Saturday, August 18, 2007

Putting No Child Left Behind in Perspective

The passage of the federal No Child Left Behind statutes, (never been funded at more than 15% annually of the estimates for getting the standards met) has had a significant impact here in Newburyport.

Dr. Lyons has identified literacy as a critical issue that needs to be addressed in our schools.

The following link will send you to a very thoughtful piece about how the NCLB laws are impacting language instruction. The second paragraph of the piece establishes the bona fides of Jim Cummings, who delivered this analysis at a recent conference in California.

"A treasured, no-nonsense voice in the world of second-language acquisition, during the past three decades, Cummins, now a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, has touched the life of many an English as a second language teacher, inspiring thousands with a thoroughly grounded iconoclastic approach to the pedagogy of language. He has shattered myths, developed new theories and concepts, promoted innovations in the classroom, affected policy, and arguably done as much to shift the paradigm of language instruction as Noam Chomsky 20 years earlier did to shift scientific thought toward a paradigm of innate universal grammar."

Thanks to Daily Kos Commentator Meteor Blades for providing the diary discussing Cummins' ideas. Despite all the brouhaha about the Kos website, there are a number of regular diarists who have a great deal to say about education in the United States. I would recommend the diaries of TeacherKen as a place to start.


www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/26/131722/394

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