Schools' cutbacks prompt concerns (No Child Left Behind?)

[shawn703]

When school opens in September,. When school opens in September, Baltimore students will find at least two more students in every class than they had this year. If they are behind academically, they won't have had the chance to attend summer school to catch up.
And if they are in a low-performing school with an inexperienced teacher, chances are the teacher won't have a mentor to help with that hard first year of teaching.


These are a few examples of the costs Baltimore schools will pay as they come to terms with a $58 million deficit. The cost to the education of the city's children, some say, will be less than the public expected in winter when the system was on the brink of insolvency and wrestling through months of emotional negotiations with the mayor and the governor over who would bail out the school system.


more...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.learn31may31,0,7070970.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

[fsbooks]

1. same here in Montana

Teacher layoffs, many schools closing (consolidation). Of course the budget is low to begin with, NC behind is not the only problem here.

[sweetness]

2. a mandate for failure

"Leave no child behind" like the "goals 2000" legislation are nothing but worthless rhetoric. I hope that soon people will come to see what what direction the USA is headed when we do not provide a useful and equitable education to all the children regardless of social class.

A school district near where I live will be adding 8 students per class on average.

Education is a basic right that should be granted to all th ecitizens of a free democracy. Without educated citizens you can not have a democracy.

I happen to belive that there is an effort in the USA to dismantle the public governance of the education sysytem and make it a fully private business venture. A wealthy parent should be able to send their child to any school they choose but this does not mean that they forfit their obligation to the other children in the society they live in. Those who do not have children and those who do not send their children to public schools have a vested interest in an educated population.

Our family supports our local school district through taxes and donations of time and money. Our children have been home educated for three years now.

The state of the public education system should concern everyone to the point of action!

[newyawker99]

3. Hi sweetness!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bemildred]

4. The "Let every child kiss my behind" act is intended to destroy

public education. Once you figure that out, it all
starts to make sense. If they wanted to fix public
education, they'd come up with the money, like they can
for the Iraq mess, like they did in the fifties when
they were nervous about the Soviets, everything else is
bullshit.

[struggle4progress]

5. As Republican policies force the schools down the drain ...

Republicans will shout louder and louder about the need for more Republican policies!

[central scrutinizer]

6. NCLB report card

http://www.fairtest.org
http://www.fairtest.org/Failing_Our_Children_Report.html

it isn't good - a lot of documents and documentation at the above site for anybody wanting to see what a total piece of shit NCLB is.

excerpt:

"NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" AFTER TWO YEARS:
A TRACK RECORD OF FAILURE

The increasingly visible flaws of the "No Child Left Behind" law and the growing, bi-partisan criticisms of its provisions demonstrate that the law will do more harm than good. NCLB's test-and-punish approach to school reform relies on extremely limited, one-size-fits-all tools that reduce education to little more than test prep programs. It produces unfair decisions and requires unproven, often irrational approaches to complex educational problems. NCLB is clearly underfunded. But fully funding a bad law is not the solution. If the nation's goal really is to leave no child behind, the federal government must overhaul NCLB to ensure that assessment and accountability genuinely improve learning for all students.

* NCLB is based on false assumptions and therefore offers false remedies. The façade that was created to portray Houston and "the Texas Miracle" as national models is crumbling. Independent researchers have shown Houston failed to close the race-based achievement gap, inflated test results by pushing out low-scoring students, and failed to adequately prepare the few who actually graduate for college-level work. Similar high-stakes approaches in other states, such as Alabama and Mississippi, have left students mired at the bottom of national rankings. The U.S. cannot test its way to better schools.

* Nearly all schools will eventually be rated "In Need of Improvement" because of the way Adequate Yearly Progress statistics are calculated. A recent California study confirms the findings of other researchers that the more diverse a student body, the more likely schools or districts will fail to make sufficient progress in test results to avoid NCLB sanctions. While diverse, high-poverty schools will fail and be punished sooner, the consensus among researchers is that almost every school will eventually fall short of the arbitrary improvement requirements.