NCLB Forum Report

The forum discussion was very good last night. Kathleen Smith gave great stats using the NAPE study (not sure I have the acronym right). It is a test that has been given since 1969 and is criteria based rather than norm based. Essentially it says the people taking this test should know this material. So she looks at student performance on this test during the NCLB years and compares the results to the years before NCLB to see if learning has changed (and perhaps teaching) since the law was passed. There was one single category where performance increased (Math for fourth graders) and in every other category performance declined.

Chip Bruce had some great insight about the disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality in NCLB. In broad strokes, no one wants any child left behind, everyone wants accountable schools. But the way the law is done has so many unintended consequences and poorly constructed regulations that there is no match between the rhetoric and actual legislation.

Brenda Koenig did a great presentation making what seemed like dozens of great points (some of which you’ll find independently here like community and relationships). My question when she was done was how many hours has she spent learning about this? More importantly for the rest of us, how can we use her expertise to benefit our own community, schools and children.