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Re: [Phys-l] Kozol fasts to protest NCLB



I'll ignore the polemical "high stakes testing" and "whip", to stumble over "a very good study". In my area of science experiments are evaluated by their reproducibility, so "a very good study" is an oxymoron, especially when coupled with "they studied an [repeat "an", indicating one] inner city school".
While I am not an advocate of dull lectures, my colleagues and I typically attend about three lectures a week by people discussing their current research. Among us are post docs and undergrads, whose questions seem to indicate an understanding of the lecture material. Not every lecturer is a Rocky Kolb, who is always entertaining and informative, and often I feel the need for a course in broken English as a second language, but somehow information gets passed.
There is some evidence, that we can garner by looking around us, that the home environment may be much more important than the teaching style. But, whether or not this is true, I would hope that the discussion of teaching styles and their consequences be less a matter of unrestrained advocacy, and more probing and critical of all viewpoints,
according to the common practices in the science we are trying to teach.
Regards,
Jack


On Wed, 12 Sep 2007, John M Clement wrote:

The NCLB is actually one with the drive in the states to use high
stakes testing to whip students and teachers. Before NCLB there was a
very good study conducted by Rice University. They studied an inner
city school that was making progress in improving their science
program. But when TX threatened to institute high stakes testing they
reversed course and went back to dull didactive teaching. This same
thing is promoted by NCLB. While NCLB has not mandated methods of
teaching it's mandates have promoted more dull workbook review and a
narrow unenriched curriculum. The state tests have generally been of
poor quality as many on this list can attest to.

So TX was not affected much by NCLB as they had already implemented it
statewide on their own. Of course the schools have then been involved
in cheating on tests, and cooking the statistics on graduation rates.
Graduation rates are horrible in TX.

There are movements that are improving education, but NCLB and the
state testing are being used as a club against the reformers. And of
course it does not help that the current administration would support
the teaching of religious theories in biology, and physics. I think
that the original post was appropriate to this list because it brought
out some disagreements with regards to education.

While I get very tired of Bernard's constant postings of politically
charged
(his politics) offerings, this one is particularly slanted. Note
that there
is no mention of the reason for NCLB--the droves of illiterate
graduates
that our school systems have been turning out, largely (but not
exclusively)
amongst minority students. Those teaching at the College/University
level
certainly have felt the decline in math and reasoning skills and I
suspect
our colleagues in English have seen the same with writing and
vocabulary.

Like most of what the Federal Government does, whether it is
education,
military actions, homeland security, federal intervention in
local/state
issues or the like, NCLB is an over reaction to real problems.
However, the
basic idea that to graduate from a public school program one needs
to
demonstrate some minimal level of skill and knowledge is exactly in
keeping
with the purposes of taxpayer funded education. That the set of
skills and
knowledge are so ill-formed in most states is largely the fault of
those
states. State standards (here in Indiana is no exception) get
burdened down
by every whim and pet topic of those who end up developing the
standards--and the tests. So, in the end, those minimal skills and
basic
knowledge that we could probably (mostly) all agree with, become
totally
unwieldy and so expansive that they do tend to set the entire
curriculum for
teachers rather than just the 'core' curriculum. Again, blame your
state
education system for this. That the means for enforcing NCLB is
draconian,
that you can lay on the Federal Government. However, the notion
below that
if little Joey has a nice idea behind a nearly incomprehensible
essay, that
should be OK really doesn't fly--at least not with me. Personally,
I would
prefer a series of gate-keeper tests (to middle school, to high
school, for
graduation) that really focus of basic skills and knowledge. I'm
less sure
what to do about given schools or given systems in which students
consistently fail to achieve those basic skills and knowledge, but I
do know
that a BIG part of the responsibility needs to go back onto the
students
themselves and equally as important their parents. [And there's the
rub
with today's society--are there parents present and are they
involved in
their children's education? BC will have a harder time (but I'm
sure he'd
find a way) to blame that situation on GWB.] ;-)

Rick

***************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
******************************
Free Physics Software
PC & Mac
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
*******************************


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernard Cleyet" <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>


JONATHAN KOZOL - This morning, I am entering the 67th day of a
partial
fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest
at
the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal
education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of
legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as
thousands
of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead.

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Forum for Physics Educators
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just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley