Klarinet Archive - Posting 000146.txt from 2006/04

From: Anne Bell <bell@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:19:48 -0400

Karl Krelove wrote:
SNIP
>
> Dee, No one on any side of the NCLB argument questions the importance of
> learning to read, write or do math. Nor do many question that these skills
> have *generally* slipped among American students or even that the schools
> bear some responsibility for that slippage. The question is whether or not
> NCLB is the cure or a new disease that ultimately will destroy what it aims
> (or so it claims) to restore to health.
>
> Karl

I'm not convinced that "these skills have
*generally* slipped among American students....."
(Please Don't read that to mean that I think
everything is as it should). The nostalgic past I
keep hearing about did not exist without major
issues. Special needs students were frequently not
educated- if in school at all they were
segregated. And speaking of segregation...... Our
schools were not as diverse. Students were not
forced to stay in school until reaching a
requisite age- nor did truant officers visit their
homes. So the fact that some people received a
"better" education than some today doesn't begin
to cover the whole story.

I have serious concerns about NCLB. There are
issues with high stakes testing- and the money
flows to what is tested. Unfortunately it seems
that kids that start out "without" end up further
behind in terms of enriching curriculum. The
number of words that a child in a household of
moderate income is exposed to (even without the
parent teaching per se) is staggeringly higher
than a child of poverty (quote below). Schools
that deal with the poorest students aren't given
credit under this system for the amount of growth
in the student- only for an end number. [Some
exceptions- IEP students do portfolio assessments
rather than take the state standardized test.]

If school's goal was basic functional education in
Math and English then 8th grade should be plenty.
I think it is more than that- and I think that the
Arts are essential.

Take Care,
Anne

From
http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2001/011106_5.htm

"Socioeconomic status made an overwhelming
difference in how much talking went on in a family
… the family factor most strongly associated with
amount of talking was SES." They extrapolated
that, in a 365-day year, children from
professional families would have heard 4 million
utterances, and children from welfare families
would have heard 250,000 utterances. Westby (1997,
see sidebar),

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