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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Post-Crash Index-Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Reaper who wrote (29447)	7/18/2011 4:40:41 AM
From: marcher	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 119362

-I'm a little confused as to the point of this diatribe.- ok then. well, there was title: "Prescribed Failure..." and subtitle: "...No Child Left Behind made it inevitable and logical. The corporate reformers and their allies in the White House have programmed the public schools to “fail” in order “to crush public education and open the door to privatization of the schools..." and some stuff inbetween that supported the title and subtitle. in a nutshell, the design of nclb ensured public schools would fail. robert linn warned politicos of this years ago (well before this 2007 article): washingtonpost.com and here's more: Mathis: Magic is the foundation for would-be education reformers June 15, 2011 With high unction, the priests of educational reform often proclaim their notions are grounded on a strong scientific base. Embarrassingly, the president and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, have made similar assertions of scientific footings, notwithstanding the failure to actually support those claims... Magic, however, has been discovered to be a far more flexible and useful tool for supporting policy reforms... The invocation of these symbols is then followed by the unveiling of the monolith, the Common Core, whose magical adoption in every classroom will cure the nation’s education problems. This belief is sustained by the pillars of the two major testing consortia that will blanket the nation in computerized accountability. Social conditions, impoverishment, the underfunding of schools (particularly urban schools), and the lack of capacity for implementing the new programs cannot be mentioned or the spell will be broken... This is necessary for the Celebration of the Failures. State departments of education ritualistically announce the ever-increasing numbers of failures with press releases saying “We are proud of the scores of our affluent, white children but other schools and teachers must work harder.” Privatization advocates then call for more charter schools even though the scientific evidence shows they have no particular advantage and they segregate the schools... Since all this has not worked particularly well, the leading oracles have concluded that teachers, principals, and “forces committed to the status quo” have not implemented the rituals and rites with sufficient faith and fervor. Sacrifices, therefore, are required. In the current system, failure to improve the test scores generally requires the sacrifice of the principal...Of course, the National Academies report found that high stakes accountability doesn’t work and, unfortunately, backfires. But this is scientific evidence, and it’s no match for the power of magic... Unfortunately, we have suffered no shortage of distracting conjurers. It’s time to hand over education policymaking to people who will base their decision-making on evidence, not sleight of hand. If magic could solve the problems of our schools, then all would already be well. Fixing our schools can be done. And all we have to do is to look to what science (and human decency) tells us. Then, we must have the political and moral courage to deal with economic inequities in society, dismantle the residential and school policies that segregate and deprive our neediest, repair our school facilities and funding inequities, train and support our teachers, and re-establish the purpose of schools as the strengthening of a democratic society. Certainly many of the would-be Merlins with millions mean well. Just don’t expect this kind of magic to save our schools before King Arthur makes his mythical return. vtdigger.org