This Week in Education

The revisions are noteworthy that have
been suggested with the exception
of the bullet point

ESEA / NCLB should encourage
and provide resources to
increase parental involvement
in our schools??

The NCLB Act had a landmark
legislative funded mandate
for money to go to the
schools to support the role
of parents as educational
partners with the school.
It was to include the families
literacy and parenting skill
needs, BUT unfortunately
there are no checks and
balances for the funds.
In my school district alone,
three million dollars
was set aside for the
Parents literacy needs,
but very few parents
know about the funds at the
schools, respectfully stated
Principals take the money
and buy supplies for the
school office and then
when parents ask for paper
or copies for school meetings
they are told, the school
cannot provide it to them.
There are a myriad of
horror stories that could
be lauded about, but please
the NCLB Act did put
FUNDING in the law for
parents, they just forgot
to put consequences in the
law for what happens when
the money is taken and
not used for purposes intended.

The revisions are noteworthy that have
been suggested with the exception
of the bullet point

ESEA / NCLB should encourage
and provide resources to
increase parental involvement
in our schools??

The NCLB Act had a landmark
legislative funded mandate
for money to go to the
schools to support the role
of parents as educational
partners with the school.
It was to include the families
literacy and parenting skill
needs, BUT unfortunately
there are no checks and
balances for the funds.
In my school district alone,
three million dollars
was set aside for the
Parents literacy needs,
but very few parents
know about the funds at the
schools, respectfully stated
Principals take the money
and buy supplies for the
school office and then
when parents ask for paper
or copies for school meetings
they are told, the school
cannot provide it to them.
There are a myriad of
horror stories that could
be lauded about, but please
the NCLB Act did put
FUNDING in the law for
parents, they just forgot
to put consequences in the
law for what happens when
the money is taken and
not used for purposes intended.

I'm with you, Mr. Lewis. Actually Title I has a long history of funding without checks and balances--which led to the climate that produced NCLB. The funds have always been intended to level the playing field for disadvantaged students. Problem 1, the funds haven't always gotten there (the comparability features proposed--looking at actual building by building dollar budgets, with actual teacher salaries not an average amt per FTE will help with that, I hope), and problem 2 until NCLB there were no expectations that states/districts had to show improvement of any kind for those kids.

But as I read the CTA document, it appears to be an exercise in how many times you can include "one-size-fits-all," "unfair" and "standardized testing" onto a single post card. Practically everything concrete that is suggested (attendance and graduation rates, rigorous curriculum, growth models) is already in place or planned in my own state--which just shows that there is nothing in NCLB to keep those things from happening.