Presidential Candidates and the NCLB Act

Since the NCLB is the driving force behind the PSSA test and since the NCLB Act is up for re- authorization, we should know where the presidential candidates stand on education and the NCLB.

While Hillary Clinton voted for the NCLB the first time around, on her website, she bluntly states that she will end the NCLB Act. (Hillary Clinton Website) To improve education, she will enhance the IDEA Act with more funding, recruit and retain good teachers, improve early intervention programs, and create job programs.

On his website, (Barack Obama Website) Barack Obama says that "teachers should not prepare students to fill in bubbles". He believes in reforming and funding NCLB to improve current assessments and create new ones in areas such as the ability to work with technology. He believes more funding from the government would help schools to run lots and lots of programs that would close gaps in subgroups of students, recruit teachers, and run summer programs to help educationally disadvantage students. The funding money would come from varies parts of government such as a reduction in a specific NASA program, improving government procurement systems, and savings from the Iraq war.

According to his website, (John McCain website) John McCain believes that the standardized testing required under the NCLB has helped us see that there is an achievement gap between schools and students from different socioeconomic groups and school choice is important to narrowing these gaps. He states that schools should be "innovative and flexible" in teaching our students and we should focus on addressing the underlying cultural problems in the educational system.

While I do not think any of these candidates is exactly an educational ball of fire, their plans sound good in theory. I am suspicious of Hillary since she was on the committee that gave us the first report "A Nation at Risk" which, along with her husband, really created the environment for the NCLB to become law. I will give Obama some credit, his plan is on a PDF file and has a lot more detail than the other two candidates. I like what John McCain says about schools becoming more innovative and flexible, but that is pretty hard to do when you have the PSSA looming over your shoulder.

Well folks, the vote is yours alone, so I encourage you to look on the websites to read the candidates stances on different issues and the plans they have associated with their ideas. Let us strive to have past voting records and these facts decide our next president instead of voting with whatever the media decides to bombard us with during the race.
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With the PSSA's only a few weeks away, the time has come to contact your principal and make an appointment to review the test. My appointment is next Wednesday. I am looking forward to reviewing my son's exact PSSA test. By reading his test, I hope I will gain insight into his eventual test score. I look forward to describing that experience to all my readers.

Part of the No Child Left Behind Act expresses the need for family involvement in education so that the child's educational experience can be maximized. What chances for involvement do parents have? I have attended many PTO meetings. Trust me, "helping education" in the PTO means planning teacher luncheons, deciding on classroom parties, and raising money to purchase items for the school. Of course, there is always the "booster club" for your child's chosen sport, which does help to expand life beyond the 3 R's. While these things do enhance education in their own right, I am not sure if the NCLB ACT was eluding to events of this type. I think the NCLB Act was speaking of improving the parent/child teaching relationship by improving the parent's understanding that the process of teaching starts at home. To learn this, parents need knowledge of what their child is doing in school. (Is anyone familiar with this conversation? Parent: "What did you learn in school?" Child: "I don't know". Or how about the infamous :"Nothing".) Any attempt to fix this common problem must include direct information from the teacher to the parent.

Most schools have web sites to disseminate information efficiently. Some schools have real time student grades that can be accessed through the computer. Teachers may even be required to have a web page with basic information pertaining to the class that they teach. Yet, in our district anyway, there is no requirement for teachers to post homework assignments, give teaching tips for parents, and show daily logs of what is being taught in the classroom. School districts are paying for well designed web sites, yet they are not utilizing the sites to meet one of the requirements of the NCLB.

I recall making some of these suggestions in one meeting. Of course, I was given a look of "are you some kind of idiot", but politely told that the teachers are busy enough without adding more to their plate. The answer to that should be simple. Parents cannot help if they do not know what is happening in class. So I say, start making the teachers post their lesson plans on line. Too much work you say? How about electronic lesson planners that could be posted directly to the web site, have a copy sent to the principal, and another saved for the teacher? When I asked in yet another meeting whether this was possible, the answer was, "I don't know." Translation: "I don't know and I am not going to find out. Keep your suggestions to yourself."

Perhaps this attitude will change since the new Kindergarten parent is at an age where they can only vaguely remember life without the Internet. Hopefully, they will demand and get more information than what we "older parents" are getting today. Their educational interaction with their children will benefit as more classroom details are given. Perhaps this communication will actually aid in a decreased need for the PSSA!
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Questionable PSSA Practices

Remember to call your school today to schedule a time to review the PSSA test before your child's scheduled testing time!

Today, I wanted to touch on a different ways that the school districts interrupt important education to prep students for the PSSA. Some schools have labeled a group of children "Bubble Students". These are the students that have a score of "Basic" on their PSSA, but are close to the "Proficient" score. These kids are pulled out of class and given special small group instruction in hopes of pushing them into the "Proficient" category. At first glance, it seems okay. Let's give a little extra help to those that can benefit. Well, there can be no benefit without a cost. Let me tell you how our school is able to make this accomplishment. The "Bubble Students" are given instruction by the already overworked Learning Support teacher. As a result, the Learning Support teacher has less time to spend with the Learning Disabled children who legally and ethically are actually supposed to be the recipients of her services. With the LS teacher busy with the "Bubble Students", the truly disabled students, who so desperately need help, are put on the back burner until the PSSA is complete. The interruption of services is frustrating for the parents and the students. This is one of the many examples of how schools feel is necessary to participate in morally questionable decisions in order to manipulate the numbers into showing progress. (In my opinion, saturating a kid with PSSA problems and calling it "progress" is a questionable practice. )
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What causes the "false need" for the PSSA?

