Approach
Views and Policy Recommendations Experienced
educators know, and research supports, that to maximize the
chance of accomplishing NCLB's academic proficiency goal requires
creating three conditions for virtually all students: challenging
curriculum, effective teaching and family support for high
achievement. Experienced educators know the key steps that must
be taken to create these conditions--including vastly enhancing teacher
and administrator preparation and training and strengthening current
teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills--and how to
do it. CES has described the necessary policy changes in "Why NCLB Needs To Be Restructured To Accomplish Its Goals and How To Do It" (PDF) (March 2007) and in its Open Letter to President Bush and Congress (PDF) (October 2003). More recently, CES has updated these policy recommendations in “What’s Wrong with NCLB and What Should Replace It?” (PDF) and “Key Changes Required in ESEA/NCLB,” (PDF) (both August 2012) and in various talks and Huffington Post articles described in Campaign Features, below.
Advocacy Strategy What has been lacking is a public recognition that the generally low
academic achievement of poor and minority public school students is not
accidental. Instead, it largely results from intentional policies
initiated in the early 20th century to create a two-track public
education system: academic vs. general and vocational. In this
system, only students in the academic track were expected to become
academically proficient. At the same time, poor and minority
students were disproportionately assigned to the lower, non-academic
tracks.
Thus,
unequal expectations of students and teachers, unequal curriculum
levels and unequal teaching quality have been built into the very
structure of American education. If we are now to achieve NCLB’s
goal of raising virtually all children to academic proficiency, we must
change the structure from a two-tier to a one-tier system
nationwide. States and districts must now offer all students,
except the severely cognitively impaired, the same rigorous curriculum
and high quality teaching that they previously provided only to the
limited number of students in the academic track. To induce states and
localities to make the necessary structural changes, the federal
government needs to reframe NCLB and portions of the Higher Education
Act (HEA).
The key to bringing about the needed transformations at the federal,
state and local levels is direct and forceful advocacy. Through writing
and public speaking in a wide variety of forums, CES works to educate
politicians, the media and the public as to which structural changes
must be made and which policies must be adopted to implement those
changes. Learn more about this advocacy in In the News.
Alliance with National Organizations In early 2004, CES began working closely with an alliance of national
education, civil rights, religious and other organizations to identify
and agree on central principles for restructuring NCLB to accomplish
its academic goals. Those principles have been published in a Joint Organizational Statement
that has already been endorsed by more than 150 national organizations.
These include the National School Boards Association, NAACP, National
Parent Teachers Association, NEA, National Council of Churches,
National Urban League, ASPIRA, Council for Exceptional Children, and
the Children's Defense Fund. Together, these
organizations represent more than 50 million members and
supporters around the country. The Joint Statement calls on
Congress to incorporate its principles into the ESEA
reauthorization.
A diverse working group of some
of these endorsers, known as the Forum on Educational Accountability
(FEA), has issued a detailed report identifying the policies needed to
carry out the principles: "Redefining Accountability: Improving Student Learning by Building Capacity" (PDF) (February 2007) and legislative recommendations to implement the report, "Proposed ESEA/NCLB Amendments" (PDF)
, (March 30, 2007). CES' Executive Director was a principal drafter of
FEA's Redefining Accountability report and its legislative
Amendments, as well as of the Joint Statement.
Vital Components of Advocacy Strategy The most important components of CES’ advocacy strategy
are described in Campaign Features. |
