NationStates Jolt Archive

Sitting on the sidelines when they should be backing the "No Child Left Behind" initiative is not in the best interests of children, especially minority and poor children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/opinion/18mon4.html?th&emc=th

On the Sidelines of the Most Important Civil Rights Battle Since 'Brown'
By BRENT STAPLES

The civil rights establishment was once a fiercely independent force that bedeviled politicians on both sides of the aisle and evaluated policies based on whether those policies harmed or helped the poor. This tradition of independence has disappeared. Over the last two decades, in fact, the old-line civil rights groups have evolved into wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party. The groups are disinclined to turn on their friends - or to openly embrace even beneficial policies that happen to have a Republican face.

This posture has been painfully evident in the debate surrounding the No Child Left Behind education law, a signature Bush administration reform that also happens to be the best hope for guaranteeing black and Latino children a chance at equal education. The law is not perfect and will need adjustments. But its core requirement that the states educate minority children to the same standards as white children breaks with a century-old tradition of educational unfairness. The new law could potentially surpass Brown v. Board of Education in terms of widening access to high-quality public education.

The same civil rights groups that sing hosannas to Brown have been curiously muted - and occasionally even hostile - to No Child Left Behind. But the groups have mainly been missing from the debate, according to Dr. James Comer, the educational reformer and Yale University psychiatrist. "They have been absent," Dr. Comer told me last week. "They need to pay attention to what works. They need to be in the middle of the fight because these are our kids."

Why are civil rights groups standing on the sidelines instead of fighting to ensure that this law succeeds? The reasons are numerous and complex. One of the most obvious is that civil rights officials and some black lawmakers are wary of embracing a law associated with a conservative Republican president.

Like many other Americans, people in the civil rights establishment typically argue that it is unfair to enforce No Child Left Behind - and to require higher achievement from minority children and better performance from their teachers - until the government provides enough money to do the job. There is no question that the law is underfinanced. But how much money is "enough" to proceed? What if the ideal dollar amount takes 25 years to materialize and what if it never arrives at all? In this context, waiting for "enough money" becomes an argument for maintaining the disastrous status quo and sacrificing yet another generation of minority students.

Next up is the antitesting argument. Civil rights activists commonly embrace the popular but erroneous view that the reading and math tests associated with No Child Left Behind are culturally biased or unfair to minority children. Paradoxically, those who hold this view are often middle- and upper-class African-Americans who have law degrees and Ph.D.'s, which require rigorous tests and high achievement.

The simple achievement tests required under the law are essential to the objective of closing the education gap. By arguing that these tests are inappropriate and culturally biased, these members of the liberal black elite have unwittingly embraced the worst stereotypes about the poor. They have also given cover to politicians who believe that the achievement gap can never be closed and that minority children can never reach the levels attained by their white, affluent counterparts.

The most complex and deep-seated objections to No Child Left Behind are clearly emanating from teachers and school administrators, who have come under increasing pressure to improve student performance. They have always wielded an outsized influence in the black community, especially in the days of segregation, when they made up that community's largest, most visible and most respected professional group. Members of the teacher corps have historically played powerful roles in civic organizations, including churches, while forming the backbone of civil rights groups like the N.A.A.C.P.

Thanks in part to the civil rights movement, which expanded job opportunities, the teacher corps in the black community is not what it used to be. Many black children now attend school in educational dead zones, where teachers are two or three times more likely to be uncredentialed or unqualified than in the suburbs. It should come as no surprise that minority children lag behind.

The educational dead zones have become part of a vicious cycle. As experienced teachers retire, they are replaced by people who were themselves educated in dismal public schools and sent on to teachers' colleges that are often little more than diploma mills. The federal government tried to fix this problem in the late 1990's when it encouraged teachers' colleges to beef up curriculum and student performance in exchange for the federal dollars they get in subsidies and student loans. This effort failed, but it spawned No Child Left Behind, which requires the states to place highly qualified teachers in every classroom.

