Since there seems to be sooooooo many issues I thought I would take Deeps article:
[Q]John McCain
From Testing to Merit Pay, McCain Advisers Lays Out His Education Thinking
By Maria Glod
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn't said much about how to fix America's schools. But an adviser yesterday said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee supports using federal dollars for teacher merit pay and wants to change the No Child Left Behind law championed by President Bush.[/Q]
I find merit pay to be a sucky way to run a school. Students are not cars or products that can be produced. Teaching is not a company and while we can learn by using data to inform instruction, I do not believe that merit pay for student performance can be done equitably making it a more effective system.
[Q]Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona superintendent of public instruction and a McCain education policy adviser, said McCain wants annual testing to stay, and that schools would continue to be required to report those scores. But she said he wants educators to have more say in how to fix struggling schools.[/Q]
That is because, THEY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO IMPROVE SCHOOLS. See, this is what cracks me up. NCLB has improved schools. But you can NEVER achieve 100% which is what the law says myst happen by 2014. ALL children will be proficient in Reading and Math by 2014. Disabilities ect matter not. This will not ever happen. The fact is, there is a point at which schools cannot improve. We are not making barbells, we are working with students, who leave us coming from vastly different backgrounds, and that, ultimately is why the governement is "wink wink" not able to take over schools, and fix them. THEY HAVE NO ANSWERS.
[Q]"The federal government cannot position itself continually as the bully in this," Keegan told a group of reporters today at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit involved in education reform. "No more will we say that's what 50 states are going to do, because he doesn't believe that's our best hope for improvement."
Under the law Bush signed in 2002, schools that don't meet test score goals for two consecutive years must allow students to transfer to higher-performing schools. Schools that fall short for three years must offer private tutoring to children from low-income families. More sanctions follow.[/Q]
That is because this was designed to get students to transfer to PRIVATE schools. I would suggest that everyone watches the current HBO special about NCLB.
[Q]McCain envisions a system in which students have access to tutoring and choice long before their school is labeled as failing, Keegan said. States also could pitch innovative reforms.[/Q]
Guess what, most schools are doing this.
[Q]As for the law's key goal of having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014, Keegan said it is not clear whether it would change. But, she added, "That date is something that everybody's nudging and winking about."[/Q]
They are wink winking because they have NO ANSWERS, only threats.
[Q]Bush promoted school reform often in his 2000 campaign, but McCain has not stressed the issue. Keegan said to stay tuned. "The dialogue about the nature of that plan is one that the senator wants to have himself, and he wants to have it when he thinks it will get best heard and he thinks that's around back-to-school time." [/Q]
NCLB has its merits. The 2014 thing is bullshit. They need to figure out where a reasonable threshold is for improvement. THe legislation is meaningless in inner city schools.
Here is the article:O)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/12/from_testing_to_merit_pay_mcca.html
[Q]John McCain
From Testing to Merit Pay, McCain Advisers Lays Out His Education Thinking
By Maria Glod
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn't said much about how to fix America's schools. But an adviser yesterday said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee supports using federal dollars for teacher merit pay and wants to change the No Child Left Behind law championed by President Bush.[/Q]
I find merit pay to be a sucky way to run a school. Students are not cars or products that can be produced. Teaching is not a company and while we can learn by using data to inform instruction, I do not believe that merit pay for student performance can be done equitably making it a more effective system.
[Q]Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona superintendent of public instruction and a McCain education policy adviser, said McCain wants annual testing to stay, and that schools would continue to be required to report those scores. But she said he wants educators to have more say in how to fix struggling schools.[/Q]
That is because, THEY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO IMPROVE SCHOOLS. See, this is what cracks me up. NCLB has improved schools. But you can NEVER achieve 100% which is what the law says myst happen by 2014. ALL children will be proficient in Reading and Math by 2014. Disabilities ect matter not. This will not ever happen. The fact is, there is a point at which schools cannot improve. We are not making barbells, we are working with students, who leave us coming from vastly different backgrounds, and that, ultimately is why the governement is "wink wink" not able to take over schools, and fix them. THEY HAVE NO ANSWERS.
[Q]"The federal government cannot position itself continually as the bully in this," Keegan told a group of reporters today at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit involved in education reform. "No more will we say that's what 50 states are going to do, because he doesn't believe that's our best hope for improvement."
Under the law Bush signed in 2002, schools that don't meet test score goals for two consecutive years must allow students to transfer to higher-performing schools. Schools that fall short for three years must offer private tutoring to children from low-income families. More sanctions follow.[/Q]
That is because this was designed to get students to transfer to PRIVATE schools. I would suggest that everyone watches the current HBO special about NCLB.
[Q]McCain envisions a system in which students have access to tutoring and choice long before their school is labeled as failing, Keegan said. States also could pitch innovative reforms.[/Q]
Guess what, most schools are doing this.
[Q]As for the law's key goal of having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014, Keegan said it is not clear whether it would change. But, she added, "That date is something that everybody's nudging and winking about."[/Q]
They are wink winking because they have NO ANSWERS, only threats.
[Q]Bush promoted school reform often in his 2000 campaign, but McCain has not stressed the issue. Keegan said to stay tuned. "The dialogue about the nature of that plan is one that the senator wants to have himself, and he wants to have it when he thinks it will get best heard and he thinks that's around back-to-school time." [/Q]
NCLB has its merits. The 2014 thing is bullshit. They need to figure out where a reasonable threshold is for improvement. THe legislation is meaningless in inner city schools.
Here is the article:O)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/12/from_testing_to_merit_pay_mcca.html