Here's a link to a bog on Education Week that is edited by David Hoff, who is an associate editor at Education Week.
It is titled: NCLB: Act II
The current topic is: The latest news on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.
After looking over the new draft rules in the Federal Register, I commented on that story. You can read my comment here:
BobBl - October 28, 2008 2:47 PM
Here's what I said there:
Isn't there some way to stop Spellings and the Department of Education from going any further with these rule changes? Most of this will be unacceptable under the subsequent administration's agenda for education.When there's a "regime change," the classified civil service USDOE employees (the dedicated few who haven't been driven off) will stop doing anything substantial (besides administering entitlement programs) until there's a new Secretary appointed and new political appointees put into the leadership positions in all the program offices.This is an obvious continuation of the same old "top down" essentialist education agenda that the Bush administration has pushed over almost eight years.Going any further with these "rule changes," which are nothing more than an "interpretation" of what this Secretary and her politically appointed staff interpret the legislation to mean, is a waste of time and $$ that the education community in this country can't afford.
Isn't there some way to stop Spellings and the Department of Education from going any further with these rule changes?
Most of this will be unacceptable under the subsequent administration's agenda for education.
When there's a "regime change," the classified civil service USDOE employees (the dedicated few who haven't been driven off) will stop doing anything substantial (besides administering entitlement programs) until there's a new Secretary appointed and new political appointees put into the leadership positions in all the program offices.
This is an obvious continuation of the same old "top down" essentialist education agenda that the Bush administration has pushed over almost eight years.
Going any further with these "rule changes," which are nothing more than an "interpretation" of what this Secretary and her politically appointed staff interpret the legislation to mean, is a waste of time and $$ that the education community in this country can't afford.
Going any further with these new rules would be a horrible, costly mistake. Everyone who cares about the future of America's public educational system should write to their Representatives and call for them to do everything in their power to block the implementation of these new rules.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 34 CFR Part 200 Docket ID ED-2008-OESE-0003 Title I--Improving The Academic Achievement Of The Disadvantaged
This quote from the introductory section perfectly summarizes why I believe so very strongly that these rules must be stopped immediately:
"In the absence of reauthorization, we believe these final regulations are necessary to further the interests of parents and children and to improve the implementation of NCLB in order to continue progress toward the goal of 100 percent student proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2014." (New Rules, pgs. 5-6)
For the same reasons that the Congress tabled the reauthorization of NCLB, these rule changes nust be stopped too.
These new rule's would be a terribly expensive mis-step backwards that our schools just can't afford.
BobBl
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