This is a difficult moment for the civil rights movement, which is understandably fearful of taking positions that would discomfit the teachers among its supporters. But standing silently on the sidelines of the debate about teacher preparedness and No Child Left Behind is hardly the answer. Unless the civil rights establishment adopts a stronger and more public position, it will inevitably be viewed as having missed the most important civil rights battle of the last half-century.
Since not all readers have an Times account...

the no child left behind act is not an unqualified success so i dont see how its a huge failure for the civil rights community to not have signed on to it.

Sitting on the sidelines when they should be backing the "No Child Left Behind" initiative is not in the best interests of children, especially minority and poor children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/opinion/18mon4.html?th&emc=th

The "No child left behind" initiative, or, as I like to call it, the "test, test, test, test as if all children were exactly the same and don't actually need to learn anything" initiative is not in the best interests of children - any children.

Perhaps the academics that he wants to desperately to champion NCLB were a bit put off by former Secretary of Education Rod Paige referring to the National Education Association as “terrorists.”

Maybe it’s because while the federal government wants to increase use of standardized testing, while cutting federal education funding to states? When these costs get pushed down to local levels, it ends up becoming the financial burden of the ill-performing district, who is, more likely than not, a low-funded district to begin with. Nothing like increasing the rift between the haves and the have nots to raise the ire of civil rights organizations.

Possibly it’s because NCLB allows schools to push underachieving students older than 16 right out of school, pushing the problem right off of their plate and onto someone elses. Yet again, who is most likely going to be the subject of these forced dropouts? Probably the same people that civil rights groups advocate for.

Perhaps it’s because NCLB basically provides more opportunities for public dollars to be filtered to private corporations or totally unqualified people acting as independent agents in the guise of “tutoring.” A school district must make qualifications of its teachers publicly accessible, but must also turn over $1800 to an independent tutor who needs to prove no qualifications whatsoever. Where is the accountability in that?

These politicians never considered that all the testing in the world doesn’t mean a damn bit of difference if kids are going home to lousy neighborhoods, parents who are undereducated and/or underemployed, and communities that can barely run themselves, much less support the education of their children.

My local Catholic elementary school has cut classroom instruction time for science and social studies to one day a week, so they can 'concentrate' on reading and math. Sure their published scores look good on paper, but I think that this approach is nothing short of appalling. I will not allow my children to be 'taught to the test' with such temerity, and so, I happily choose our local public schools for them.

NCLB – nice idea in concept, with abhorrently poor execution.

[slightly OT]Why don't adults just listen to the kids for once? It's strange that civil rights today means compulsory education and strict guidelines, the direct opposite of what I think! [/slightly OT]

Maybe the civil rights groups went from independent to Democrats since the 1960s because the Republicans started recruiting authoritarian extremist Christians and Big Brother Neocons?

Maybe it's because at the same time the Democrats have affirmed their commitment to social liberalism.

It's unfortunate, but that may be why it happened.

The "No child left behind" initiative, or, as I like to call it, the "test, test, test, test as if all children were exactly the same and don't actually need to learn anything" initiative is not in the best interests of children - any children.
Friggin' standardized testing! I HATE IT! The worst part is, as a teacher, I have to 'prepare' my students for these stupid things. I'm a damn hypocrite!

[slightly OT]Why don't adults just listen to the kids for once? It's strange that civil rights today means compulsory education and strict guidelines, the direct opposite of what I think! [/slightly OT]
Not off topic at all.

But if you under the age of majority, your opinion doesn't matter. You can't vote, so shut up.

If you are under the age of majority yourself, the above quote will be rendered blank by a deft use of the edit button.

By the way, I think that's total crap too...why the hell don't you kids start a revolution already!???

Since not all readers have an Times account...
But all have access to bugmenot, no?

Friggin' standardized testing! I HATE IT! The worst part is, as a teacher, I have to 'prepare' my students for these stupid things. I'm a damn hypocrite!

