(click cartoon for larger) As a certified teacher myself, I can’t tell you how angry NCLB makes me. High performance on standardized tests are an indication of the wealth and whiteness of a school district, and are NO indication of student learning.
And the states continue to push the lie: certain Fairbanks, Alaska teachers were given $2500.00 bonuses by the state not for teaching, but for increasing standardized test scores at their school. They refused the bonuses and donated the money to other schools or to non-profits.
Principal Mary Short said as a group the staff felt the cash bonuses were inappropriate.
“Most of the discussion was about how uncomfortable the incentive program made us feel,” Short said, referring to a staff meeting she convened the week before school started.
At the meeting, the staff decided to donate the bonus money from the state to nonprofit organizations or to districtwide education initiatives.
“Most felt that (the money) should go to other schools,” Short said.
She said reaction by staff ranged from embarrassment over being selected to anger that the state would assume a few thousand dollars would motivate the teachers to do a better job.
No Trackbacks To “Take Your “No Child Left Behind” Bonus and…“
Glad to see that honor and integrity still reign in the US of A.
Unfortunately, it is not to be found in the government of the US of A.
By the time Reagan and Bush Senior got finished not even Clinton would salvage the wreck known as the U.S. Educational system.
Repeat this and shame the teachers in the Memphis School District, because those teachers are following NCLB to the letter and every child, especially Black and Latino children are not only being left behind, they can’t even get to the starting gates to compete because of these standardized tests which have been proven time and time again, to be designed so that certain children pass, while a huge majority of others fail.
When I was in school, the teachers incorporated the test material into our learning curriculum, and that’s how we passed, We were taught the test materials and could comprehend it on a test. These teachers are overwhelmed by over-crowded classrooms. outdated textbooks, no school supplies for teaching…I could go on, because I experienced this, teaching community college (which is basically remedial skills these students didn’t get in high school), which made me the equivalent of a high school civics teacher.
Bravo that in Fairbanks, Alaska, people who are in teaching aren’t in it for the money, and shame on our country for valuing dipshit lawmakers who haven’t refused a raise in years, while it took them 10 years to increase the minimum wage.
And now it’s in the hands of the Texas Mafia again…and overseen by the single biggest moron to ever attain a high education degree from an accredited U.S. university.
Bush = Leave No Child a Dime.
Lord Praise the dollar almighty.
And paying teachers like they’re on welfare. What type of country do we have where teachers are treated with contempt, while scum-sucking SOBs like Larry Craig will continue to get a pension off a $170,000 a year salary as he trolled the men’s bathroom’s at airports looking for hot man-on-man action.
All the Republicans want from Education is for schools to churn out obedient workers and hopefully a few exceptional students will rise above the herd to display star athlete potential for the Pros.
What this Country needs is a National Teachers Strike-Walkout.
Teachers need to say we refuse to churn out ROBOTS and we’re not going back to work until our demands for change are met.
NCLB was part of the PR blitz to make it seem like giving Dubya the Presidency was a good idea. Who woulda thought it had NO intrinsic merit?
Where can I get a hi-res image of that or better yet a print?
standardized test scores ?
Sounds like another way of saying “Groupthink”.
The only way to deal with NCLB is to abolish it and start over again with an updated ESEA. But our legislators, democrats as well as republicans, lack the guts to do this. Of course, NCLB’s ultimate goal is the privatization of public education, and so once again the heart and soul of America will ripped out and sold to the Wall St werewolves.
At a minimum, Geroge Mitchell and the House Committee on Education needs to get rid of Section 9528, and get the military to stop patrolling high school campuses trying to grab students to be bulletcatchers for ExxonMobil!
You mean NCLB is just another scheme by the Bush WH to siphon money from the poor and deliver it to the rich in a 24k gold plated box with a silk ribbon on top?
I’m shocked I tell ya… just shocked.
Not to mention teachers spend more time keeping the peace then they do teaching. Many schools have become nothing more detention centers during the work week.
The whole system needs a major overhaul. (What else is new)
We’re really going to be paying the piper in the future. There is no escaping that. It’s going to take a major miracle to turn the United States around and headed into the right direction.
I suppose maybe the economists can create another bubble to replace the one thats currently popping into shambles. Wonderful another bubble thats all we need.
First time I’ve seen that anime/matrix/technofuture style in a political cartoon.
But yes, we are short changing our children.
apple pie @ 13:
Let’s start by having an education President who is actually educated. Instead of some sophomoric imbecile who rode familial legacy to his degree, and probably hasn’t cracked open a book since his mommy helped him finish his second grade reader.
It is not commonly known, but the seeds of our current fvcked up educational system were sown in the early 1900’s. From an article by Russ Kick:
football
should keep them
pacified
they’ll never miss the
liberal arts
heh…
I’m so glad my kids are out of school. What is happening now with NCLB is a crime. My oldest son is a college professor who teaches creative writing to college freshman and he says half of them don’t know how to spell or don’t even know how to put a sentence together. Bush poisons everything he puts his little peanut brain to. It makes me sick to even think about all the money going to this damn war and what that money could have been used for here.
Look at the Roaring 20’s. Everything was hopping! Until the Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression hit.
For this administration, money is the only measure of success.
Just remember that when MOST of the Democratic candidates running for President talk about “merit pay” for teachers, THIS is EXACTLY what they’re talking about.
It’s a sham.
donkey @ 19:
Liberal arts or arts in general cultivates thinking, creativity, independence, and talent.
Thats the absolute last thing the to big to fail crowd wants.
This maladministration does not want children to think critically. If kids learn critical thinking, they also learn to make appropriate choices and not be a nation of sheep. In the 21st century, we don’t want thinkers, we want doers, as in do as I say, not as I do.
