school it used to be that you had to have at least 40% of kids in a school on free and reduced lunch. That number is going up to 75% in the next couple of years, so after states have jumped through all these hoops, fewer and fewer monies will be available. Who needs a stick with no carrot?

2. NCLB mandates 100% perfection by 2014, even if you don't know English or have a 50 IQ. Gimmie a break, this will never happen in a million years. I know teachers with 35 years experience who tell me that they've never, ever had a class where all the kids were performing on grade level.

3. NCLB assumes that ALL student failure is caused by poor teaching. Put the best teachers in the world @ Andrews or Dudley H.S. and the improvement would be minimal at best. Poverty, irresponsible parenting, lazy/unmotivated students are the BIGGEST barriers to receiving a quality education, NOT incompetent teaching.

Meisterlehrer,

Mandatory Title I is 75% now.

EC Huey,

Did you really say "you have only a few disagreements with Bush." No wonder you were fired from GCS (I'm sorry your contract wasn't renewed.) Bush is the worst President in the history of the United States. He's made the world more unsafe. He lied about weapons of mass destruction and thousands of our soldiers and many more civilians have died as a result. Our grandchildren will be paying the price for this idiotic war while he has ballooned the Federal Deficit (Under Clinto there was a surplus)and issued no competition contracts o his buddies at Haliburton. He claims that he's fighting terrorist but there was no link between Iraq and terrorism. He lied about that too. Now he's trying to build a case for invading Iran. In the mean time he's not taking care of the thousands of soldiers that have come back from the war wounded. You should be ashamed of yourself. Bush should be impeached.

I also find it disgusting that under the Bush administration government oversight and bureacracy has grown to historic proportions. Republicans used to stand for smaller government and less intrusion in States and indvidual lives but under Bush they pass NCLBH. NCLBH is some of the worst legislation to come out of Washington in a long time. The goals were admirable but the methods were madness.

Huey you should move to Randolph County where you teach (because Guilford county won't hire you even though there is a teacher shortage... you must be bad, really bad) and run for school board there. They love Bush there.

Now to get back on subject. We don't do enough for our students with dissabilities and non-english speaking students. Our schools don't have the resources and the faculty is poorly equiped to deal with the challenges they present. We need to do a better job for these kids. Testing them and holding them accountable to the same standard of testing is absurd and only adds to the anxiety these children have everyday when they go to school.

The Real Truth

yawn...

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Is that like getting fired from the HPE for repeatedly writing communist columns?

Double ZZZZZZZZ, yawn, yawn, yudda yudda yudda

We are so thankful your contract wasn't renewed Mr. Huey. It would be a conflict of interest for you to teach in Guilford County when you are on the school board in 2008. We know you will do a super job just like Garth.

Yudda yudda Yudda, do you really think a news paper would ever hire me to write in the first place? If you do you are crazy. Don't you see all the misspelled words and errors in my writing?

Huey doesn't stand a chance of getting elected. I'll make sure every registered voter knows EC Huey got fired from his job in GCS despite a severe teacher shortage. Why GCS would rather hire a latteral entry teacher with no experience than let Huey around our kids. Has anyone done a criminal background check on Mr. Huey? I'm not saying he's a criminal its just hard to beleive that GCS would fire a quailified teacher for no reason. I'm telling you that is as bad as it gets. You Grier haters need to hitch your wagon to a different horse. Huey's lame!

The Real Truth

RT, GCS do background checks? Obviously not. Hence Dr. Terry Grier is Superintendent?

Good job the Company you work for doesn't do a check either. It also looks like you misuse your Companies internet policy.

TRT, i said before that I'm a Christian, so I'll be praying for you. I invited you out for coffee so we can discuss the issues, you did not respond. I offered to discuss the issues with you by e-mail and here in the open forum, instead you attack me, and you don't even know me. You call me names, and yet all I want to do is represent our children fairly, equitably and honestly. I genuinely feel sorry for you and I hope you find it in your heart to find out why you have so much hate towards me. But know that if you continue to attack me, I will defend myself.

oh, btw TRT, i appreciate the hatemail you sent me recently to my guestbook, the only reason I didn't post it (and the only reason I didn't add it to my website hatemail page) was that it was too silly to even warrant a response. So let me rephrase...if you continue to personally attack me, i will attack back.

"beleive" That's a good try. You used to know how to spell that. Have fun in Austin, Texas. Don't forget to take your cats.

What did the rant against George Bush really have to do with education in Guilford County? Answer - Nothing. Everyone now seems to want to lay all of the blame for NCLB failures on George Bush, but you might recall that the sponsor of this act in the Senate was the well-known right wing conservative, Ted Kennedy. I guess Kennedy sponsored the bill because Bush lied to him about public eduation intelligence.

Meisterlehrer claims that NCLB lays responbsibility for its failures on poor teachers. Let's review what NCLB's intentions were regarding teachers:

The No Child Left Behind act requires that (by the end of the 2005-2006 school year) all teachers be "highly qualified" as defined in the law. A highly qualified teacher is one who has fulfilled the state's certification and licensing requirements. New teachers must meet the following requirements:

* Possess at least a bachelor's degree
* At the elementary level they must pass a state test demonstrating their subject knowledge and teaching skills in reading/language arts, writing, mathematics and other areas of basic elementary school curriculum.
* At the middle and high school levels they must pass a state test in each academic subject area they teach, plus have either an undergraduate major, a graduate degree, coursework equivalent to an undergraduate major or an advanced certification or credentialing.

Teachers not new to the profession must hold a bachelor's degree and must pass a state test demonstrating subject knowledge and teaching skills.

Now, what exactly in these requirements should we eliminate? I would agree that "Poverty, irresponsible parenting, lazy/unmotivated students" contribute to the problem, but I am not willing to give all of the teachers a pass either.

Meisterlehrer, though, is correct as regards accepting federal funds. If they don't want to comply with NCLB requirements, then they should refuse federal funding. Districts claim that NLCB isn't sufficiently funded, so the loss of funds would not be big problem anyway as the majority of funding for public schools comes from local and state sources. On the other hand, if they are going to rely on federal funds, they must comply with NCLB requirements. If you believe that public education is not a province of the federal government, then have integrity and refuse the money.

Stormy,

Thanks for posting the often overlooked parts of NCLB. You are absolutely right, if the school districts wish to "opt-out" of the mandate of NCLB, they can do so by no longer accepting federal funds.