Grab and Keel

We trained hard–but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.–Gaius Petronius Arbiter

The above quote pretty much sums up how I felt about implementation of the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act. If you haven’t read this article yet from a past teacher on the Confluence, be sure and do so:

No Child Left Undamaged

Posted on September 13, 2008 by garychapelhill

[I spent several years working as a high school teacher.  I had always wanted to be a teacher and enjoyed it very much.  I was going to make it my lifelong career.  NCLB ended all that.  After George W Bush was appointed president by the SCOTUS in 2001, he was under some pressure to extend an olive branch to the Democrats.  Instead, with the help of Ted Kennedy, he offered them a Trojan horse called The No Child Left Behind Act:]

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/no-child-left-undamaged/

Trojan horse is a perfect metaphor! In April I was posting my thoughts about No Child Left Behind” on Topix and wherever anyone would post me. I found another article from a teachers aide, that I thought appropriate to the discussion. Houston Press appears to be off line right now, but here is a pdf of an article posted April 10th 2008, by Margaret Downing, entitled “So Much for No Child Left Behind”:

houston-news-so-much-for-no-child-left-behind

I joined a PTA group in the early eighties in Vancouver, Washington, just before we made our last return to the Bay Area. I was astounded then, that Max Rafferty had found his way to Washington. Fully formed humans, not outfitted in Amish clothing, were arguing successfully that art, music, and the crafts, shop, home economics, etc. should be dropped.  The conservative base was growing. My viewpoint, that humans use all five of the cognitive learning biologic tools, and that students, equipped with differing ways of learning, better benefit from a rounded education, was met with blank stares and assignment to the “bug on a slide” category.

In California, SI Hayakawa had pulled the metaphorical plug, ten years earlier, to the expansion of diversity and civil rights.  California’s great social depression, Reaganomics, had woven a spiderweb throughout the state. We allowed Proposition 13 to take away a vital funding base.

Throughout the 80-90’s in California, we continued the now federal version of Reaganomics and allowed entropy to eat our schools. My children returned to a great decline. In the Great Right Pull, we had superficially inane arguments about whether Ebonics should be taught; did it represent the Education version of Reagan’s “Nanny State”, or should we mandate “English Only”? As the right deployed to the deeper reaches, conservatives went to the source of learning, publishers, got themselves on the review boards, and fought the battle of the book in a new mandate to teach their version of the world.

As the stranglehold on education funding grew, Charter Schools began in 1991. Now, conservatives no longer wanted to use their tax money on the public system, they wanted the public system to finance their ideas of education. 20 years of inadequate financing had left many schools without the means to rejuvenate themselves. At the turn of the century, as I was in construction, I saw schools that hadn’t had new roofs since Reagan was Governor. I saw leaking pipes, and mold and decay everywhere. Sometimes it appeared that the only the flaking asbestos, a true testament to it’s strength as product, if not safety, was holding buildings together. School district engineers, struggled mightily against the tide, to provide a dollop here and there. Prioritization of scant funds kept the flow going to a few computer labs, and sometimes, but not always books. Underpaid teachers spent their own money on paper, pencil and other items for students. California decided to cast it’s education lot with gambling money and lotteries. Student achievement state ranking went from near the top to 48th. 

In response to the clamor on the right and accusations of public funded poor education, the NEA developed in 1990, the KEYS program following principles of Edwards Deming:

“[You can expect what you inspect.” Dr. Deming emphasized the importance of measuring and testing to predict typical results. If a phase consists of inputs + process + outputs, all 3 are inspected to some extent. Problems with inputs are a major source of trouble, but the process using those inputs can also have problems. By inspecting the inputs and the process more, the outputs can be better predicted, and inspected less. Rather than use mass inspection of every output product, the output can be statistically sampled in a cause-effect relationship through the process.]

Arising out of this was President Clinton’s Goals 2000 program, signed in 1994.

 [The National Education Goals were set by the U.S. Congress in the 1990s to set goals for standards-based education reform. Many of these goals were based on the principles of outcomes-based education, and not all of the goals were attained by the year 2000 as was intended. Many see this as the predecessor to No Child Left Behind, which mandated measurable improvement in student achievement across all groups. Goals 2000 established a framework in which to identify world-class academic standards, to measure student progress, and to provide the support that students may need to meet the standards.]

Primarily a knowledge management tool, it was useful in helping to form standards. However, the worm turned so to speak, as Republicans assumed further congressional power. Having begun as a management tool, goals inherent in the program were turned against it. Now public education was the enemy. And aha, Charter schools were the new “in-thing”!

In the final diminution of Democrat values and the triumph of the right, Kennedy and group wrote their own version of Richard Fariña’s, “Been Down So Long, it Looks like Up To Me”.  We are now the full recipients of the “Bush Business Model of Education”. As Demings said, Input is the most problematic. Control of Demings “input” has been completely given to the right. A holistic approach to education is not possible in this environment.

Further it is not realistic to think that output, or uniform standards can work when the money isn’t there to do it. Proposition 13 starved all education, but especially the poor communities.  Local communities are now feeding troughs for Schwartenegger to offset state shortfalls.

Getting rid of No Child Left Behind is the best thing we can do. Obama infers we should experiment with Charter schools. They have now been an experiment for 17 years. Adding another $200 Million for Charter schools over the current $200 million, as Obama proposes, just moves the money and people around. NCLB itself now gives increasing evidence that Charter schools were just a way to bypass and bleed the system and destroy unions. Get rid of them. When Hillary Clinton left the race, the Republican and Democrat viewpoint were merged, just as when Kennedy sponsored the bill. We lost our choice in the presidential candidates.

We must continue to push the viewpoint in Congress. NCLB and Charter Schools do not correct the systemic problem.  Some places and people require a larger proportion of money and time. The basic truth is that we must spend money, we must tax, and support a holistic version of education. Tax bases will vary among communities, but a return to straightforward taxation will help. The Federal and State governments are not willing to make up the difference. Ergo, uniform standards cannot be mandated except at a basic level. The KEYS Program has not been met in resources. Reorganization, as the illusion of progress, has produced confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.I

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