Yippee!! Politicians to the rescue!!!
Were you worried about the state of public education in America? Well, never fear. The New York Times reports that the politicians are here to save the day!
Yes, folks, it's another commission that has made some swell recommendations on fixing the system. This one is dubbed "The Commission on No Child Left Behind" and it even has a couple of governors on it. Oh boy! I don't know about you, but when I heard it had a couple of governors on it, I just couldn't wait to hear what they had to say. I mean who knows more about education than governors. A couple of times every year, they'll even stop into classrooms for fifteen minutes or even a half-hour so they can say something inspiring to the kids like, "Study hard and you will do well."
Okay, I don't want to keep you in suspense any longer. Here is the answer this enlightened commission has given to solve our educational problems in America:
No Child Left Behind, the federal education law, should be toughened to judge
teachers and principals by their students’ test scores, and to block chronically
ineffective educators from working in high-poverty schools.
As the two characters in those Guinness beer commercials would say: "Brilliant!" What a profound and original thought! When students don't do well, it's the teachers' and principals' fault. Why didn't anyone ever think of that before? When kids in those inner-city schools do poorly, it's because the teachers aren't trying hard enough. Of course!
And if you have any doubts about whether this commission has hit the nail right on the head, you can put those doubts aside. Teddy Kennedy has endorsed their proposals. That's right--Teddy Kennedy, himself! And who knows more about public schools than Teddy Kennedy? After all, he did attend some inner-city public school in Boston when he was growing up, didn't he?
posted by Dennis Fermoyle at 7:32 PM
3 Comments:
"block chronically ineffective educators from working in high-poverty schools"
Here is an idea. Fire the chronically ineffective educators and prevent them from working in any schools.
Come on, Rory. Give 'em a break! You can't expect them to think of everything. They've got a lot on their minds. After all, they've got to be busy thinking up attack ads for the next campaign.
Yeah, I liked that quote too -- what, let the ineffective ones work in high-wealth areas? You mean, like the places where they'll likely get a HIGHER salary and be personally safer? Seems like an incentive to be ineffective to me.
One thing mentioned in the article that might be helpful, however, is in reducing the variation in how states apply NCLB. Any parent who's tried to compare schools in two different states knows how difficult it can be. Having states play numbers games with their schools doesn't help.
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