She encouraged McKnight to come up with a school-wide protocol for spending time after completing a test, one that didn’t include free reading.

[Sputter] GOD FORBID that we should allow kids to do any voluntary or recreational reading after finishing a test! THAT’S a habit we wouldn’t want them to pick up, reading without being forced to! What planet are these people from??

It reminds me of my third grade library class where the teacher slapped me for reading in the library. She was teaching us the Dewey Decimal system at the time and I had learned -that- at the city library before I was done with first grade. So I was reading. In the library.

I just don’t know what to make of this country sometimes…

Rick Perlstein @ 29

I want to avoid asking about politics, but I can’t help it. What do you think of the theories–conspiracy theories?–that some of the conservative architects of NCLB hoped it would discredit public education as a whole, to accelerate the privatization of the system?

I would have pshawed that notion at the beginning of the administration but now think it is a legitimate question.

Also, somebody had to think through the logic at some point and realize kids with emotional problems, behavoral problems, learning disabilities, bad family situations, drug and alcohol problems and a host of others would get pushed out of the system in order for schools not to incur draconian funding penalties. Which is going to make just about every one of these problems worse. There had to be some real callous indifference at the onset not necessarily with regard to standardized testing per se, but certainly with the levers with which they sought to incentify the schools in the process.

From Duke faculty to 1st grade in public schools, the whole of our eduction resides in callous indifference.

Obviously, there is a conspiracy to dumb-down European white males.

And the conspirators gloat in their success.

Americans listen to these numfucks at their peril.

TexBetsy @ 200

In my class she’d be writing a short story about a girl who has an adventure during classes at the Met.

She’s going to be the best in your class. She writes with imagination and confidence. She writes like an adult. Do you have time to teach her to HER level in your class? Or do you just expect her to fit into your classroom the best she can and vamp? Give her an assignment that she has to do by herself, with no peers for company? And forget about skipping a grade. It isn’t done.
This is why my daughter HATES school.

I try to work with every child at their own level and encourage independent work. If her level of writing is beyond mine, she writes in consultation with a university level penpal. If the rest of the class is reading “Call of the Wild” she either reads that or an adult book on similar themes and she finds connections to MORE of the SS curriculum than the rest of the students find. It’s called differentiated instruction. It is how I was trained and I don’t see it being taught much anymore.

portia.vz @ 199

I know what you mean and for most kids, it works fine. But think of it this way: you have a kid who is G&T in your heterogeneous class, she scores in the top 2% in the state in literature, her writing samples are nearly flawless, and you give her a packet of adjective exercises that you expect the whole class to conplete. The packet is mind numbingly dull and boring and a tortuous exercise in tedium for her. She knew this stuff two grades ago.
You offer her sequins if she gets it done.
She’s thinking, “Are you serious? I have to do this $^%$ for *sequins*?”
Did I mention she wins state wide art contests? Sequins? Hell, she’s wotking with pastels and takes art lessons at the Met.
Sequins aren’t going to cut it.

In my class she’d be writing a short story about a girl who has an adventure during classes at the Met.

She’s going to be the best in your class. She writes with imagination and confidence. She writes like an adult. Do you have time to teach her to HER level in your class? Or do you just expect her to fit into your classroom the best she can and vamp? Give her an assignment that she has to do by herself, with no peers for company? And forget about skipping a grade. It isn’t done.
This is why my daughter HATES school.

The reality of this is that students become more vulnerable to giving up and dropping out, potentially increasing their chances for prison or at least limiting themselves to low-pay zero benefit jobs (if there are any.) Or, now, they can join the lowered expectations military and be taught remedial skills in boot camp while getting ready to fight for the transnatls.

And someone is making billions of dollars off of all this…

The best way to fix NCLB is to just dump it all and start over again with the ESEA and a realistic commitment to school district and funding equality and student privacy. But our Democrats cannot even end an immoral and illegal war.

Kobe says “woof.”

Loo Hoo. @ 188

I didn’t mean to put in their pocket as a prize. I meant, for instance, if they turned in a story without mistakes (different expectations depending on the student) they could then decorate the picture to go with the story in some sort of special way. Something quite motivating about sequins during the holidays!

I know what you mean and for most kids, it works fine. But think of it this way: you have a kid who is G&T in your heterogeneous class, she scores in the top 2% in the state in literature, her writing samples are nearly flawless, and you give her a packet of adjective exercises that you expect the whole class to conplete. The packet is mind numbingly dull and boring and a tortuous exercise in tedium for her. She knew this stuff two grades ago.
You offer her sequins if she gets it done.
She’s thinking, “Are you serious? I have to do this $^%$ for *sequins*?”
Did I mention she wins state wide art contests? Sequins? Hell, she’s wotking with pastels and takes art lessons at the Met.
Sequins aren’t going to cut it.

In my class she’d be writing a short story about a girl who has an adventure during classes at the Met.

portia.vz @ 172

LOL! My kid has never fallen for these “rewards”. It has driven her teachers crazy. You know what works for the ornary little smart asses?
Attention.

I didn’t mean to put in their pocket as a prize. I meant, for instance, if they turned in a story without mistakes (different expectations depending on the student) they could then decorate the picture to go with the story in some sort of special way. Something quite motivating about sequins during the holidays!

I know what you mean and for most kids, it works fine. But think of it this way: you have a kid who is G&T in your heterogeneous class, she scores in the top 2% in the state in literature, her writing samples are nearly flawless, and you give her a packet of adjective exercises that you expect the whole class to conplete. The packet is mind numbingly dull and boring and a tortuous exercise in tedium for her. She knew this stuff two grades ago.
You offer her sequins if she gets it done.
She’s thinking, “Are you serious? I have to do this $^%$ for *sequins*?”
Did I mention she wins state wide art contests? Sequins? Hell, she’s wotking with pastels and takes art lessons at the Met.
Sequins aren’t going to cut it.