And speaking of NCLB on steroids, the President announced his intentions to overhaul NCLB and our education system. From the White House:
The President discusses his blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the latest step from his Administration to encourage change and success in America’s schools at the local level.
Another “feels good/looks good on paper” unfunded mandate on the horizon, it sounds like. As titillating as Texas Hold ’em on Texas objectives is, this situation is far more serious. This appears to be another huge, omnibus education plan where one size fits all.
Here is the link to the Core Curriculum State Standards Initiative. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
When the politicians and the ivory tower gang admits that not every child learns at the same rate, the same depth, the same material, and for the same reasons all kids will be better off. This concept is not rocket science. Cookie cutter expectations must stop. A kid with a reading disability is expected to learn the same material that a gifted child learns, in the same amount of time. What’s wrong with this picture?
Scrap NCLB. It was a good idea gone bad.
