by Luis Carlos López
President Barack Obama’s reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an overhaul of George W. Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind initiative, is raising some concern from the nation’s powerful education unions.
Pointing out the United States now trails many developed nations in key areas of public schooling, Obama delivered his administration’s broad vision March 13 with the message, “Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”
Both unions provided prompt critiques. National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel told Weekly Report that while he lauds Obama’s “step in the right direction,” the proposal needs to improve the way it deals with teachers before NEA, with its 3.2 million members, can fully back the Administration’s “Blueprint for Reform.”
He stated that a successful education needs three components: (1) collaboration between management and school boards and the employees and their unions, (2) assessments that use growth models and multiple measures, and (3) all schools receive the resources needed to make them work.
Proposed high-stakes testing to determine which are the challenged schools, making them “winners and losers — we don’t support this,” he said.
American Federation of Teachers spokesperson John Cee added that a system that gives teachers “zero authority” is a flawed strategy.
“The blueprint places 100% of the responsibility on teachers,” Cee said. “It can’t be just teachers, or just principals, or just parents. It has to be all of us working together to give our kids the schools they need and deserve.” AFT has 1.4 million members.
Meeting privately with Latino journalists March 26, Education Secretary Arnie Duncan said academic growth has “flatlined” the last two decades and this administration is placing major emphasis on reaching the underserved.
Juan Sepúlveda, director of White House Initiatives on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, said focusing on teachers and evaluating their performance is key to bridging the gap in academic success.
College/career readiness is a key component in expanding that success, he said.
“There’s one thing about NCLB that we want to continue, and that is a focus on equity: seeing how subgroups, not just schools in general, are doing,” Sepúlveda told Weekly Report. “We want to take it a step further, however, by giving states a common set of standards while also allowing fl exibility.”
The transformation approach outlined in Obama’s blueprint would require schools in the lowest 5 percent to choose one of four turnaround models.
Some require dismissal of the principal and half of the staff should schools fail to improve.
Critics see this as a disruption unfair to some good staff and their pupils, just adding to the problem.
The dropout rate for Hispanics and blacks is double that of the 30 percent for whites. A 2009 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education shows black and Hispanic high school dropout rates to be 69% and 63 percent, respectively. Hispanic Link.
