Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Code Red on NCLB!

Here's an email I received at school today:

CTA Capital Service Center Council Local Update (September 10, 2007)

Code Red on NCLB: Please Act Now!
In an unprecedented rush to reauthorize an already bad law – and actually make it worse – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Representative George Miller (D-CA) are seeking almost immediate renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB).

California’s teachers “have had enough of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act,” CTA President David Sanchez said. “It is hurting our students, our schools and our teachers. Unfortunately, the Miller/Pelosi reauthorization plan will only make the law worse. It does nothing to improve student learning and will place even more undue emphasis on test scores, create new sanctions for struggling schools, make it harder to attract and retain teachers, undermine local control, and erode employee rights.”

Sanchez said the proposal that mandates merit pay for teachers based solely on the test scores of students is insulting. “Test scores alone don’t measure student achievement and shouldn’t be the only method for paying or evaluating teachers.”

Instead of backing changes that punish students, teachers and schools, Pelosi and Miller should be supporting the proven reforms that teachers and parents know will help. CTA is advocating for a law that restores the federal class size reduction program, provides resources for quality teacher training, mentors for new teachers, and provides programs that promote parental and family involvement in our schools.

To learn more – particularly about how quickly this bad move may take place – please go to the CTA NCLB/ESEA Information Page.

But even more importantly
, please take action to stop the reauthorization of NCLB now! Pass this email on to parents, friends, relatives and colleagues (using your home email address) and contact your Congressperson immediately strongly urging him/her to vote NO on NCLB reauthorization.

There will be more alerts and updates on this vital issue in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned as we take on another critical fight to protect our profession and public schools!

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When Nancy Pelosi is their enemy, you know CTA is going off the deep end. Some people just don't think they should actually have to show the results of their labor.

Update, 9/27/07: I forgot that the NEA gave Nancy Pelosi the Friend of Education Award at the Rep Assembly this year. She's gone from "friend" to "Public Enemy Number One" pretty quickly, no?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The CTA is out of their minds. They are against this law because it makes bad teachers, and districts accountable for their ongoing records of poor educational results.
Unions don't give a rats ass about the kids. They only protect (bad) teachers, because good teachers don't need protecting.

allenm said...

And what in that indicates that they're nuts? Seems like a perfectly rational, if not very defensible, position.

The union, after all, exists to get the best deal for teachers without much regard to the consequences.

The union sees quite clearly that accountability measures are not in the interests of the union because it introduces considerations of quality into public education. Once you start measuring quality you want to start making the changes indicated by the measurements.

Right now one teacher's pretty much as good as another with the exception of a couple of specialties. The union can't tolerate discrimination on the basis of competence since the good teachers don't need the services of the union and are unlikely to willingly exert themselves on behalf of their less competent colleagues.

Anonymous said...

Liberals are beginning to turn on their own, i.e., CTA vs Pelosi, and Move On dot Org vs Katie Couric.