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

["RLAMONT" <RLAMONT@providence.edu>]

> > The NCLB is an example of an outmoded top down industrial model for
> > production.  Run the assembly line faster and whip the workers.  The
> newer
> > model is to have feedback from the workers and then implement things
> that
> > work.  The Japanese applied the newer model, and achieved much more
> reliable
> > products.  Productivity gains are achieved by more intelligent
> management,
> > not by just pushing the workers harder.  Remember the old Russian
joke.
> The
> > wages were so low that the workers would say "The managers pretend
to
> pay us
> > so we pretend to work".

Perhaps NCLB is not going to work any better than other past reforms,
but at least it is an honest attempt to assess how schools are
performing and to allow students to have some opportunity to move from
the worst schools to better performing ones. To me, the biggest failing
is that in urban schools (such as Providence) ALL the schools are
underperforming. There is no alternate school to send a child. Our local
school committee recently sent out a "Catch 22" letter to parents
stating that Federal law requires posting a notice that their child's
school was underperforming and that the parent had the right to petition
for attendance at another school. In the next paragraph the school
committee stated that all the schools in the district were classified as
underperforming and that no petitions would be honored.

Your appeal to intelligent management is certainly valid. However,
principals and superintendents do not control schools - union contracts
do. Only in charter schools do principals have the autonomy to actually
try to implement reform.

> > It is very easy to blame the teachers, but look in the mirror.  The
> > universities and colleges "educated" the teachers and the teachers
are
> just
> > doing what was done to them.  If it is not working, then the system
> needs
> > reform at the top also.  There are some signs of this in programs
like
> > UTeach from U.TX, or Modeling, or McDermott's programs... or
Scaleup.
> Some
> > of these were being developed before the high stakes testing became
> common.
> > And always ask what you would do if you were in the average
teacher's
> > position.  If you are not there, then you do not truly understand
the
> > problems.  If you are there, can you prove objectively that you are
> doing
> > better?
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX

Excellent point! Here in the Northeast, the education programs in many
colleges are pathetic. Grade inflation, a problem in all disciplines, is
totally out of control in the education departments. There is no
incentive to excel because everyone receives the same grade, an A. The
Dean's list is primarily populated with education students. The students
are simply processed - and then bring this mentality to the schools
where they are employed after graduation. 

Education students need to learn more than just a list of techniques. As
you implied, they have to be taught how to assess themselves and how to
take action for self improvement based on the particular circumstances
they are in. They need to personally search the relevant literature for
techniques that have worked for people in similar situations.

However, one of the frustrations I had during my brief stint teaching at
the high school level was that there was no reward for excellence (not
that I personally deserved it). The teachers who were known for their
skills and adaptability got exactly the same pay raises as those who
should have been fired years ago. This is where I think NCLB is weak.
The carrot and stick are applied to the schools, not the teachers. There
is little a "manager" can do if the individual teachers are shielded
from accountability by a strong union presence that prohibits merit pay.

Bob at PC