The ever valuable Politico.com published an interview with Sandy Kress, the Texas lawyer who is widely recognized as the architect of No Child Left Behind. NCLB is viewed by many as a failed law that set unrealistic goals (100% proficiency by 2014), administered harsh punishments to schools that could not reach those goals, launched a testing frenzy, benefited consultants and testing corporations, and promoted charters and privatization as a “remedy,” based on no evidence.
In the interview, Kress strongly defends NCLB and takes issue with its critics.
NCLB ARCHITECT FIRES BACK:
Politicians and pundits from left, right and center have been beating up on No Child Left Behind. And Texas lawyer Sandy Kress has had enough. Kress, a longtime adviser to George W. Bush, was an original architect of NCLB. He stands by the law – and says it’s being blamed for a heap of problems that it did not in any way cause. “It’s sad to see all the brickbats,” Kress told Morning Education. “And worrisome.” Kress argues that the federal testing and accountability provisions were designed to prod district bureaucracies into demanding more qualified teachers, better instruction and top-notch materials. Instead, he said, administrators took the easy way out and bought loads of practice tests and test prep products in a frenzied rush to boost student scores. Kress used to lobby for Pearson, which of course sells many of those tests and test prep products. He doesn’t work for the company now, though, and says he can freely share his view: Yes, there are too many tests (and too many bad tests) – but no, it’s not the fault of NCLB. “Why [states and districts] chose to have tests on top of tests on top of tests” instead of improving instruction “is beyond me,” he said. The testing mania not only spurred the anti-NCLB backlash, but it flat out didn’t work, Kress said: “If you spend all your time weighing your pig, when it comes time to sell the pig, you’re going to find out you haven’t spent enough time feeding the pig.”
– Kress, a longtime Democrat turned political independent, said he’s disappointed in conservatives who want to delete huge chunks of NCLB. Sooner or later, he said, true conservatives will second-guess the impulse to significantly shrink the federal role in education. “Do we want to continue to have the federal government borrow money … and send it to local and state bureaucracies … without any guarantee of efficiency and effectiveness in how it’s spent?” he asked.
– Kress said he also sees huge irony in the marriage between teachers unions and the tea party in opposing federal testing and accountability mandates. The left fought so hard to defeat conservatives in the midterms, he said, and is now “getting in bed” with them to further policy goals. He also predicted that gutting NCLB would end up hurting public education advocates in the long run. Voters, he said, will eventually rebel against sending tax dollars to teachers and schools that aren’t held to account for students’ performance. “If that kind of position is allowed to prevail in the end, it will be extremely negative for public education,” he said.
– Morning Education had one more question for Kress: Did the NCLB authors truly believe that all children would be proficient in reading and math by 2014, as the law required? “For the country in 2001 to have had that aspiration I think was noble and right,” he responded. No one ever expected all schools to actually hit 100 percent proficiency, he said, but the authors thought they would get close just in time for Congress to tinker with the law when it was up for reauthorization in 2007. Kress expected that the scheduled reauthorization would raise standards and then reset the clock for achieving universal proficiency. “It wasn’t that we thought we would be rescued by Congress in 2007,” Kress said, “though… we kind of did.”
I responded Can a law be faulted for unintended consequences?
Of course. You can bet it will be praised for unintended positive outcomes.
What happened with NCLB may not have been intended (debatable!) but it was predictable.
And what if the unintended consequences were entirely predictable?
And what if the unintended consequences weren’t? (unintended, that is)
LOL! Fantastic.
It is predictable all laws have unpredictable unintended consequences. You would think lawmakers would know that by now.
To Ohio Algebra II Teacher and Dienne:
There is NO WHAT IF because in any educational procedure, all ideas would or MUST follow trial and err that are based on research from educational expertise and inputs from all past, present veteran educators for a certain period of time.
Once, the result from trial and err has been corrected to the public education acceptance, and then these tested ideas will be phased out to apply in the real system throughout a country.
