AMERICA ON LIFE SUPPORT!

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Contents

Preface.........................................................................viiIntroduction....................................................................ix1-No Child Left Behind-Political Nonsense.......................................12-What Happened to Discipline in Our Schools?...................................113-Funding Our Schools...........................................................234-Teacher Evaluations, Tenure, and Unions.......................................315-Government Trends-Negative Influences over Recent History.....................416-Administration—Who is leading our schools?..............................477-Athletics and Coaching........................................................578-"Waiting For Superman"........................................................639-"American Teacher" A Documentary Film.........................................6910-Suggestions for Turning Things Around........................................7511-Needed Education Reform......................................................8312-Critical Changes for the Future..............................................95

Chapter One

The term itself, "No child left behind", is easy to support and cheer for. Any educator worth anything takes as much pride in the challenged student being successful as he/she does his/her gifted student making the honor roll. The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) legislation is the current model of President Lyndon Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965. It was written and passed in 2002 in a bi-partisan effort by then-President Bush and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. The purpose was to raise achievement and close achievement gaps among American students.

Certain groups of students have been traditionally identified as "at risk". They include blacks, Hispanics, and low socio-economic students. Recently other groups have been identified: multi-racial, homeless children, gay/lesbian, and boys/girls in certain subjects (math/science) or at certain grade levels. The NCLB legislation has been around for about a decade. I remember as an elementary principal discussing the law with several colleagues in 2002.

At that time, not many people really understood the long-range affects NCLB would have on the educational scene in America. The term "raising the bar" was not new to me, I have personally used this during my career as a coach to inspire and motivate my players, coaching staff, and myself to aim for higher levels of achievement. As my colleagues and I began to examine NCLB in more detail, it became clear that the law was literally impossible to carry out. The initial implementation was fine, we would jump on board and do all we could to improve levels of achievement. We would focus on identified "at risk groups", design plans and strategies to meet their needs, and track their progress continually.

I well remember sitting in SIP (School Improvement Plan) meetings each summer and analyzing data and brainstorming ideas and plans to close the gaps we found from last year's scores. It worked, at least at my school, Adams Elementary in Quincy, Illinois. The NCLB had given us a set of specific goals and a plan to reach those goals. I give a huge amount of the credit for our successes to the extraordinary level of commitment by the teachers we had in our building. Administrators, at times, forget who the real experts are. The administration in our schools is another issue that I will discuss in a later chapter.

As the details of NCLB became more understood, it became evident to a number of my colleagues and myself that this law was ridiculous and was doomed to failure. The idea of ALL children meeting or exceeding expectations as the ultimate goal was not only unrealistic, but impossible. I have been coaching for 40 years—I love the stories of "Rocky", "Hoosiers", and "Rudy". I believe in setting high goals and working hard to achieve them. The expectations that NCLB are asking for in 2012 and into the future are what I refer to as "Political Nonsense". Tying these mandates to holding back funds, firing staff, and closing attendance centers is counter-productive.

The NEA (National Education Association) in May, 2011, sent a request to Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, requesting relief for K-12 schools. The 3.2 million members of the NEA are asking that he intervenes by revising the "narrow and punitive mandates that are widely thought of to be unreasonable." Some Americans are just beginning to understand that the NCLB legislation is calling for 100% of our children to meet or exceed government set standards by 2014. These standards are called Average Yearly Progress (AYP) and they rise every year.

Here in Quincy, Illinois, the AYP (Average Yearly Progress) has caught up and surpassed our efforts. In September, 2011, several of our Title I buildings were deemed "failing to meet expectations" for the second straight year and parents were given the option of sending their children to a non-Title school. (Title schools are identified by those having more than 40% of the students eligible for free or reduced lunches. This is determined by the family income and the number of members in the household.)

The school district will have to pay for transporting these students. It should be noted that at Quincy's Baldwin middle school 78.3 per cent of students met the reading guidelines on the ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Test). This is up from 77 per cent the year before. However, the NCLB percentage target was hiked to 85 per cent—up from 77.5 the year before. Instead of a pat on the back for improving scores, they are told they are failures.

The mandated and ever increasing AYP guidelines are coming at a time when schools are struggling to make ends meet with ever shrinking resources. Many state governments are behind by hundreds of millions of dollars to local school districts. I know that in Quincy, the state of Illinois owes our district about $3 million from last year.

The bottom line is this—"Not all of us are created equal." It seems that no one wants or is willing to say that, for fear of being looked on as being pompous or arrogant. The fact is that it is true. I have spent most of my life involved in athletics as a player, coach, and a fan. My first love has always been football. I was a better than average high school player. Like most players, I was limited by my size, speed, etc. No NFL hope for me! I worked hard and became the best player that I could be.

Athletics taught me a lot about striving for goals and focusing on achieving them. As a coach, I always respected that young athlete who was not blessed with God-given talents, but worked extra hard to be successful. As educators we know that not only physically, but also academically, we are not all created equal. One size does NOT fit all. Why else would we have Special Education classes as well as Advanced Placement and Gifted classes? To ask that all students achieve at the same level at the same pace and time is ludicrous.

With that being said, our goal as educators has been and should always be to educate each and every student to their highest possible level of achievement and success. Set their goals high and do everything we can to help them get there. The law NCLB should have been NCF (No Child Forgotten). Local school districts should have had a lot more to say about setting...