Much was made of the Bush No Child Left Behind initiative, on the outside it looked great, every school child would benefit, and as a result America would once more be an education leader. Smarter school kids equals a smarter workforce, which makes us a stronger and more competitive country. Alas ideology does not equal reality.
Film makers Alan and Susan Raymond spent an entire year following the happenings at the Frederick Douglas High School in Baltimore. This is a school with a rich history and among it’s alumni are Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Alas Frederick Marshal is in the educational war zone. It is very much the epitome of the inner city school. There are a high proportion of minority students who are for the most part apathetic to learning. Overcrowded class rooms do not help, and the shortage of teachers nationwide make it very difficult to attract qualified and gifted educators.
One of the aspects of No Child Left Behind that sticks in my craw was that the Bush administration used the stick rather than the carrot. If schools did not perform satisfactorily the school faced punishment in the form of funding sanctions or even being closed down. A better approach would have been to offer help, ‘How can we help you?â€. Underfunded inner city schools need help not punishment.
A shocking statistic presented in this documentary comes from the head of the English Department, when a reading test was given to 3 or 4 hundred ninth grade students only 3 or 4 passed at grade level, the vast majority were at least three grade levels behind.
During the standardized Maryland testing only 10% of the students passed English, and 1% passed algebra. Even worse, at Douglas the drop out rate runs at 50% in the ninth grade.
Douglas is not a write off, it has a very productive arts and media program. But, these are not subjects that carry much weight with the Feds.
I find it sad that our education system have sunk so low, I am also annoyed that No Child Left Behind, has indeed done nothing for the school areas that really need help.
Being a reviewer I tend not to show preference, I watch or listen and just write my review. This however is a subject that gets under my skin. It is inexcusable, it is stupid, and it is grossly unfair to the children of our country.
It is easy to blame the teachers, but there are many other factors involved, not least of all the parents. But apathetic parents make poor role models.
Argh! I am getting grumpy, so I will shut up. If you want a really eye opening experience catch Hard Times At Douglas High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card on HBO on Monday June/23 at 9pm.
Simon Barrett
14 users commented in " TV Preview: Hard Times At Douglas High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat funding sanctions?
I think you’ve been listening to misinformed people.
what a waste,,,what are they going to do? they cant read/write,,prison population soars
This is ashame! This is just not the High Schools problem it started in Kidergarten. How can you expect high test scores when children are entering school 2-3 years behind. You can’t make 2-3 year gain in one year. If the state takes over what do they think they can do better??? Get rid of the staff. Who do they think they will get to replace them? They will have to pay 6 figure salaries and we all know teachers don’t make what they are worth. I feel the educators and administrators have established programs to help. However, they too have families and resposibilites. I am glad this documentary was created it shows how NO Child Left Behind is not working! However,it is at a cost.Closing this historical High School is not the answer! Some suggestions to help improve learning: uniforms, pay high 6 figure salaries to teachers who work at low performing schools to attract seasoned teachers, mandate parental involvement( offer tax brakes to students who attend school regular and parents that are involved, give government incentives to students who academicly excel), establish a trade school to allow students to be trained to do a life skill( nurse ,beautcian, electrician, etc. along with a strong academic program) Take fincial support from parents who don’t get involved. Remove disruptive kids!
Hey mr. Barrett!
Don’t be so quick to blame NCLB on the Bush Administration. It had overwhelmingly bi-partisan support (381-41 in the House and 87-10 in the Senate).
Of course it’s not working because it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) address the fact that in schools like Douglass too many of the kids have absolutely no clue as to the value of education. Values are first and foremost instilled and nurtured in the home. I rest my case.
schools shouldn’t let the kids know how important education is? shit like that is just one of the reasons why things go sour the way they do…people would rather kiss up to the government and say how well they’re doin their job instead of bein real about what’s goin on….u don’t know what goes on in the houses of the students so who are u to say that they don’t learn how important an education is? parents can stress it nonstop 24/7 but it doesn’t mean anything if u get to school and the staff doesn’t care and just want their check…schools are supposed to get u ready for what’s ahead not just throw u a bunch of “facts” 4 u to remember for the moment…i guess u don’t wanna take into consideration the nonsense that are in the history books….do u think readin lies and learning about everyone’s history but ur own will encourage u to do ur best in school? how about the fact that so many schools don’t have enough books 4 all the students? how can someone learn without the books? would u say the same if the issue was on a white school that was sufferin and didn’t have books or staff 4 the students? Douglas relied on substitutes and just anybody they could get to fill in spots to teach the students and u think that’s gonna make the students sit back and say “i see the value” or will it just show what so many kids already think…”there’s no hope”…if ur precious government spread money equally and treated all it’s citizens equally thing’s would change 4 the better….u talk about don’t blame the bush administration but shit why the hell not? isn’t the president supposed to do what’s best 4 it’s citizens? maybe u really believe the people who put their kids through private schools should have a say so in what goes on in public schools despite the fact that it doesn’t really matter to them what the outcome is…yeah…let’s put our faith in the same people who allowed US citizens to drown, starve, walk around with dead bodies, and just sit in the worst conditions possible 4 no reason while calling them refugees for days….yeah…..