To transform or to enforce any idea that can affect a future of many upcoming generations in a rush without following a proper procedure, that is A CRIME against CIVILITY. Back2basic
but they consequences are intentional; “ith NCLB may not have been intended (debatable!) but it was predictable.” I didn’t low that in 2001 when people here were angry at ted Kennedy for the comproise… but today I do know it is intentional and it is policy…
the flawed policies of Arne Duncan play right into the hands of the republicans and the “big business”/corporation party…. Arne Duncan is smitten because they invite him into the room and laud his basketball skills or something… but being naive and vulnerable to his “drug of choice” — stardom or celebrity — I guess is no excuse for what A. Duncan has wrought. I personally feel that we were in support of health care and recovering from the Great Recession and that is why so much escaped notice — then one awakens!
All of this is why Duncan was lauded by many (on both sides of the aisle) as President Obama’s most inspired pick. NBA Celebrity All-Star Game MVP award was just a bonus.
thanks Ohio Teacher for hearing me; I am so sick of those jock macho metaphors “game changers” if I hear it one more time!!!! and the “user engagement” and “empty metrics” and algorithms…. one author says the algorithms are “crude” and we are trying to make digital sense out of an analog world (but you know the math better than I do)…. the other metaphors I am sic of hearing are from school committee members who say “you bet the house on class size and you lost” and we play “money ball” here….
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Thanks David R. Taylor; my sister is in Austin with 4 grown “kids” and grandchildren and I will ask her to peruse your website as well as my other colleagues here on the east coast. Thanks for everything you do
Thank you…I will keep fight for what is right and just.
Sandy Kress, now making his money at Amplify, Inc, if I am correct, moved on from Pearson to the lucrative prospect of millions of dollars for school technology products. Here at Amplify, he can plan even more lucrative projects with Joel Klein, Chris Cerf, and others, who have moved on from the modestly compensated world of actual public education. No one in the world of real education should pay attention to this man’s assertions. Follow the money!
I’m having trouble unraveling all of his double-talk.
An addendum: Amplify, Inc, noted above, is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s scandal-ridden News Corp. Enough said. Bedfellows, and all that…
“Bedfellows,”
Now, now, don’t you mean the “bedfellows” that S. Kresspi identified:
“Kress said he also sees huge irony in the marriage between teachers unions and the tea party in opposing federal testing and accountability mandates.”
How come I didn’t get an invitation to the wedding and I’m sure what was a lush reception?
From the same politico article (sequel might show doctor losing his or her job):
— Speaking of testing, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is out with an animated video touting the benefits of annual exams. It opens with a cartoon mom taking her son Tommy to the doctor. He identifies a heart problem — but tells mom not to worry, just bring Tommy back in a few years for another look. Mom, understandably, freaks out. The narrator explains such negligence is just what will happen in schools if kids aren’t assessed regularly to make sure they’re mastering high standards. “Problems are caused when we ignore information,” she says. The video promises that today’s assessments are better than traditional fill-in-the-bubble sheets. “Every child needs an annual physical checkup and an annual academic checkup,” the narrator declares: http://bit.ly/1dO3AYq.
Ignore my parenthetical. Doesn’t quite hold here.
Wow, Could they make that cartoon any more patronizing and dumbed-down?
“Tommy’s mom panics. Oh no, what do we do?”
Because that’s what “moms” do when there’s a problem. They panic and turn to a business lobby for advice.
Why do they insist that “moms” misunderstand standardized testing? Is it absolutely unimaginable to them that “a mom” could oppose their agenda on the merits?
I think the idea is that Tommy’s mom is panicking because she correctly recognizes that the doctor is committing malpractice on her son by only recommending that her son come back in “a few years” to have his heart checked again. Ironically, the analogy to academic testing suggests that the problem is not that Doctor failed to prescribe an immediate course of treatment for a diagnosed heart problem, but rather the Doctor’s failure to schedule another checkup for next year (as opposed to “a few years”). For most kids, that’s what the annual academic checkup is: a checkup that leads to nothing but another checkup the following year. With of course the caveat I mentioned below, i.e. that it takes four months to get the results of the checkup, and the person who administers the checkup never actually reviews the results.
Presumably the results of the annual physical checkup came back in less than four months’ time and were reviewed by the treating physician, though.
And we didn’t measure Tommy’s shoe size then fire the doctor for a heart condition.
