August 31, 2007
Dean Wormer's NCLB? Or Phoebe Cates' Suburban Relief Act of '07
I've been meaning to note this for a while, but Education Week's David Hoff is showing us how valuable it can be to unleash journalists to blog about the stuff they cover. There's always more in the reporter's notebook than you can squeeze into a published story, and Hoff has been treating us to lots of extra goodies and insight on the reauthorization of NCLB. And he even found a way to make it sound interesting!
His latest "cheat sheet" for the recently unveiled discussion draft on NCLB reauthorization had me wondering: After you differentiate between interventions between "priority schools" and "high priority schools," whether it might be possible to negotiate something along the lines of a third set of "double secret priority schools," where we intervene in ways that students/teachers/parents can't even tell there are interventions actually in play. We could make NCLB so kind and gentle that it looks like the old days where Washington pumped loads of cash to schools and everyone was happy, whether kids could actually read or not.
That kind of seems to be the whole point of reauthorization right now - to make sure as much of the pain is hidden from anyone who actually has to feel it.
There will obviously be lots more discussion and people much smarter than me will have lots of insights in the coming weeks. For starters, check out Eduwonk's take on the language surrounding teacher salaries and funding equity, Mike Petrilli's point that this is the greatest feel-good, self-esteem gesture aimed at suburban kids since that one scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High when Phoebe Cates climbs out of the pool, or Amy Wilkins' take that the real winners here seem to be the grownups.