In response to 3rd Street:
You just proved my point.
How many of you are actual teachers who work in Title 1 schools with large minority populations? How easy it is to point the finger and blame the parents, schools, teachers, students, adminstrators, etc. When in fact due to the NCLB sanction our schools sole focus is on passing tests. I teach in a Title 1 school whose funding has been cut due to inadaquate test scores. I teach in a classroom where I don’t have enough books to send home to students. I teach in a school where 80% of our teachers are highly qualified by the NCLB requirements. I teach in a school where he have had double digit gains in reading and test scores (unless the students passed the test it doesn’t matter how much they improved). I teach in a school where 76% of the teachers have their masters degree. I teach in a school where we have a computer lab with 50 computers that are used year round for testing and testing ONLY! I teach in a school that 83% of the population lives in poverty. I teach in a school where students worry where they will sleep that night and if they will eat dinner. Our community is overwhelmed by day to day life and as teachers we do the best that we can with the limited resources that we have. I find ignorant people disgusting who say these students don’t know the value of education…they do know the value and they try, but life has thrown them a crappy situation for their life and it is up to us the adults, the community, the state, the GOVERNMENT to give them an oppurtunity (not test scores) that may not have existed to their parents and it is called HOPE!
In response to emmykate76:
What kind of HOPE are we giving these kids if they can’t read or write?
There have to be standards. NCLB was an attempt to set them nationally. Maybe it was misguided. But merely improving is not good enough. If a 16-year old improves his reading skills from 3rd grade to 4th grade, he’s still reading at the 4th grade level!
But the fact remains, the kids depicted in the film do not have the nurturing and support of a healthy home life. And that’s not because of poverty. There are plenty of poor families where kids thrive and do well in school.
Face it: the urban black familiy is broken and nothing will improve until that is addressed and fixed. And the GOVERNMENT can’t fix it. In fact, it was probably the GOVERNMENT that helped break it.
As a teacher at a high minority, low income school, I find the EmmyKate’s comment offensive. To state that the problem with education lies solely in the urban black community insinuates that the problems of below-level literacy, high drop-out rates and poor test scores are race specific.
This is fallacious logic that this film (in my opinion) unwittingly promotes.
Yes, Douglass High is a predominately “black school.” But the problems presented there are not race specific. The problem lies in having an out-dated educational approach that does not reach our youth.
The government’s attempt to establish a national standard has proved detrimental to all involved in the educational process– teachers, administrators and students.
The group most satisfied with standardized testing seems to be the group least affected– parents.
NCLB hinges largely on the assumption that parents take active roles in their children’s learning experience. This is not reflective of many modern families, especially by the time children have reached high school.
Often I meet parents who acknowledge that they have grown weary over the years of receiving calls from teachers and administrators about their child’s misbehavior or failure. These parents have expressed concern that the teachers are unable to handle the child for an hour or hour and a half. They have explained to me how they work two jobs and rarely see there child to tell him or her that Miss So-and-So said he or she failed the one algebra test he or she was in class to take. These parents wonder how to get their children to class, especially if they only receive negative calls about the child’s score when they are present.
These parents are just as overwhelmed as their children.
How often have I been forced from the phone with the deflated sigh of, “I’ll try to talk to her about it when I see her.”
So, if some parents are unable to spend the time nurturing their children (and let’s be honest, some simply cannot), and teachers have at least 25 to 30 students in a classroom and are unable to function as both parents and educators thus become insufficient in both capacities, who becomes the support system? The other teenagers.
Ideally, your child emulates Douglass High’s honor scholar who asserts his “gang is the drumlime.”
But those kids who haven’t found there niche or have found the local drug dealer deserve help, too. I agree with the government, they should not be “left behind.”
But testing is not the solution to these problems. It is a symptom.
We can keep these kids in school by altering the way they envision their futures. We can give them hope.
Offer our children a chance to rise above the poverty. Give them programs that will certify and teach them career skills that will help them break the cycle of generational poverty.