What a dumb analogy. Teachers perform “academic checkups” (checks for learning, understanding, and skill progression) with the children they teach every day. Going to school is like going to the doctor every day, not once a year or once every few years. Parents can always consult with teachers about how their children are doing. They can also look at their children’s schoolwork. And talk to their children. Because, unlike with a hidden heart condition, you don’t need any special fancy piece of equipment to tell you whether or not a child can read.
No actually I think that’s exactly what they meant. Teachers aren’t the doctors in this analogy, they’re just the techies putting the stickies on your chest for the EEG…
“Instead, he said, administrators took the easy way out and bought loads of practice tests and test prep products in a frenzied rush to boost student scores. ”
It wasn’t his brilliant plan that was the problem, it was the local incompetents who screwed up the execution of his brilliant plan. It worked flawlessly as an abstract theory!
I can’t believe this excuse flies in ed reform circles, but it does. It’s beautiful, because they can never be wrong.
but it’s always those grossly ineffective teachers, right? if it is not the “feckless” parents. The logic design of Mr. Kress’ assertion is never questioned because it is $$$ along with the hype of magical technologies.
Here is an interview with Kress from 2011. He uses the same “throwing the baby out with the bath water” I’ve seen defending numerous aspects of the Reform agenda. Btw, at least back then, he wanted more tests…
http://hechingerreport.org/content/qa-with-sandy-kress-key-architect-of-no-child-left-behind_5642/
The links within this article are also worth pursuing.
It’s all political theater. Democrats will succeed in retaining the tests because Republicans support the tests too.
Democrats and Republicans didn’t just spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Common Core tests so they could stop annual standardized testing.
They’ll push the blame for over-testing down to the district level, just like Kress is doing here and Duncan did yesterday. “The solution” will be new unfunded mandates for districts to assess local testing regimes and report back. They found the weak link and it is (surprise!) local public schools.
“….but the authors thought they would get close (to 100% proficiency on tests) just in time for Congress to tinker with the law when it was up for reauthorization in 2007. Kress expected that the scheduled reauthorization would raise standards and then reset the clock for achieving universal proficiency. “It wasn’t that we thought we would be rescued by Congress in 2007,” Kress said,
“though… we kind of did.
I read and dissected NCLB–the whole thing. If Kress wants credit for the original law, he cannot get off the hook now by blaming the “test mania” of district “bureaucrats” or the failure of Congress to correct the poor judgment that has become a disaster.
Never fear. ‘moms’. National reformers are “calling for action” at the state and district level:
“Duncan acknowledged that high-stakes accountability testing is one of the “hardest topics” in the nation’s education debate. He also called, as he has previously, for action on the state and district level to cut back on additional tests which are “redundant” and “unnecessary.”
He said that the federal government will request funding to improve the quality of tests, beyond the $360 million already spent on creating exams aligned with the Common Core learning standards. At the same time, he wants student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations.”
We found out who the guilty party is and it’s an assistant principal in Akron.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/03/18/313247/-Bush-Profiteers-collect-billions-from-NCLB-Part-3
“Mr. Kress is a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which describes itself as one of the world’s largest law firms,” Parks wrote. “His schedule keeps him hopscotching across the country as a cheerleader for No Child Left Behind, the sweeping federal education law that enshrined test data as the centerpiece of school accountability.”
He continues, “…[Kress] is the paid lobbyist for conservative businessmen intent on imposing more accountability on public schools in return for increased funding. He consults for companies that sell products and services to state education agencies and school districts. And he advises corporate chief executives under the banner of business groups such as the Business Roundtable.”
“Rarely mentioned publicly, however, are Mr. Kress’ connections to powerful companies and business associations that have a stake in a $500-billion-a-year public education machine fueled by a politically volatile mix of federal, state and local taxes.”
Even Texas politicians have had enough of Sandy Kress
http://www.disdblog.com/2013/04/11/even-texas-politicians-have-had-enough-of-sandy-kress-by-jason-stanford/
“The backlash has now reached the chamber where this all started. When the Texas House passed a testing relief bill, lawmakers included two amendments aimed at Kress. Texas lawmakers, who have never exactly held business lobbyists at arm’s length, have had enough of Kress pretending he doesn’t have a conflict of interest while advocating unpopular policies that enrich his client. One amendment would ban testing lobbyists from serving on state education advisory boards, cutting to the heart of Kress’ ability to lobby from the inside. Another amendment would make it a misdemeanor for a testing lobbyist to make political contributions. When politicians make it a crime to give them money, something’s up.
