Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law
This exciting article, by Sam Dillon from the NY Times, clearly outlines some of the changes to the No Child Left Behind Law being proposed by President Obama and his administration. One of the most exciting changes would be the allocation of federal funds based on districts implementing reforms aimed at remedying problems. Under No Child Left Behind, funds are distributed using measures like the number of students in the district or the number of low income students served. There is no impetus toward change or reform.
“Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation’s 14,000 school districts.”
Years Of Schooling Leaves Some Students Illiterate
Check out this NPR interview with author Beth Fertig. Are you sitting down? Fertig “says that as many as 20 percent of American adults may be functionally illiterate. They may recognize letters and words, but can’t read directions on a bus sign or a medicine bottle, read or write a letter, or hold most any job. Her new book, Why cant U teach me 2 read, follows three young New Yorkers who legally challenged the New York City public schools for failing to teach them how to read — and won. Host Scott Simon talks to Fertig about her book.”
No Child Left Behind: New evidence that charter schools help even kids in other schools.
There’s new evidence that charter schools not only out-perform local public schools, local public schools improve their performance due to the presence of charter schools! It seems that public schools, knowing that they now have to compete, are stepping up their game.
“Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby recently found that poor urban children who attend a charter school from kindergarten through 8th grade can close the learning gap with affluent suburban kids by 86% in reading and 66% in math. And now Marcus Winters, who follows education for the Manhattan Institute, has released a paper showing that even students who don’t attend a charter school benefit academically when their public school is exposed to charter competition.”
Federal Researchers Find Lower Standards in Schools
Wow! Read this article that clearly outlines one more way that No Child Left Behind has left our nation’s children behind. It seems that a third of the states have lowered their academic standards to avoid sanctions under No Child Left Behind. Standards are a place to start measuring academic success, but they are not the place to stop. Valley Charter School’s curriculum will be informed by California State Standards, but will strive to go beyond them to deliver a top-notch education to all our students.
“At a time when we should be raising standards to compete in the global economy, more states are lowering the bar than raising it,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. “We’re lying to our children.”
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