SevenString @ 18:
Exactly. The government never gave two shits about having a smart population… it was all about producing a trained work force for the corporations that they wouldn’t have to pay for. Now that all our jobs have been exported, there is no longer a need for such a work force, and therefore no longer a need for public education. Put two and two together and you will see why the education system has gone to shit in the past twenty years or so.
Diogenes @ 25:
You nailed it. Look at Britney, Paris, Lindsey. Look where they’ve ended up following the advise of their handlers and the “professionals”.
Totally dysfunctional, incapable of contributing anything positive that benefits society when left to their own devises.
It’s those kids at Lathrop High School lowering the scores on the tests. West Valley High still remains superior.
The man doesn’t read intelligence reports for criminey’s sake, and he’s supposed to be a war president. The man can’t string two sentences together, and he’s in charge of setting direction for education. The man was governor of the execution state, and claims to be a man of god.
I mean geeeez…if it was so freakin’ sad it’d be funny.
My kingdom for a bicycle, a really steep hill and a pretzel.
NCLB is to guarantee a stock of ignorant people as cannon-fodder for the mil-industrial complex.
Liberal AND Proud @ 29:
But he sure can bob his head, can’t he?
Liberal AND Proud @ 1:
Well said, compadre! I’m proud of those teachers!!
Holy Hanna in a handbasket…more than another year of this ignoramus and his death dealing, megalomaniacal rantings.
Blue Buddha @ 26:
Absolutely! Corporate serfdom
Lets Face it… The goal of the Fundi-Right is to dumb down America. The smarter kids are the more the might “question authority”.
They might even start to question some of the Cult like teachings about praying instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.
Hell, that would threaten the whole NeoCon PNAC agenda.
A lot of hard working people came to this continent for a chance at a better life. Then the rich pricks came over. You know. The ones who feel that it is ok to have a serf population or own another human being. Then we got lazy and these pricks got into power in our country. The most important question for all of us for the future is do we want our kids to have a future of serfdom like the original people who fled Europe? There is no where else to go. We have to give up this idea of fair play and respect for our government. It is time to admit where we are and get mean about it. The people we vote for in the future have to have only one qualification and we have to know that it is true. Are you on our side or theirs. No more bull shit political speeches. We want proof. You have to have dirt under your finger nails to get my vote. You have to want what I want. A good life for my kids.
Diogenes @ 25:
No thinkers - just believers = no brains.
Face it. This country can’t go any lower. We’re already up to our necks in SH*T.
The Political Junkie @ 7:
it takes big bucks to keep a repukes gums from getting jock rot!
AP - 13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Consumers returned to the malls in July after taking a breather in June, although worries about the future could make the rebound short-lived.
July. What TF does July have to do with today?
Lets cherry pick some good news! Regardless if it’s already obsolete. Or two months old.
Got to be some good news in that stack of paper some where!
I think the performance on standardized test scores is not a race-based indicator. There are many examples here in Texas of minority schools acquiring exempliary status. You are plainly wrong in this.
However, having clarified this, NCLB is destroying public education and denying basic rights to children. For example, reading, writing and math are taught rigorously according to the requirements of the tests (neither fully learned or retained) and social studies, art, music, science, etc have almost no instruction. Electives, (except for sports) are almost non-existent. Children are denied special education services as an economic expedient, because the schools lose money on special needs kids.
Please don’t give racist gas-bags like Rush Limbaugh an excuse to say minority children are not as smart and cannot compete.
LD
This sums it all up, this is the type of student we should deify here in the USA.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-D77VDmMvsQ
My friends in the education biz call it
NCLU….
No Child Left Untested……
It has nothing to do with Education, just part and parcel of trying to undermine the Teachers Union, one of the legendary Left Wing Demon-evils of the Wingnuts.
L.A. Confidential @ 38:
actually, we have another year to ensure that it goes over our heads.
L.A. Confidential @ 40:
yep! and the surge is working with the help of NCLB.
If only our schools WERE trying to pump reading, writing and maths into kids’ heads. Imagine how hard it is to score on tests (nevermind compete with better educated students being turned out by Europe to compete for skilled jobs) when your textbooks are all being written by illiterate fundamentalist Christian thugs in Bumfeck, Texas. If Bush’s LNCB programme were actually accomplishing anything, I might be able to wince as liberal arts and phys ed programmes were gutted.
As it is, I’ve seen (and tutored) students being churned out by our system - cheated both by an education system that doesn’t teach and a testing system that doesn’t reflect a damned thing. Our universities are full of students who can’t read a job application, wouldn’t know a verb if it bit them, can’t balance a chequebook, and thnk txt msgs is gr8 - some colleges are actually being forced to accept papers written in text!
Johnny can’t read. And he can’t think, either. The Marching Morons are not coming - they’re here.
WashStateBlue @ 43:
by default, teaching is undermined. the real purpose is to force schools to hire booshCo consultants to verify the programs(for a large fee) and to provide curricula(for a fee) to assist your teachers in teaching the children to a test and not really educating them.
they just turned the educational system in this country into another money spigot.
When will the federal government FULLY fund IDEA
because those kids are being left behind and the cost burden on the districts and states is making it so the general population is behind.
When are these districts gonna stand up to the Feds instead of jipping kids with disabilities???
ROMAN TIMES
This morning as I breezed into Fivebucks for my cup of tea I noticed the two papers in the rack.
The New York Times and the Oregonian.
The New York Times had its usual WAR image on the front page and the Oregonian had a picture of a football game image on the front page.
Yes, as ROMAN’S we are reduced to WAR and SPORT as NEWS.
Pass me the grapes wil