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This Newstip edited by Curtis Black
Contact:
312-369-7783
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| curtis@newstips.org
President to Push NCLB Here
Newstip Date: 01-04-2008
President Bush will visit Greeley Elementary, 822 W. Sheridan, for the sixth anniversary of the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act on Monday, in hopes of reviving efforts to reauthorize the bill -- or perhaps heading off efforts to rewrite it.
Reauthorization of NCLB was blocked last year when a national coalition of 140 education, civil rights, religious and civic groups called for reducing the law's emphasis on standardized testing and shifting from sanctioning schools with low test scores to "holding states and localities accountable" for "systemic changes [to] improve student achievement."
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), which is spearheading the national coalition, co-authored a report (pdf)last year with Parents United for Responsible Education and Designs For Change showing how Chicago pioneered NCLB-style reforms, and charging that "many ineffective CPS strategies are being promoted across the nation."
Calling Renaissance 2010 "NCLB Chicago-style," Julie Woestehoff of PURE said the local program "reduces parent involvement, promotes privatized school management, and reinforces an extreme focus on testing." But "there is no evidence it will help the thousands of low-income children in our city who desperately need high quality schooling."
Indeed, the National Assessment of Educational Progress issued in November showed Chicago lagging behind other large urban school districts in student progress, while nationally reading scores have stagnated and improvement in math scores has slowed since NCLB's passage.
Greeley Elementary was named a "blue-ribbon school" by the U.S. Department of Education last October, based on test score improvements. Woestehoff points out that the test gains came after the school instituted a program for gifted students.
"It just exemplifies the fallacy of relying on test scores without a larger context," she said.
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