Gene Sheets, the superintendent of the Muleshoe Independent School District, serves on a state advisory committee with Kress. Sheets was surprised but supportive when told of the amendment that would bar Kress from serving on the committee. “I’m in favor of that amendment,” said Sheets, measuring his words carefully. “I don’t think there needs to be any appearance of a conflict of interest in the education of our children.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/fire-pearson_b_1716905.html
Fire Pearson
“Our testing misadventure started when then-Gov. George W. Bush had Sandy Kress, a Democrat on the Dallas school board, implement accountability reforms that relied upon standardized tests. When Bush moved to DC, Kress helped him sell No Child Left Behind to a Democratic Senate. Now Kress lobbies for Pearson, the company that has a $32-million contract with the state of New York, a $250-million contract in Florida, and an unfathomable $468-million contract in Texas.”
Alexander “Sandy” Kress, Lobbyist 2012
Source: Texas Ethics Commission
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/tedd/lobcon2012c.htm
Kress, B. Alexander (00032037)
(512)499-6200
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701
Abraham Trading Company
Moody Building / Second & Main Street P.O. Box 7 Canadian, TX 79014
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Edvance Research Inc.
9901 IH-10 West, Suite 1000 San Antonio, TX 78230
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/20/2012
Client Term Date: 02/09/2012
Edvance Research, Inc.
9901 IH-10 West, Suite 1000 San Antonio, TX 78230
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Pearson Education
1 Lake Street Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$100,000 – $149,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Teach For America
315 West 36th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10018
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Texas Business Leadership Council
515 Congress Avenue, Suite 1780 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$50,000 – $99,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Texas Instruments Incorporated
12500 TI Boulevard Dallas, TX 75243
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$25,000 – $49,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Tutors With Computers LLC
701 Brazos Street, Suite 500 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 11/13/2012
Wireless Generation Inc.
55 Washington Street, 9th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/20/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Wireless Generation, Inc.
55 Washington Street, 9th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2012
Client Term Date: 12/31/2012
Thanks. Can you imagine the nerve of these people complaining about “self-interest” in public school employees? It’s mind-boggling.
I kept going back and forth among the different comments to see which I would post under—
And it was an impossible task. Heartfelt thanks to all for your comments, short and long, factual and satirical.
😄
In brief, I would emphasize that NCLB worked as it was intended and that the tremendous damage it wrought was not just predictable—
It was recounted while it was going on. Early on. In easily available forms. Just that folks like Sandy Kress refused to let others puncture their self-inflicted and self-serving Rheeality Distortion Fields.
I exaggerate to the point of ridiculousness? And am engaging in pointless ad hominem attacks?
A slim paperback. 2004. MANY CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND: HOW THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IS DAMAGING OUR CHILDREN AND OUR SCHOOLS. Contributors: George Wood, Ted Sizer, Linda Darling-Hammond, Stan Karp, Deborah Meier, Alfie Kohn and Monty Neill.
I give just a small sample, a single paragraph from Alfie Kohn’s piece about why we must distinguish between, and look closely at the relationship between, the words and the deeds of those that backed and benefitted from NCLB:
[start quote]
They are succeeding largely because decent educators are playing into their hands. That’s why we must quit confining our complaints about NCLB to peripheral problems of implementation or funding. Too many people give the impression that there would be nothing to object to if only their own school had been certified as making adequate progress, or if only Washington were more generous in paying for this assault on local autonomy. We have got to stop prefacing our objections by saying that, while the execution of this legislation is faulty, we agree with its laudable objectives. No. What we agree with is some of the rhetoric used to sell it, invocations of ideals like excellence and fairness. NCLB is not a step in the right direction. It is a deeply damaging, mostly ill-intentioned law, and no one genuinely committed to improving public schools (or to advancing the interests of those who have suffered from decades of neglect and oppression) should want to have anything to do with it.
[end quote]
(pp. 95-96)
Take just one point from the above posting. Read what Kress says about legally mandating (and remember all those sanctions and punishments!) 100% proficiency by 2014. He thinks it was “noble and right” although he didn’t really think it would happen.