Give them interesting curriculum that is specific to their environment. Allow the teachers to control that curriculum to ensure it affords enrichment. Take the power away from districts because schools are diverse and what works in one school often flops in another.
Increase and improve art programs, music programs. Give the programs that get the kids in the classroom adequate funding. Offer a rap class or a graffiti class. Get interested in what these kids like.
Vote to develop courses that excite and invigorate our students and stimulate our teachers. Take the night off and attend school board meetings. Start community petitions. The power to improve the educational system lies in parents’ hands.
I’ll tell you a secret, the state and district fears parents. You are it’s funding. Make your money count by using your voice to direct it.
Remind us why we want to be there. Remind us, teachers and students alike, what there is to love about the educational process.
Sorry, EmmyKate. Upon re-reading, I notice that I attributed the “Face it: the urban black familiy is broken and nothing will improve until that is addressed and fixed. And the GOVERNMENT can’t fix it. In fact, it was probably the GOVERNMENT that helped break it” reference to the wrong blogger.
Please consider this a re-direct to Ekim.
Thank you.
Good that you finally figured out to whom to reply.
I insuate nothing; you may infer what you like.
The portrait of Douglas as presented in the documentary underscored the fact that these kids are just not prepared to learn and no matter how you try to explain it away, the fault is with their parents. There are plenty of kids of all colors across the country (black included) who do well in school –even under “an outdated educational approach” — because their parents are there to care.
Your talk about giving kids hope is pure psycho-babble. What kind of hope is there for a kid who can’t read or write? What kind of “career skills” can you give them, if they can’t communicate? I’m sorry, but rap and grafitti classes won’t cut the mustard.
It’s time for a healthy dose of reality. These kids will fail unless they have the BASIC skills of communication and reckoning. They acquire those skills in school. If they don’t have the reasoning power to figure that out for themselves, then it’s up to the parents to set them straight.
If this offends you, maybe it’s because you really know this to be true and you just can’t admit it.
Emmykate:
I have worked in the ghetto since 1991, and I will unequivocally blame the non-parents for the non-learners they create and enable. I had a “parent” come into summer school this year and actually start a fight with an 8th grade boy. A fight! NCLB makes demands that so many of these ghetto-mongers will never attain. Responsibility, accoutability and education run counter to the values of their “pimp-n-ho” culture and its values of sex, drugs and violence. Keep kids in school until 8th grade, and then kick in the reforms: expulsions, end mandatory attendance, segregate by sex, academic profiling. Order needs to be returned to public schools. Get the thugs out. Who cares what happens to them? Because a kid is school age does not mean he or she is school material. Period. I mean, hey, the world needs losers too.
i am a 21 year old black female, and frankly i am tired of hearing people put me down just because i’m black. the stereotypes such as what you emmykate suggest are disrespectful and im sure they are discouraging to people younger than me who are just learning to build their self esteem. you are only on the outside looking in at a hot mess of problems that one person is not to blame. Thats too bad that you have to work in the ghetto, because me myself and many other people have to live here and on top of that listen to so called “righteous” folks as yourself bash us. “Work hard and you’ll suceed” or be “responsible” and you won’t be in the position you’re in. Well, i work, i go to the county college because thats all i can afford even though i have a 3.6 I can’t afford to go to new york university. i wanna go to this school and that, but you gotta have money to go to school which equates to you gotta have money to suceed. so no wonder the culture of money and drugs becomes acceptable to too many youth. these kids look at me, in school with my books and my gpa and they go, well she didn’t get anywhere she’s still living here with the rest of us. i’ve known “responsible” as you say, people who have gotten shot to death for being in the wrong place, wrong time. I have friends who went to school with me and dropped out because they couldn’t afford $300 for books, but they weren’t “poor” enough for financial aid. as long as we live in a society where college is twice your salary, then you’ll have angry mommas stormin in the schools to beat up kids. america is a big fat joke with their promises and that work hard to suceed crap. in order to suceed in this country you gotta have money, bottom line. if you do suceed without it, then you’re just a lucky pick out of a hat.
Standardized Tests-Bottom Line Up Front: they answer the all important question can the child read and write and perform math. If the answer is no then it is unacceptable.
Funding-Bottom Line Up Front: Parent(s) and kids DO NOT Care because they have welfare, food stamps, & public housing. Less than 5% show up for their kids. No individual responsibility on part of children or parents means NO AMOUNT of money will help the situation. Return to Social Darwinism. Let Natural Selection takes its course by cutting off funding. But that’s not politically correct so it will never happen and these parasites will continue to suckle until civilization collapses.
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