________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT May 31, 2004 Vol. 4, No. 23 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... PARDON OUR CYNICISM BUT... Recently, the Vermont Superintendents Association (VSA) sent a "position paper" to Vermont's Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  It can be summed up in one sentence: VSA doesn't like NCLB. Readers might be interested, however, in the VSA's complete rationale, so we have copied and pasted below the VSA position paper.  We have inserted, however, our own translations of the various sections (somewhat tongue in cheek).  Our comments are in parentheses. VERMONT SUPERINTENDENTS ASSOCIATION POSITION PAPER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT April 2004 The Vermont Superintendent's Association (VSA) welcomes the national commitment to the education of all children. It is the fulfillment of all educators' dreams that all children be educated to their maximum ability. The federal government expressed such a high purpose in the 2001 No Child Left Behind act (NCLB). Our state Constitution, adopted more than 200 years ago, states that it is a right, a necessity and an obligation to educate all children. Prior to the federal NCLB Act, Vermont adopted educational quality legislation in the 1997 educational reform act. School leaders in Vermont's public schools have held themselves and their staffs accountable for setting high standards for learning and for employing the best educational practices. Vermont's extraordinary and improving academic performance demonstrates our state's success. Despite the noble purpose of the federal NCLB law, the Vermont Superintendents' Association is concerned that critical shortcomings in the federal act will substantially harm, rather than advance, the education of Vermont's children. --The Purpose of Education - Vermont's Constitution requires our children be taught civic virtue. Thus, teaching and learning encompass more than what NCLB measures on limited paper and pencil tests in a few areas. To reach our broader goal, we must maintain a broader curriculum and ways of measuring school progress than NCLB envisions. To reach this end, we must strengthen and embrace (rather than diminish) our unique Vermont heritage of direct and continuous accountability through locally elected boards to assure a high quality and cost-effective education for all children. (TRANSLATION: Forget those pesky tests. We'll let parents and taxpayers know if schools are succeeding. Just trust us.) --The Growth of the Whole Child - VSA is further concerned that NCLB does not acknowledge essential family, poverty and social issues. The schools are held solely responsible for the education of our most needy and neglected children. Furthermore, adequate programs to address these human needs such as effective pre-school programs, nutrition, medical care, parental support, and expanded intellectual and social opportunities are not substantively addressed by the federal law. Many children from impoverished backgrounds arrive at the school-house door unprepared to prosper or to learn. (TRANSLATION: Despite decades of federal and state programs aimed at helping the needy, we are not doing an adequate job educating the underprivileged. But it is not our fault.) --Measuring Schools - Learning should be measured by looking at how much students grow in their knowledge, civic values and skills from the time they enter a school until the time that they leave the school. Instead, the Act requires that judgments be made by comparing how much students know in one year with how much a different group of students know in other years. This is like evaluating an employee based on the work of the person who previously held the job. It makes even less sense in Vermont's small schools and classes where the performance of a single student can dramatically affect the entire school's label. (TRANSLATION: Kids might not do well on tests but we believe they're still learning something. Just trust us.) -- Adequate Yearly Progress - There is a compelling body of national evidence that the required growth rates are scientifically impossible to achieve - particularly without great investments in the social well-being of our children. The result will be the labeling on virtually all schools in the state as "in need of improvement" even though Vermont's educational achievement is among the best in the nation. Thus, the measure is not a valid indicator of our strengths or weaknesses. (TRANSLATION: Only "great investments" of more money will result in any improvement. There's no need to measure improvement, however. Just trust us when we tell you it's happening.) -- School Choice and Communities - Despite the fact that there is little, if any, scientifically accepted evidence that school choice is an effective means for improving schooling, the NCLB Act requires implementation of mandatory school choice within schools that show inadequate test score progress. With Vermont's cherished values of town and community, school choice has the potential for weakening rather than strengthening our schools and our commitment to equality of opportunities. (TRANSLATION: We refuse to acknowledge, let alone believe, the many solid studies showing school choice's effectiveness. As far as structuring educational delivery systems, we're stuck in the 19th century and proud of it.) -- Funding - We know what makes good schools and we know what it takes to meaningfully educate all children. (TRANSLATION: We know what makes good schools and we know what it takes to meaningfully educate all children. Trust us.) -- The earlier in children's lives they receive high quality educational services, the better they perform. This is essential if our neediest children are not to be left behind. (TRANSLATION: This is part of the "great investments" we mentioned earlier.) -- The more individual attention children receive and the smaller the class size (particularly in early grades), the more children will learn. We need only to look at our own state to see the return on our investments. (TRANSLATION: See above.) -- Efforts to improve student learning must address all of the factors in a child's development. The school alone cannot erase the effects of impacted poverty. (TRANSLATION: We