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NWPE News Notes
The Online Communiqué of Northwest Professional Educators
August 25, 2003
MY YEAR AS A TEACHER
KIPP DC: LESSONS ON PAYING ATTENTION, PROPER BEHAVIOR
WHAT HARRY POTTER CAN TEACH THE TEXTBOOK INDUSTRY
4 GREAT DEFINITIONS ABOUT READING IN NCLB
LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND MEANS MAKE 'EM VANISH
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TEACHERS FAIL THE TEST
THE PAIN OF BLAINE - PART 3
SMALLER CLASSES SPARK BIG COSTS
MY YEAR AS A TEACHER
"In the 2001-02 school year, I took a leave from the Mercury News to fulfill a longtime goal of teaching. After earning a temporary credential, I found a job teaching ``language arts'' to seventh-graders at Brownell Academy, a public school in Gilroy. What was my year like?
"It was heartbreaking. It was fun. It was surprising, irritating, elevating, frustrating. I gained some insight into why people might think California schools are -- to quote the popular refrain -- ``so screwed up.'' And I came away with some ideas on what might make them less so. . .
"But mostly, I learned that teaching is hard. . . To teach well is ridiculously hard. It's probably equivalent to batting .380 and driving in 140 runs for the Giants. Or singing the role of Violetta in a major opera company's production of `'La Traviata.'"
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www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/3931676.htm
KIPP DC: LESSONS ON PAYING ATTENTION, PROPER BEHAVIOR
"KIPP does not produce robotic angels, Schaeffler said, but by spending so much time setting the ground rules, and then sticking to them, the school has become a much quieter and more productive place than most American middle schoolers are used to. Children can concentrate on learning rather than displaying or defending their hormone-induced inclinations. And in such places, students who did not do very well in school before find that they have intellectual gifts they never realized. . . .at the beginning of a new school year, in these vital weeks in mid-summer, 'we are establishing a culture.'"
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48960-2003Aug12.html
WHAT HARRY POTTER CAN TEACH THE TEXTBOOK INDUSTRY
American youngsters "devour the Potter books because author J. K. Rowling has infused them with classic themes drawn from legend and myth, as well as biblical imagery. Like J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books, Rowling's books resonate with suspense, mystery, intrigue, and showdowns between the forces of good and evil.
"In contrast to the gripping tales told by Rowling and Tolkien, our history textbooks skim lightly above the surface of events, ignoring the fact that history is first of all a story. The history books excel at mentioning vast numbers of events, people, and ideas and compressing them into short summaries of a page or two. The drama of history and biography is sacrificed to the imperative of 'covering' everything in a single volume. Clashes of good and evil have been banished, replaced by pedestrian prose and thumbnail sketches.
"Similarly, our reading and literature books have achieved the heights of banality. Those who assemble them are careful to weed out controversial themes, anything that might upset pressure groups from left and right. They aim not to engage students' imagination but to bolster their self-esteem."
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http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/we/2003/ravitch08.html
4 GREAT DEFINITIONS ABOUT READING IN NCLB
"We are very excited about the No Child Left Behind Act. Here are four legal definitions about reading in the law. Pete has used these definitions successfully in several cases. 1. Legal definition of reading; 2. Legal definition of the essential components of reading instruction; 3. Legal definition of scientifically based reading research; 4. Legal definition of a diagnostic reading assessment. . .No Child Left Behind requires schools to meet the educational needs of children who are often "left behind" --English language learners, low income kids, minority kids, homeless kids - and yes, children with disabilities."
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http://www.wrightslaw.com/nclb/4defs.reading.htm
LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND MEANS MAKE 'EM VANISH
"Our Leave No Child Behind law is written like this: As a state, you get federal money for your schools, but only when you make a few things happen, mainly get test scores to go up and dropout rates to go down. How best to achieve both of those goals? By making the dumber kids disappear!"
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TEACHERS FAIL THE TEST
"For (Supt.) Wilfredo Laboy, the news that he had failed one of Massachusetts' required literacy exams for educators - for the third year in a row - came at a particularly bad time. . . His plight became a punch line for Rush Limbaugh and agenda-pushing columnists last week, while the governor and state education commissioner - both ardent supporters of testing - rushed to Laboy's defense. . . . Laboy didn't make the teachers any happier with his recent comments. 'I'm trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test,' he told the local paper. But critics of testing say they could hardly have put it better themselves.
"'He's right. And the ability to pass standardized tests has little to do with how well teachers teach and students learn,' says Alfie Kohn, author of 'Schools our Children Deserve.' 'The question is why people understand the limits of standardized tests when they themselves become the victims of it, with curious lack of empathy for victims other than themselves.'"
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0815/p03s01-ussc.html
THE PAIN OF BLAINE - PART 3
"The so-called 'Blaine Amendments,' began with an attempted constitutional amendment proposed by Congressman James Blaine in 1875, the primary purpose of which was to prohibit aid to Catholic schools. He failed, but the idea was enshrined in many state constitutions. That bigotry is finally receiving court attention. . . The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868, before Pres. Grant, Rep. Blaine, and others tried to abolish aid to religious schools which had been common before then. Obviously they saw no link between the 1st and the new 14th amendment. So the 1947 Court created an edict out of thin air. . . The U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit has ruled that Washington State's Blaine Amendment is discrimination against religion that violates the federal Constitution's Free Exercise Clause. The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted the case for review. If the lower court's decision is upheld Blaine Amendments in all state constitutions will be null and void."
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http://www.educationnews.org/pain_of_blaine.htm
SMALLER CLASSES SPARK BIG COSTS
"The class-size amendment will cost the state nearly $1 billion in the first two years, the state Board of Education was told Monday, leaving many board members to complain that it is taking money away from teachers and reading specialists. Board member William L. Proctor said he supports reducing class size in kindergarten through third grade only. He called the rest of the spending 'wasted money.' 'The quality of the teachers is much more important than the size of the classroom,' Proctor said."
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-loceducation19081903aug19,0,84038.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
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