(NOT the Official) DIBELS Clearinghouse

by JoBeth Allen
University of Georgia

NCTE/SLATE
http://www.ncte.org/about/issues/slate/115808.htm

Read this, and see if you can still believe that the Standardistos' goal is for every child to succeed--in the global economy or anywhere else. Read this and see that when 97% of the children do well on a test, then Standardistos pronounce the test too easy and demand a harder one. Read this and then join the resistance.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware of it yet, but NCTE has had to change the way it operates its annual conference. There has been concern for some time that not all members meet the high standards of the organization. There are rumors that some people—often at tax-payers’ expense—have session attendance rates that are frankly unacceptable. Others attend sessions, but do we really know what they are gaining from them? Are there measurable learning outcomes? Up until this year, we haven’t had any way to know.

But this year there will be an assessment battery administered throughout the year. [Suggestion: you and your colleagues can spend your professional development time, such as it is, and money, limited though it be, practicing for these assessments.] If you do not meet criteria as fully-prepared language educators, NELB (no educator left behind) is here to help.

First, there will be no social promotion to next year’s conference. Y’all may have been just a little too social already. If you cannot show Adequate Yearly Progress, you will repeat this program next year. Our dedicated presenters, at no additional compensation, will have a remedial conference as well as a new-materials conference next year. Your time will be restructured for you. In some cases your university or school may be restructured because of your failure.

Don’t you just feel like crying? Kids are crying, all over the country, at all grade levels in all kinds of schools. These are the Faces of the Children Left Behind.

I worry that those who developed and promote No Child Left Behind are not looking at those faces, only at the regulations. There are four guiding principles of NCLB.

1. Stronger Accountability for Results
An ESOL teacher who asked not to be identified—because “I'm already on the "hit list" at the county for fighting to keep upper elementary students in ESOL until they have enough reading comprehension skill to be successful in the regular classroom