Huh? No wonder Dr. Candace McQueen, when it came to Son of NCLB aka CCSS with its conjoined twin high-stakes standardized tests, turned from #1 Common Core supporter to the opposite when she became an admin at private Lipscomb Academy.
This blog under a posting “Common Core for Commoners, Not My School!”
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/23/common-core-for-commoners-not-my-school/
A very old and very dead and very Greek guy knew the double talking “education reform” types long long ago:
“Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another.”
😎
Sandy is now lobbying for Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify
Source: Texas Ethics Commission
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/tedd/lobcon2013c.htm
Kress, B. Alexander (00032037)
(512)499-6200
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701
Abraham Trading Company
Moody Building / Second & Main Street P.O. Box 7 Canadian, TX 79014
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Amplify Education, Inc.
55 Washington Street, 9th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$25,000 – $49,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Curriculum Associates, LLC
153 Rangeway Road North Billerica, MA 01862
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Pearson Education
1 Lake Street Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$150,000 – $199,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Teach For America
315 West 36th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10018
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
Texas Business Leadership Council
515 Congress Avenue, Suite 1780 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 01/22/2013
Texas Instruments Incorporated
12500 TI Boulevard Dallas, TX 75243
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$50,000 – $99,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2013
Client Term Date: 12/31/2013
I called this number and spoke with the office manager….
Kress, B. Alexander (00032037)
(512)499-6200
300 West 6th Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701
I was feeling bold if Kress is not going to be honest about the handshakes and verbal agreements with Ted Kennedy.
I was teaching at U. Mass at the time; I remember faculty being very angry about the NCLB and specifically what Ted Kennedy thought he was promised in terms of funding. Kennedy made verbal agreements with Bush and “handshakes” with the understanding that funds would be increased for ESEA and they were but only for the FIRST year. We had experienced similar objections to the unfunded mandates special education — with no resource supports (except what your own state would be providing)…. That confounded the anger — some of it directed at Ted Kennedy but he said it was in the verbal agreements with Bush. I looked up the dollar figures and for ONE year there was an increase in ESEA federal dollars… with Kennedy expecting it would be budgeted in future years. Once again, the rug gets pulled out from under you when these agreements are made/compromises.
The book Politics of Ed Reform has the budget figures ESEA 17.4 billion in 2001 and in 2002 increase to 22 billion. But then from 2002 -2007 ESEA only increased $2 billion (source is the book by Keith Nitts on the dollar amounts but I personally remember the anger faculty directed at Kennedy (even if it was only passive aggressive at that point I remember the discussion)…. Create miracles but don’t expect the resources — and that is what happened with special education as well.
Are we supposed to believe that a lifelong politician like Ted Kennedy was naive enough to simply believe that more funds would be available?
We’ll hear the same thing after they re-write NCLB, so Democrats can run against the new NCLB, just like they ran against the old NCLB in 2006, 08, and 12:
“We thought we were getting preschool and public school funding! Damn! Next time we get that part in writing, for sure”.
Despite his (sometimes justified) reputation as a liberal, Kennedy ushered through a lot of destructive legislation, particularly in regard to deregulation of industry – which should include NCLB – which has had devastating effects on the living standards of working people.
In typical Neoliberal fashion, he co-authored legislation that deregulated both the trucking and aviation industries, which have both seen wages and working conditions collapse in its aftermath.
NCLB may yet lead to similar collapses in wages for teachers, especially if charter operators realize their plans of setting up a dual, competing system. As for working conditions, everyone who worked in a school before and since NCLB has witnessed and experienced its toxic effects.
As for Kress, still more evidence, as if it was necessary, that so-called reformers are incapable of accepting responsibility for their deceptions, incompetence and destructiveness.
Michael Fiorillo,
Sandy Kress’ statement reminded me of the apologetics of the architects of the Iraq war.
take out Kennedy and insert Miller if that helps….. I didn’t mean to focus on him other than to state my experiences at the time…. also, I tried to generalize it to the ‘doctor fix” where they keep propping up legislation for 6 months at a time and the “doctors get screwed” to use the vernacular; my doctor had to drop out of Medicare because of that — they can’t plan their office staff 3 months at a time…. As far as congress, there is fraud on both sides of the aisle…. The teacher unions were also against the provisions of the NCLB but it was professional educators , also, who were not members on any union. When Margaret Spellings came along with the grants insiders were awarded funds (each team brings their own friends in to put sticky fingers into the cash register)….
dianeravitch: you wrote—
“Sandy Kress’ statement reminded me of the apologetics of the architects of the Iraq war.”
