you know Michael, first you say anyone who complains about NCLB is white, middle class, overachieving kids, blah blah blah and that's why they don't care about NCLB, then when someone says, that is not true, you insult them and change the subject. > Atherton wrote:
> I know that this is going be difficult for many people to > understand, but NCLB is designed to be effective at the > school level not the student level... The only benefit these students will only benefit if their level of achievement identified by testing cannot be hidden under the carpet, which in turn forces some degree to school accountability and responsibility. > > Testing requirements for minorities is a benefit and requirement of NCLB that many people don't understand."> > > Wiley replies: First of all, Minneapolis has always broken their tests down by race. At Seward, where my son went, our Parents group asked for the breakdowns and received them. But most importantly, how are you going to "close the gap" if you don't help individual students? And what good are all these tests if they don't get back to the teachers in time for them to use the tests to help the individual kids? All the tests show is what we already know -- that many subgroups of kids aren't doing well. And all the wasted test time and money spent on it -- and it's a lot -- doesn't do anything for those kids. You have argued for years that smaller class size won't help anyone. Yet, those of us who have "these kids" [and can afford it] see them respond wonderfully in smaller tutoring settings we have to pay through the nose to take them to outside of school. Without more funding for more teachers and aides to give these kids individual attention, NCLB is a set up. > Instead what we have is more trashing of teachers by Pawlenty, Yecke and their ilk, and bigger and bigger class sizes -- 44 kids in high school math classes. And the kids who were just "having problems" in math in elementary and middle school become total statistics. If this isn't part of a plan to denigrate and destroy our public school system, I don't know what it is. Diane Wiley Tangletown > > REMINDERS: > 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. > 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > > For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html > For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