In a perfect world, the teachers would instruct students to the best of their ability, the students would receive the information and learn easily, the parents would be involved enough to help and support their child's educational process, and the government and school boards would provide enough money for a "free and appropriate education" for all children. If these conditions existed, the PSSA would be nonexistent. As we all know, none of the above always occurs in schools across our nation. Sometimes teachers are incompetent and that incompetency is protected by other teachers and the union. Children have different learning needs and styles. All too often, parents are uneducated or careless when it comes to their children's educational needs. School boards claim they have no money, yet the funding of sports is often a priority in many districts. Governments, for many reasons, must put regulations in place, but neglect to give the money necessary for schools to follow through with those regulations. Some would say that the PSSA is a method of forcing school districts to address all these issues that impede learning. I say that the PSSA is a coercive way of forcing school districts to obtain a false sense of student proficiency instead of correcting some of the reasons that we have an inadequate educational system that will force our nation into an uncompetitive position in the world. (according to some anyway) I look forward to discussing these issues in blogs to come.
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Private school vs public school?

How does the PSSA effect the education a student receives in a public school vs a private school where the PSSA test is not required? I am in the unique position to have one child in public school and another in private school. I can say absolutely, in the case of my family, my child who attends private school receives a better education. Not only does the private school have an excellent curriculum that revolves around the basic subjects, but they still manage to fit in real life experiences. I just came back from chaperoning my daughter's class trip to the local soup kitchen where students handed out care packages to the soup kitchen "clients". The class had done a fundraiser, bought the personal care items at a local store, bagged them, and then distributed the items at the soup kitchen. During the visit, they were required to pose questions to the director of the establishment about poverty, it's causes, and possible solutions. They were encouraged to make eye contact with the needy people and to speak with them. The children were moved by this amazing experience which could not have been duplicated in the classroom! (and certainly not tested on the PSSA test) My son, in contrast, has participated in money collection and drives for charity, but has never followed through with the delivery of the items. Standardized tests, such as the PSSA, do not allow the time for these "extra" activities. I recently heard a public school teacher say that she was thinking of sending her children to private school because many public school teachers have cut back on "hands on learning" simply because they are "too busy" with the PSSA test preparation. How sad that our children will be schooled in neither the social problems of society nor the application of concepts simply because of tests like the PSSA. Real life applications and experiences mold all of us in different ways. Our understanding of Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies improves exponentially with every true to life experience. In these matters, public schools and government should follow the private school lead. Let us liberate our public schools from the PSSA test in order to help our children to be better thinkers and allow them the chance to have "life moments" that will shape not only their future, but the future of our world.
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A test on the test...

I can name several vices that the PSSA test brings to education. Today, I will discuss the one that is popping up in my son's Seventh grade English and Math class. I should preface this blog by telling you that, historically, my son does not do well on the PSSA test. However, with certain supports, his grades in school are good. "At least he has good grades," I always think when I look at yet another year of PSSA test scores. Well, I can kiss that comforting thought good-bye because this year the teachers decided to give "sample" PSSA tests and use them for grading purposes. Basically, the students are being tested on the Test! (Note that I have capitalized the word "Test". No, it is not really a proper noun, but it seems to be taking on a life of its own, so I thought it was the appropriate thing to do. Someone call Webster's-we've got a new word here!) Back to testing on the test. Is it not enough that we have set children up to fail on the test? Must we also have them fail in their grades thereby causing their future to be that much more dim? As if devoting six weeks to PSSA test preparation isn't problematic enough, let's throw salt on the wound and make the prep part of the grade. Students should be learning concepts, the interrelationship of those concepts, and the practical usage of them. To use a standardized test such as the PSSA to teach and grade is a travesty of the spirit of education, a waste of tax dollars, and is disrespectful to the diverse needs and learning styles of our students.
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Importatant dates for the 2008 PSSA test!

March is soon upon us, and so too, is the PSSA test. This year the window in which the Reading and Mathematics test must be given is from March 31, 2008 to April 11, 2008. The Reading and Mathematics PSSA test will be shipped from Data Recognition Corp. (DRC) to the schools by March 3, 2008. If you are a parent and would like to review your child's PSSA test prior to the test date, then you can make your request know to the school any time after March 3, 2008. By March 17, 2008, the school will be sending a flyer to all parents which answers some basic questions about the PSSA test with the last question talking about the parent's right to review the test. If you are reviewing the test, make certain that you request the specific test that your child will be taking. (In case you missed the earlier information, there are many different tests per grade level.) You may meet with a little reluctance or hesitation due to the fact that the District Test Coordinator or the principal may not know how to handle such a request. In my case, I have already spoken with the District Test Coordinator. She was unsure what to do when I asked to review the specific test that my son would be taking, However, she was able to call the appropriate person at the PA Department of Education who said it would be allowable to open a pack of tests and whatever test was given to me for review from that pack would then be labeled as my son's test. The Coordinator said she would pass this information on to the principal of the school that my son attends. Remember, if you are working, you do not have to take time off work review this test. The school must schedule a time for you to review the test that is at your convenience. Be warned that there are stipulations to reviewing the test. Among other things, a confidentiality agreement must be signed and a district representative must be present while you are reviewing the test. Despite this, I would love to see every parent reviewing this test! Let us show the lawmakers, the school personnel, and our children that we want information about this test and more importantly, we want a say in how it is used to judge our students.
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