Not understatement. Not overstatement. A simple sober comment.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
😎
I sort of understand liberals getting screwed by ed reformers once, but after 15 years where they never get anything they demand and have absolutely no influence one would think they’d figure it out.
There’s no cure for that, whatever it is.
“It” is sheer stupidity.
Duane I hope when you draw the “us” and “them” line — I am still on the “us” side with you….. just trying to get a little humor here —
It’s hard to choose, but I think the best NCLB story is “tutors with computers”
Here’s one brave Texas principal calling it “a racket” 🙂
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20120414-dallas-isd-chafes-at-tutor-racket-but-program-required-by-state.ece
Reading First, Spellings and Kress
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/05/10/333271/-Bush-Profiteers-collect-billions-from-NCLB-Part-17
In fact, Margaret Spellings was intimately familiar with Reading First from its creation. We’ve already noted that Spellings worked hand-in-glove with her fellow Texan Sandy Kress to move Kress’s magnum opus through Congress in 2001. Facts suggest that if Kress and Spellings were Bush’s tag team to rewrite Lyndon Johnson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), then Kress designed the financial framework that would hamstring school district budgets and open the floodgates to corporate profiteering, while Spellings drafted the intellectual cornerstone, the phonics-based curriculum requirements for reading, or Reading First.
I don’t like the references to “tea party” or whatever ; there was anger before Tea Party even came along; it was passive aggressive , verbal as in “we are not going to do that”… and it quieted down but there were people saying the literal goals for 2014 would never be met because that is impossible…. Now this Kress guy says it was something like “a moon shot” and they were blueskying. But haven’t’ they been doing this with budgets? funding departments for 3 or 4 months at a time…… ? that is why so many doctors had to bail because then they would have to come alone and vote a “doctor fix”….. It is political strategy and I am angry but wiser than I was in 2001…. don’t trust the compromise because it will be betrayed every time (in my own state the legislature had to come up with funds to do the “fixing”…. but when Romney was in town he pulled state funds out of the schools and the cities and towns had to come up with local funds — which puts some less affluent cities in a bind because they have to tax themselves in greater proportions to even attempt to have any equity with the affluent cities/suburban etc)
“FLERP!
January 13, 2015 at 3:11 pm
I think the idea is that Tommy’s mom is panicking because she correctly recognizes that the doctor is committing malpractice on her son by only recommending that her son come back in “a few years” to have his heart checked again.”
They’re dopes. There’s a huge debate in health care over whether annual check ups are a complete waste of money. It’s been going on for ten years. The general consensus is “annual physicals are a waste of money”. It’s all the rage in “evidence-based medicine”
This is why “moms” probably shouldn’t accept patronizing lectures from business lobbyists, on public schools or anything else.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/12/health/annual-physical-checkup-may-be-an-empty-ritual.html
And for his next routine, this guy will go become a writer for SNL– he’s against all that darned testing and test=prep . . . right!?
“Voters, he said, will eventually rebel against sending tax dollars to teachers and schools that aren’t held to account for students’ performance.” Kress needs to understand that teachers are always accountable to students, parents,administrators and boards of education. One snapshot taken on one day of the year is not a system of accountability. Many districts have used internal measures as well as standardized tests to measure student performance. Why is it the role of the federal government to mandate a “one size fits all” measurement? It should be noted that the great recession occurred in the middle of NCLB causing public schools to cut staff and increase class size. How is cutting staff going to improve outcomes for students? Charter schools are causing a tremendous loss of funds to public education. If the goal is to improve public schools, legislators should revise the formula for the subtractive impact of charter schools on public school budgets.
Taxpayers need to know that tax dollars are being judiciously. Why is education being targeted? The federal government is not telling fire fighters how to fight fires or the police how to arrest suspects. The federal government oversees military spending, and I don’t think you can find a more wasteful boondoggle. Let’s take a look at the wonderful job the feds are doing with veterans! Don’t beat me up for this because I support healthcare for all, but Obamacare is doing nothing to bring down the cost of drugs or malpractice insurance. The law was written by the heathcare lobby and is a windfall for insurance companies.
