Oct. 20, 2004 - 20:48 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Education ?

The old quota system seems to be coming to the fore again. Piece work. I've seen it in manufacturing where uninformed management has set quotas - so many pieces tested per hour, so many pieces trouble shot per hour. Even the old so many manufactured pieces per hour is shot to heck by changing conditions of the material being worked on. Bean counters in their ivory towers doodle with data and in an ideal world their figures could be easily met. But this isn't an ideal world.

Seems to me that the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) is one of those unrealistic plans that is failing in execution.

An article by Holly Yettick of the Rocky Mountain News today makes a point or two I think. In part:

Big districts flunk federal test

Progress required by law unrealistic, school systems say

"Colorado and its biggest school districts got F's this year under the No Child Left Behind Act beccause they failed to improve their test scores sufficiently."

"The two dozen "failing" districts educate about 80 percent of the state's 758,000 schoolchildren and boast some of the highest test scores in the state. They include Cherry Creek, Douglas County and Littleton."

"Many complain that the federal law, while well-intentioned, imposes requirements that are impossible to meet."

"We don't ever expect to make it if certain conditions remain in play," said Tustin Amole, spokesperson for the 46,700 student Cherry Creek school district."

"The state faces no consequences," said Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C. But districts that fail to make progress for two additional years could lose federal funds or be forced to provide students with transportation to a district that is meeting its goals."

"Members of the Cherry Creek school board have released a statement complaining that it's nearly impossible for bigger school districts to comply with the law."

"That's because they are more likely to enroll more subgroups."

"Subgroups" are English learners, special education students, poor children and other groups that have historically done badly on tests."

"Under No Child Left Behind," all districts, states and schools must raise test scores each year with the ultimate goal of making every student proficient on state exams by 2014."

"But they also must ensure that no one group falls short in 2014 by meeting separate annual goals for increasing the scores for each sub-group consisting of 30 or more students.Because many of these sub-groups start out behind, they often are required to make more annual progress than the student body as a whole."

"Last year, Cherry Creek had to meet 118 different sub-group goals. It met 94 percent but still was considered failing under No Child Left Behind because it didn't meet them all. This year the district has failed once again after meeting 96 percent of its goals."

"As we have said many times, the intent of NCLB (No child Left Behind) is admirable, but some of the detailed requirements often make no sense at all," Superintendent Jim Christensen said in a statement. "The outcome in Douglas County's case is confusing to our parents and community and can have a demoralizing impact on our highly successful and hard-working staff."

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One thing to mention is that Cherry Creek schoold and Douglas County schools mentioned in the article are in districts which could more or less be classified as "Yuppie" area, families well off and all that entails.

I have read and heard over and over again that each individual is unique, different in many ways. Some who might be equal in the ability to learn might be hampered by conditions at home in their lives. Yet I believe that each child deserves an equal chance to learn.

Although I am against putting schooling under the federal governments thumb -- isn't that what this No Child Left Behind actually is an attempt by our federal government to accomplish ?

In our system we have a school board here, a school board there, a school board everywhere, EIEIO ! And as usual each board thinks and acts differently, plays politics differently, spends what money it gets pretty well as it wishes.

Voting people all seem to want better education for the kids, but consistently vote down an increase in taxes to fund what they want for their children.

We also seem to have a Macho Bunch of parents who insist on a full fledged sports schedule, spending tax money to build fields, stadia, facilities and hire great gobs of staff.

So they vote down an increase in taxes but want the kids be champs on the field or the gym. Makes a lot of sense, it does ? Tax money for sports ?

Going back to my original thoughts, each child is different and no darn bean counter, no matter how much he wishes to, can pour all students into the same mold and expect the same results. At least that's the way I see it.

And the idea of bussing kids from a failing school (by NCLB rules) to a school who met the standards last time seems ridiculous to me. Doesn't that almost guarantee that the school so loaded with more students who are coming from a "failing" school will suffer an overload at that "successful" school and thus it will be brought low ? Couldn't those tax dollars be better expended on improving the teaching staffs ?

How many of our tax dollars have been spent on noodling around with NCLB ?

I have already tread on tender toes on this sports bit BUT . . . . why not make all sports be supported by the enthusiastic fans, insist they buy the land, build their own fields and stadia and hire their staffs. All private and outside of school jurisdiction ? Seems to me that it then should be up to a sports minded young person to actually learn what is being taught in school ? And of course be born into a rich family.

Wild mouthed old man that I am, I think that trying to fit all children in the same molds will never work as it should. We all are NOT the same, identical humans.

Looking off into the distance and peering, where goes Education ? . . . . . . . . .

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