tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post4578205457698824144..comments2024-01-04T05:57:26.735-06:00Comments on Education Policy Blog: Hosted by the Forum on the Future of Public Education: NCLB, "New Democrats," and the Information AgeCraig A. Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18160288758906798678noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-17098345679191325412007-08-17T20:22:00.000-05:002007-08-17T20:22:00.000-05:00Any policy is a matter of tradeoffs. Some good can...Any policy is a matter of tradeoffs. Some good can come of NCLB, no matter how rhetorically much we like to say otherwise; the real question is do the harms outweigh the benefits.<BR/><BR/>The standards movement has gotten a lot of people focused on low-achieving kids. Some of the folks pushing for higher standards kids, I'm convinced, even care about the kids. <BR/><BR/>Forcing white middle-class administrators to learn to deal with underclass parents of color is a good thing, but does is it enough to justify the law?<BR/><BR/>Mark BailDiana I. Bailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05026609546311259842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21843852.post-17219459901436719062007-08-07T22:10:00.000-05:002007-08-07T22:10:00.000-05:00I was talking with a researcher/ex superintendent ...I was talking with a researcher/ex superintendent at AERA who argued that NCLB was actually forcing some school districts to pay attention to parents as part of an effort to actually do something about "achievement." Another example of what some people see as the contradictory effects.<BR/><BR/>I still need to ask her to send me the research, but I doubt it. Maybe a couple of districts, but all the evidence I've seen is that schools are basically incapable of altruistically including low-income non-professionals on any kind of equal level. And NCLB is such a deal with the devil that it isn't worth it in any case. To break it down to the most basic terms, anything that is likely to make kids hate school and learning is bad. <BR/><BR/>I'm not sure I believe that there are many anti-NCLB people who are Luddites. I'd agree there are a lot of not very thoughtful people out there in general who like to think in simple binaries as if they were real. But that's a much more general problem.<BR/><BR/>This reminds me, somehow, of the Ivan Illich crowd, and their embrace of "choice" as a way of achieving far left goals around education. As if they could coopt the right wing agenda around this. Good luck.<BR/><BR/>We all know what happened to Faust. <BR/><BR/>Now, if Faust had a strong and powerful organization that could have made a better deal and that could have held the Devil accountable. . . .Aaron Schutzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10667097977144954236noreply@blogger.com