Dean is almost there on No Child Left Behind

but the problem ain't that just that it's an unfunded mandate. . .it's also declares war on teachers and schools. Because NCLB BEGINS with the premise that bad schools are the result of "bad" teachers and administrators. It ASSUMES that the problem and the solution is to make these "bad" teachers and administrators "accountable" via testing. It's SOLUTION is to empower parents to move their kids.

But it ignores that parent apathy IS a big part of the problem. Ask a teacher. Any teacher. The vast majority DO care about their students but get little, if any, interest or support from parents.

NCLB ignores the fact that schools are desperately underfunded and then proceeds to compound the problem, by diverting monies desperately needed for basic supplies and books and buildings into bloody testing programs. Testing programs that will tell when kids are failing.

Folks, teachers KNOW when their kids are failing - they don't need tests to tell 'em that. What they DO need is money, and smaller classes/schools, and the freedom to TEACH, and not just "to the test".

Just once, for bloody once, I wish they'd have a strong TEACHER voice on these committees. Just once I wish that they'd listen to teachers. Because there ain't a teacher in the whole damn country who, when asked what she/he needed, would answer "more tests."

eileen from OH (former teacher, can you tell?)

Edit the cuss words out of your post...it is a good post and I would hate for the thread to be locked over it :D

but it wasn't nearly as satisfying.

eileen from OH (mouth like a sailor)

I would just hated it when the good threads end up locked over it...feel free to repost down here where cuss words won't hurt anyone :D

My wife is a teacher and when she listens to some of them she gets all excited, says things like "see he gets it!"

She has made many of the same arguments I hear you saying here.

Something he said recently I remember her being pleaseed with was his stance on special ed and how they needed to integrate children faster with main stream classes but that the students also needed assistants assigned to them. That these people did not need to be licsenced teachers but that just the efect of another adult in the classroom would help immensly, and he pointed out that all of the assistants time would not be taken up by the one student so they would likely be able to help out with other things as well wich benefits all of the students.

He seems to have a great grasp of education from what I can tell and my wife raves about him. If you havent dug too deep yet keep looking.

I will try to remember where the speech was that he went into detail on education and link it here if I can

http://www.educatorsfordean.com/EFD/ NM theres a bunch of relevant ones at that site

"No Teacher's Behind Left" (IIRC)

it was "No School Board Left Behind". Mebbe he's changed it, though.

eileen from OH

is the only way I've heard that.

Eloriel

As a parent who has had several go-arounds with one school system in particular, sometimes it's a case of lousy mismanagement and bad administration. When that is the case, all it takes is one problem with a child that isn't handled properly and everything falls apart. I was accused of "not doing enough", but the fact of the matter was that I was doing plenty...just not what the administration wanted me to be doing because they were dead wrong on the issue and refused to listen to any input from anyone else because they simply thought they knew it all. Here's how it began...

I was dealing with having a newborn baby, grieving the murder of the man I was supposed to marry, had just had an electrical fire and had workmen in my apartment and things were absolutely insane. One of my 4th grade son's teachers was angry that I didn't get the wad of papers all filled out and returned within 24 hours so she decided to announce to my son in class that I must not love him. Needless to say I was furious and went to the school and read them the riot act. As time went on this same teacher made it a habit to humiliate and emotionally abuse the children in her class. My previously straight A overachiever son who had always been a pleasure both at home and in school began to draw very disturbing and violent pictures of this teacher. I put him in therapy straight away. Amid all this stuff he had gotten physically assaulted by an adult and we had a criminal case in the courts seeking a conviction for that crime. The principal essentially called him a liar. By now I had met with just about everyone on numerous occassions trying to resolve this and salvage the situation. The administration of the school flat out refused to be at all accountable for the downright shitty behavior of some of the staff. All they could do was tell me and my son what we had to do to make the situation better...nevermind that they were totally out of line towards both him and me. There were two other elementary schools in town that he could have been moved to...but they refused. Ultimately, at the suggestions of his therapist I pulled him out of school entirely and put him on a waiting list for a private residential school about 20 miles away. Did the administration know when to quit? Nope...they decided to retaliate and punish me for not playing by their rules by trying to get my children taken away from me. We go into a meeting with child welfare workers and the state worker got so fed up with the school officials that he basically told them they were behaving like children. He saw things for what they were and supported my son and I. So, he goes off to the other school and gets moved ahead 2 years because of how bright he is and they have no problems with him and he excels in everything. It doesn't end here. Can anyone say "bitter"? My daughter was a couple months shy of turning 16 when a boy who rides her bus starts sexually harassing her. We report it and nothing is done about it at all. We request that she be allowed to walk a minute further to catch a different bus that has less kids on it. The school refuses to allow her to switch buses despite the fact that she's being sexually harassed on the other one. They tell her she has to ride that same bus and just "deal with it". She dealt with it alright...the kid follewed her home and she literally threw him off our second story porch. She was crying, depressed, saying she would rather die than have to ride that bus. I didn't have a car at the time and couldn't stand seeing her that way so I allowed her to quit school as soon as she turned 16 and work with a GED tutor. Did it end there? Nope. The school officials of the district were STILL bitter. They went after my other child in the Middle School. This child was having some difficulties and needed extra help. I begged and pleaded to get him that help and they refused to put him on an IEP. They did agree to write up a 504 plan which looked great on paper. Too bad they didn't bother implement the damn thing. He got pneumonia and missed almost two weeks of school. This was their chance to get even with me and they tried their best. I got pissed off, fed up and sent him to my sister's in another state just to get him out of that one school. Ironically his new school is using that same 504 plan his old school wrote. And as soon as they started implementing it he went from straight F's to straight A's.

I've since moved and Thank God the school system here is WONDERFUL! The other school had some great teachers, but all it took was one bad teacher and a pompous, bitter and resentful administration who didn't want to do their job and it ruined the experience of all of my school age kids in that school system. And yes, I reported them to the State Dept. of Education who is most likely STILL riding their ass making sure nothing like this happens again.

Sorry for the venting, but it needs to be said that all the burden doesn't fall on the shoulders of the parents.

Kids need the recess time given back to them too so they can let off the steam and avoid getting too restless.