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Why Resist NCLB Also Check Out NCLB: Just Say No Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow Our Thoughts Your Letters Off Site Links Susan Ohanian NCLB Grassroots.org No Child Left Behind.com Our Children Left Behind.com Jim Trelease On Reading Fairtest.org No NCLB Home Write Us

Your Letters This web site was set up to help to abolish this terrible law. Help us! We must join together to do whatever we need to do to get this done. Write us with your thoughts and ideas. Write your national and state representatives, and your local newspaper, then send us those letters to post to the rest of the world. Then watch these spaces for further developments from No NCLB.org! Or even better join us on our BLOG together we can take back our public schools!   Read this from: Mike Kosko, Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:55:58 -0500   It seems to me that the "No Child Left Behind" law is a euphemism for the destruction of public education.  It should  more realistically be called "The Final Solution to the Public School Problem."  The more I read about some recent federal laws, the more I think that George Orwell missed the mark with 1984 by just 21 years.  The Patriot Act (another euphemism) that allows spying on our citizenry seems to smack of the TV sets that spied on all citizens of Oceania, and Scott McClellan's "say nothing" press conferences could easily have come out of the "Ministry of Truth."  How far away are we from the "Ministry of Love (Room 101)" to make sure all citizens are thinking properly or rather "rightly"?  Why school boards and school administrators try to make this law work is beyond me.  They should be howling about a law that has 41 ways for schools to fail and only 1 way to pass.  If the Congress applied NCLB type rules to other areas of government, what would be the result?  Think about it--amuse yourself, and apply NCLB type rules to the newly formed Iraqi democracy, to sealing our borders and reducing the number of illegal aliens in the country, to reducing and eventually eliminating crime, or at least illegal drug use---all within 13 years!  I've ranted enough, but I'm sure you get my drift. Mike, you are absolutely correct. Keep talking to people and writing letters. We can change this together. Read this! Cheryl Hilmes from Anchorage Alaska speaks the truth!   3.13.04 Wow! Am I ever delighted to see this web site happening in Alaska. I've gone to a few sites in other states and never dreamed I'd find one happening right here. Where can I sign up? How can I help? I've written numerous letters to the editor for the Anchorage Daily News. I've personally kept my daughter out of school on testing days to make a statement. I've been outspoken in my belief that this stealing of local control of schools, labeling, and dismantling of public education has got to stop. Please sign me up. peace and blessings, Cheryl Hilmes ( mother, educator, activist) here's one example. February 20, 2002   Attn: Letters to the Editor, ADN   I want to extend a thanks to Rod McCoy for his compass piece on 2/15. Educators know that major educational decisions should not be based solely on a test score. Yet the plan to label schools in Alaska will do just that' Testing can never replace a childˆs authentic learning which is demonstrated and evaluated in the classroom. No single test can assess critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving skills adequately enough to be used for such high-stakes decisions. Higher order thinking is encouraged and revealed by in-depth and extended work, not by one-shot tests. Research continues to show that standardized tests fail to assess important areas of learning and too often focus on trivia. Test results don©ˆt take into account non-school factors that affect learning, such as poverty, hunger, student mobility, lack of medical care, safety, community resources, parents©ˆ education - all of which must be addressed if no child is to be left behind. There is a need for good assessment of student learning. The public deserves to know how well schools are doing, schools need to use information about student learning to improve teaching, and there should be support in schools to improve. Assume something is inevitable and it becomes so because we have decided not to challenge it. What we are facing is not a force of nature but a force of politics, and political decisions can be questioned, challenged and ultimately reversed. The bottom line is that standardized testing can continue only with the consent and cooperation of the educators who allow those tests to be distributed in their schools - and the parents who permit their children to take them.

More Great Info   Trish's Wilson's Blog 3 Year NCLB Report Card NCLB Report - Needs Overhaul Misguided for ELLs Amerrican Prospect Testing Patience Black Commentator Armstrong Williams Bribes+Vouchers=Bush PFAW - Voucher Veneer A Great Blog on Charter Schools NCLB Going Down Jim Trelease on NCLB Bush/McGraw-Hill Connection More on the Above from the Nation Rethinking a Bad Law - Ed Week NCLS says Change It Shut Up and Teach.org SUAT Resources Alfie Kohn Ed.Equity in AK Jobs Education Wis. Edutopia