If lawyers can design accountability for teachers, then teachers should design a test for legislators. Anyone that fails can be sent home without a golden parachute. Now that’s accountability!
Has anyone ever asked Sandy Kress or any of the corporate reformers why no other country on the planet and in history—-that I’ve heard of—doesn’t have a simliar program with the demands set by NCLB of 100% proficiency of all all children by age 17/18—even China where only about 15%-20% of the population finishes high school let alone college?
If we could get all of the reformer bosses and leaders in one room, I’d like them to answer how they justify setting the bar for success so high—-only for the public schools—-that it couldn’t be any higher and why no other country in history has ever achieved that impossible goal.
I just thought of something in history simliar to NCLB’s 100% mandate for college and career readiness by age 17/18.
Mao’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s set impossible goals that had never been achieved in China for crop yields and industrial growth and when these goals were not met, party officials in the provinces reported they had succeeded and claimed they had even gone beyond Mao’s food production goals. That is why when the Great Famine hit and millions were starving to death due to droughts in some provinces of rural China, the provincial party leaders didn’t report what was going on because then their lie would be revealed.
After hearing conflicting reports, Mao sent some of his own troops that he trusted (from the division that guarded him) from the PLA to find out what was going on and as soon as those troops reported back, Mao stopped The Great Leap Forward several years early and appealed to the world for help. The United States refused to help even though it had plenty of wheat—hoping that if enough people in China starved and suffered, the people would rise up and get rid of the CCP. But Canada and France—even with the US protesting—helped end the famine anyway.
The last comment infuriates me. My school was closed and I had to reapply for my job because our sub pops did not get at 85% in two grades for two years. In another area that I did not teach. We had been recognized years prior, but our mostly minority sub pops and poverty index, coupled with SPED, killed us when NCLB got to the 80% pass rates.
They played with the lives of teachers who were dedicated and he “kind of” didn’t mean that to happen.
Titleonetexasteacher: I am sorry this happened to you; I didn’t realize it was happening until we saw it in Rhode Island…. some administrators took the laws and regs floated out by the Washington policy types and used them with glee in going after teachers and teacher unions in particular. Teacher unions are not strong enough to fight this kind of battle. I know when I first discussed it with caring administrators, one superintendent said generously “their teacher unions will take care of them” but he had it wrong because unions everywhere are being attacked — all unions — These movements have to grow anew ; I am sorry that you had to go through that experience of the harsh and punitive results of flawed policies that are intentionally meant to bash teachers and destroy teacher unions.
Letting a lawyer codify an education law is like letting a scientific illiterate codify a physical law.
Apples that “fall” upward are inevitable.
Bravo retired teacher.
It is worth to repeat over and over what you write:
“If lawyers can design accountability for teachers, then teachers should design a test for legislators.”
Please note that Public Higher Education cannot compete with Private Ivy League higher education, in terms of producing movers and shakers in society. As a result, Supreme Court Justice never will have a team of Judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers who would be transparent and independent in their duty.
Sooner or later, all conscientious Americans whether they are young or old; they are white or blue collar, they are high or low educated, and they are first or last generation of immigrants, will deal with unpleasant situation with their hands, feet, and stomach tied to the mouth where the truth cannot express due to Marshall Law that is ruled and regulated by CORRUPTED and EVIL power.
In conclusion, please be smart and systematic in finding solution which unifying all aspects of history, civilization, and economy in order to CULTIVATE the real meaning of
DEMOCRACY, or HUMANITY in the public point of view. Back2basic
Sorry, I means that:
…please be smart and systematic to logically find the best solution which must unify all aspects of…
During the last Texas legislative session, TAMSA raised questions about Sandy’s financial conflicts of interest as a lobbyist for corporations that seek to monetize all children enrolled in public schools. Kress and Bill Hammond (Texas Association of Business) were blindsided by the moms.
