No Child Left Behind
A statement by Mary Alice Herbert, Socialist Party Vice-Presidential Candidate
One of the goals of the Socialist Party-USA is providing free high quality public education from pre-school through college. We understand that it takes well-educated citizens to carry on the participatory democracy from below that we advocate. The Bush administration's top-down mandates for local schools, with their reliance on standardized tests are in opposition to the democratic student-centered classrooms we envision. No funds are allocated for school repairs or new construction, for adding teachers so that class sizes can be reduced, or, perhaps most importantly of all, to reduce or eliminate poverty.
We must seriously oppose the cruelly misnamed "No Child Left Behind" initiative, otherwise known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The stated goals are that every student will make "Adequate Yearly Progress". For the students this involves yearly standardized testing and for the participating schools must show progress in 39 different areas. One of these is a low to zero dropout rate. The model for this national plan is the education system of Texas implemented there while Bush was governor.
In August, 2003, education columnist for The New York Times, Michael Winerip wrote about Houston's "Zero Dropout" Miracle achieved during the tenure of School Superindent Rod Paige, who is now U S Secretary of Education. Dr Robert Kimball, an assistant principal at a poor minority high school in Houston, wondered how it was that, although his school's graduating class had dwindled from 1,000 freshmen to 300 seniors, it had no dropouts to report. The same was true of other schools around the city and was accomplished by ignoring data and falsifying records. Schools also counseled students to change to vocational schools and work programs if they felt they would fail to show the mandated adequate yearly progress on the NCLB tests. By encouraging these transfers and quietly letting dropouts happen, schools made sure they had a population that could do well on the tests. Principals who went along got a bonus at the end of the school year and those who didn't were fired. While superintendent, Paige got rid of tenure for principals and made them sign one-year contracts that allowed dismissal "without cause" and without a hearing.
The one-size fits-all testing requirements and the punitive accountability provisions that go along with them are sure to promote bad educational practices. Teachers will feel compelled to teach to the test rather than to individual students. The emphasis on the core "tested" subjects (reading, math and science) will lead to devaluing further the non-tested ones like social studies, music and art. The hostility of the Bush Administration to public education is apparent because these unreasonable and under-funded provisions will create hosts of "failing" schools from which parents will want to remove their children. Under the law, the local school district must fund vouchers for these transfers. This is a ploy to create a demand for alternative placements and to transfer public funds to profit-making private school corporations. It's also a way to weaken teacher's unions.
One of the goals of the Socialist Party-USA is providing free high quality public education from pre-school through college. We understand that it takes well-educated citizens to carry on the participatory democracy from below that we advocate. The Bush administration's top-down mandates for local schools, with their reliance on standardized tests are in opposition to the democratic student-centered classrooms we envision. No funds are allocated for school repairs or new construction, for adding teachers so that class sizes can be reduced, or, perhaps most importantly of all, to reduce or eliminate poverty.
We must seriously oppose the cruelly misnamed "No Child Left Behind" initiative, otherwise known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The stated goals are that every student will make "Adequate Yearly Progress". For the students this involves yearly standardized testing and for the participating schools must show progress in 39 different areas. One of these is a low to zero dropout rate. The model for this national plan is the education system of Texas implemented there while Bush was governor.
In August, 2003, education columnist for The New York Times, Michael Winerip wrote about Houston's "Zero Dropout" Miracle achieved during the tenure of School Superindent Rod Paige, who is now U S Secretary of Education. Dr Robert Kimball, an assistant principal at a poor minority high school in Houston, wondered how it was that, although his school's graduating class had dwindled from 1,000 freshmen to 300 seniors, it had no dropouts to report. The same was true of other schools around the city and was accomplished by ignoring data and falsifying records. Schools also counseled students to change to vocational schools and work programs if they felt they would fail to show the mandated adequate yearly progress on the NCLB tests. By encouraging these transfers and quietly letting dropouts happen, schools made sure they had a population that could do well on the tests. Principals who went along got a bonus at the end of the school year and those who didn't were fired. While superintendent, Paige got rid of tenure for principals and made them sign one-year contracts that allowed dismissal "without cause" and without a hearing.
The one-size fits-all testing requirements and the punitive accountability provisions that go along with them are sure to promote bad educational practices. Teachers will feel compelled to teach to the test rather than to individual students. The emphasis on the core "tested" subjects (reading, math and science) will lead to devaluing further the non-tested ones like social studies, music and art. The hostility of the Bush Administration to public education is apparent because these unreasonable and under-funded provisions will create hosts of "failing" schools from which parents will want to remove their children. Under the law, the local school district must fund vouchers for these transfers. This is a ploy to create a demand for alternative placements and to transfer public funds to profit-making private school corporations. It's also a way to weaken teacher's unions.
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