And therein lies the problem. If you have to teach towards specific standardized tests, what room does that leave for actually teaching students how to think and learn, rather than expecting them to regurgitate memorized material?

On top of that, if everything is "standardized", what room does that leave for the fact that all human beings are not the same, and many learn in different ways?

And therein lies the problem. If you have to teach towards specific standardized tests, what room does that leave for actually teaching students how to think and learn, rather than expecting them to regurgitate memorized material?

On top of that, if everything is "standardized", what room does that leave for the fact that all human beings are not the same, and many learn in different ways?
Like we, in the education system, CARE whether or not our students can think for themselves. In fact, they'd better not, or the standardized test scores might drop, and we'd get blamed, and possibly lose funding or our jobs. That would suck. So, teaching kids to write essays in JUST SUCH A MANNER as to SEEM to have insight is the most important thing. Practicing throughout the year to overcome test anxiety should of course take precedence over real learning. Teaching to the test guarantees your employment, the funding for your school district, and bragging rights for your region. How else could we compare ourselves to everyone else without standardized tests? I mean, really. The best thing is, you encourage all the kids with learning disabilities to skip the test, and the scores look even better!

Like we, in the education system, CARE whether or not our students can think for themselves. In fact, they'd better not, or the standardized test scores might drop, and we'd get blamed, and possibly lose funding or our jobs. That would suck. So, teaching kids to write essays in JUST SUCH A MANNER as to SEEM to have insight is the most important thing. Practicing throughout the year to overcome test anxiety should of course take precedence over real learning. Teaching to the test guarantees your employment, the funding for your school district, and bragging rights for your region. How else could we compare ourselves to everyone else without standardized tests? I mean, really. The best thing is, you encourage all the kids with learning disabilities to skip the test, and the scores look even better!
or do as they do in texas, the orginator of nclb, and make sure the minority kids dont get the classes they need to make it to the 9th (or is it 10th) grade so they cant mess up the statistics. makes it real hard for those kids to graduate highschool but at least the school districts look good.

Like we, in the education system, CARE whether or not our students can think for themselves. In fact, they'd better not, or the standardized test scores might drop, and we'd get blamed, and possibly lose funding or our jobs. That would suck. So, teaching kids to write essays in JUST SUCH A MANNER as to SEEM to have insight is the most important thing. Practicing throughout the year to overcome test anxiety should of course take precedence over real learning. Teaching to the test guarantees your employment, the funding for your school district, and bragging rights for your region. How else could we compare ourselves to everyone else without standardized tests? I mean, really. The best thing is, you encourage all the kids with learning disabilities to skip the test, and the scores look even better!

And people ask me why I don't want to be a teacher anymore....

And people ask me why I don't want to be a teacher anymore....
The more I teach, the less I want my own children to attend school.

The more I teach, the less I want my own children to attend school.

I dropped out after three and a half years. People ask me why I didn't just stick it out. Your paragraph up there is why, in a nutshell.

or do as they do in texas, the orginator of nclb, and make sure the minority kids dont get the classes they need to make it to the 9th (or is it 10th) grade so they cant mess up the statistics. makes it real hard for those kids to graduate highschool but at least the school districts look good.
yeah, we've kind of screwed up here...we pass them along even if they can't read by grade 9, and let them fail out in grade 10. But like I said, a little encouragement not to show up on test day...or to drop out and get a job...works wonders.

I dropped out after three and a half years. People ask me why I didn't just stick it out. Your paragraph up there is why, in a nutshell.
They say that these days, the majority of teachers leave the profession in under five years. Do they really think it's the pay? I mean...you don't get rich teaching, but the money is NOT the issue. All this bureaucratic crap is. Most of us had teachers who inspired us....inspired us to think on our own, or inspired us to save other students from authoritarian bull. We don't get to inspire. We get to toe the line, or else. Frick. I'm having a bad day at work...thinking of taking another teaching position or just tossing it all and going into law. Double frick.