aren't responsible for the 60 percent of Vermont fourth- and eighth-graders who are not proficient in reading skills -- 2002 NAEP results). -- Efforts to improve learning must involve school and community cultures, as well as instructional programs. (TRANSLATION: Planning is just as important as results.) --Instructional improvements require a consistent, concentrated, adequate and sustained commitment to professional development. This vital area has been neglected across the nation. (TRANSLATION: We need more money -- "great investment" -- in teacher-training programs but we'll be the judge of their quality.) Unfortunately, NCLB does not adequately address these essentials. Federal statements claim they are making adequate financial commitments when their efforts are far short of what is needed to teach children. For example, federal Title I expenditures are less than 3% of total educational spending. National research shows that improving the performance of children in impacted poverty requires pre-school, after-school, summer, nutrition and medical care which are far beyond the scope of NCLB funding. Hungry children do not learn phonics no matter how well taught. The cost impact of NCLB on total education spending is 30% rather than the 3% now provided to schools. (TRANSLATION: We think a focus on phonics is silly and that's why we mention it here. More money is what's really important.) We believe that Congress and the federal government must: 1. Modify how our schools are evaluated to include, but go beyond, standardized tests. Instead of a rigid, lock-step annual test-score system, the essential evaluation of schools must be broadened to reflect the unique differences between states, the richness of all we want our children to know, and the vast variety of differences among our communities. (TRANSLATION: Trust us, not tests.) 2. Improve the accountability requirements for schools and school districts to reflect realistic requirements. Regardless of the high achievement of many schools, the current NCLB system will ultimately declare the best efforts of all our communities to be failures. This is a great wrong. (TRANSLATION: We support accountability measures where all schools are deemed adequate, no matter what.) 3. Expand our early education, after school, and summer programs, and strengthen family supports adequate to meet our promises. Children are in schools for less than a quarter of their time during grades preK-12. We must look broader if we are to give equal opportunities for education to all. (TRANSLATION: Give us more money and everything will be fine.) 4. Abandon ideological agendas, often supported by vested interest think-tanks, in favor of refereed and scientifically accepted principles of research. We note privatization, the presumed ability of schools to singularly overcome poverty, and reading methods as three areas that could benefit from the fresh light of objective inquiry. (TRANSLATION: All agendas are "ideological" except ours, so they must be abandoned in favor of ours.) 5. Provide adequate opportunities for all children. The great failing of American schools is not in our achievement but in the gap between the opportunities we provide our most privileged children and those we provide to our children in the cities, in rural regions, our most needy. This is reflected in the way our nation and our states provide resources and support. (TRANSLATION: Even though some of our members can afford to access educational opportunities for their own children by sending them to so-called "privileged" private schools, we don't believe that allowing poor parents to do the same is a good idea. More money for the schools we control is a good idea.) 6. Change the law to support rather than punish those teachers and staff who work in our most disadvantaged environments. NCLB has progressively harsher sanctions. Those who will fail most rapidly are schools characterized as poor and diverse. (TRANSLATION: We'll tell you if schools are accomplishing the right goals. Trust us.) We urge the Vermont legislature and administration to: 1. Determine the costs -- including administrative, remedial and social needs -- of truly leaving no child behind. Using all available means, we must then call upon the federal government to meet the financial obligations for the programs they have mandated. (TRANSLATION: When we're finished tallying up these costs, the price tag will be so high that taxpayers will be burning copies of NCLB in the streets.) 2. Determine whether NCLB truly reflects the goals and aspirations for Vermont education. If it does not reflect our dreams and address our children's needs, then Vermont officials must modify the plans submitted to the federal government to meet Vermont's broader and more worthy definition of public education. Basic subject matter is essential yet we must also focus on making every child a contributing citizen to their home, community and state. We should not abandon our course, sacrifice our successes, limit our curriculum or forsake the involvement of our citizenry to meet narrow and lesser federal requirements. (TRANSLATION: We know some parents and taxpayers think "basic subject matter" is important so we include a passing reference to it here. We know what's really important, however, so just trust us.) 3. If we are unsuccessful in obtaining federal approval for an educational system worthy of Vermont goals and children, or if the federal government fails to provide adequate resources to assure that no child is left behind, then the VSA asks our state leaders to carefully review the federal obligations and federal revenues, and determine whether the federal NCLB law is in the best interest of the state or of Vermont's children. (TRANSLATION: We don't believe in the goals and values of NCLB and hope others will join us.) VER GOES TO SUMMER SCHEDULE The Vermont Education Report will not be appearing in your email box next Monday because we will be going to a summer schedule - publishing every other week. The next time you'll see the VER is Monday night, June 14 unless breaking news occurs! Please feel free to email us with information or news, however - VTBetterEd@aol.com.  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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