House Approves Major Bill Cutting Testing
http://www.texasobserver.org/state-decreases-end-of-course-exams-alters-degree-plans/
“Amendments approved back-to-back by Rep. Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont) and Rep. Chris Turner (D-Arlington) would bar anyone working for a test contractor like Pearson from making political contributions or serving on advisory committees for the state. The amendments appear targeted at Pearson lobbyist Sandy Kress, who serves on a Texas Education Agency committee on accountability.”
More on Sandy’s lobbying activities in 2014 –
There’s no other individual who has caused more damage to US public education than Sandy Kress. Arne Duncan gets second place.
Source: Texas Ethics Commission
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/tedd/lobcon2014c.htm
Kress, B. Alexander (00032037)
(512)499-6200
600 Congress Avenue, Suite 1350 Austin, TX 78701
Abraham Trading Company
Moody Building / Second & Main Street P.O. Box 7 Canadian, TX 79014
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 09/10/2014
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
600 Congress Avenue, Suite 1350 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Less Than $10,000.00
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 12/31/2014
Amplify Education, Inc.
55 Washington Street, 9th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 12/31/2014
Connections Education, LLC
800 Brazos Street, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 11/09/2014
Curriculum Associates, LLC
153 Rangeway Road North Billerica, MA 01862
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 11/09/2014
Pearson Education
1 Lake Street Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$150,000 – $199,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 12/31/2014
Teach For America
315 West 36th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10018
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 12/31/2014
Texas Instruments Incorporated
12500 TI Boulevard Dallas, TX 75243
Type of Compensation: Prospective
$10,000 – $24,999.99
Client Start Date: 01/01/2014
Client Term Date: 04/10/2014
“Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From NCLB”
http://www.projectcensored.org/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/
“Having then crafted the legislation, Kress transitioned from public servant to corporate lobbyist, guiding clients to the troth of federal funds. By 2005 he had made upwards of $4 million from lobbying contracts.
While the Business Roundtable maintains that the high-stakes tests administered nationwide hold schools accountable to “Adequate Yearly Progress,” NCLB has instead benefited the testing industry in the amount of between $1.9 and $5.3 billion a year. NCLB requires states to produce “interpretive, descriptive, and diagnostic reports,” all of which are provided at a price by members of the industry. Among these are the top four or five players in the textbook market, including the Big Three—McGraw-Hill, Houghton-Mifflin, and Harcourt General—who have, since the passage of NCLB, come to dominate the testing market. Identified by Wall Street analysts in the wake of the 2000 election as “Bush stocks,” all three represent owners like Harold McGraw III, who has longstanding ties to the Bush administration and the lobbying efforts of Sandy Kress.
Other Kress clients, including Ignite! Learning, a company headed by Neil Bush, and K12 Inc., a for-profit enterprise owned by Bill Bennett, tailored themselves to vie for NCLB dollars.”
Of course he can defend NCLB. As long as Kress can protect his OWN children from these unnecessary pressures and over-testing:
https://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/22/what-the-best-and-wisest-parent-wants-for-his-child-2/
poem cut from the inaugural at South Carolina: poet laureate told there is no time for her poem…
It’s a poem about people and images from South Carolina: children boarding school buses, firemen, baristas, migrant farm workers. She describes a dock “where 100,000
Africans were imprisoned within brick walls awaiting auction, death, or worse.”
She ends:
“Here, where the Confederate flag still flies
beside the Statehouse, haunted by our past,
conflicted about the future; at the heart
of it, we are at war with ourselves
huddled together on this boat
handed down to us – stuck
at the last bend of a wide river
splintering near the sea.”
This story was covered on NPR this morning., I taught with Wentworth.
Imagine banning the state’s poet laureate.
Peter Smyth I am so pleased that you know her!!!!! it just brought to mind what we are struggling with (on the east coast)…. and it reminded me of a discussion with Diane last week: “Let me write your tests”….. and I care not who writes your songs and poems; for me that captures how teachers have been set aside and the purpose of education has been short-circuited…. thanks for the kindness of your response and I wish I had worked with her (or you for that matter)…
Jean, I taught across the Hal from Marjory at Charleston County School of the Arts. She taught Creative Writing; I taught math. I think she left when she became poet laureate. She’s on Facebook.
“Sharkitects and -Attacks”
The sharkitect of NCLB
Is now complaining endlessly
About removal of the teeth
Which he did to schools bequeath