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The Aspen Commission on NCLB and a Glossary of Terms
Comments from Annie: Here is a Glossary of Terms to help you read the following information from Aspen Institute.
This is from Aspen Institute:
The Commission on No Child Left Behind is an independent, bipartisan effort to improve the No Child Left Behind Act and ensure it is a more useful force in closing the gap in achievement that separates disadvantaged children and their peers. The Commission will uncover the successes of NCLB, as well as provisions which need to be changed or eliminated. The Commission, after a year of hearings, analysis and research, will report to Congress and the Administration in early 2007 with its recommendations.
About the Commission
The bipartisan , independent Commission on No Child Left Behind is examining the strengths and weaknesses of the No Child Left Behind Act and will make concrete and realistic recommendations to Congress, the Administration, state and local stakeholders, parents and the general public to ensure the law is an effective tool in spurring academic achievement and closing the achievement gap.
In seeking to accomplish its mission, the Commission is guided by these principles:
1. All children can learn and should be expected to reach high standards.
2. Accountability for public education systems in the United States must improve to enable students to excel.
3. The achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their non disadvantaged peers must be eliminated to ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed.
4. Education results for all students must improve in order for the United States to remain competitive in the global marketplace.
5. Parents have a right to expect their children to be taught by a highly qualified teacher. Teachers have the right to be treated like professionals, including access to sound working conditions and high quality preparation and ongoing professional development opportunities.
6. Education reform must be coupled with additional resources, but federal, state, and local resources must be used more efficiently and effectively to ensure results in return for the increased investment.
The Commission on No Child Left Behind is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Spencer Foundation. This document is published to communicate the results of the Commission's work. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the Commission's documents are entirely those of the author(s) and should not be attributed in any manner to the donors.
This is from my desktop:
The following definitions are implied by the above rhetorical prose. --AELG
Glossary of Terms
bipartisan: a general term of little actual value since it refers, in this bastardized form, to coagulated groups of politicians, who typically overlap or share investments, and which can be described as political, non-partisan, or bi-partisan, but never homo-partisan.
academic achievement: learning to master bubble sheets, BCR's and other Rubrics-based "skills" to support "high standards." (see: high standards.)
closing the achievement gap: serving the same sub-standard fare to every sub-group.
Commission: a political, business, religious or other cohesive interest group in an era of blurred boundaries.
principles: what has been determined by people who stand to make the most money, to be "right," for people who have the least money.
high standards: memorization of scripted curriculum and test-based bytes of information.
Accountability: statistics developed to prove "mastery" or "failure" on sub-standard tests and test-based curriculum, or to support the development of an expanding and booming educational and test industry.
public education systems: the market place of test, textbook, and associated supplemental "educational” industry; the current favorite enterprise of "accountability" where commissions pursue their principles. (see: accountability, commissions, and principles.)
excel: results that validate an investment in materials that result in the greatest profits for the educational industry.
achievement gap: the acceptable, rhetorical argument in support of profit gains.
disadvantaged students: the population behind federal dedication toward a private, business-based, educational marketplace.
non disadvantaged peers: kids whose parents can "afford" to invest in "educational services" without federal assistance.
succeed: "pass" poorly constructed tests of limited, shallow, rote memorization packets.
results: "statistics," enhanced to support profit gains.
improve: coerce; a valueless term, used to "qualify" and support mammoth profit growth.
competitive: powerful product marketing.
global marketplace: a hypothetical term, coined in the business world to romanticize the practice of capitalism (see public educational systems.)
Parents: key silent partners and product manufacturers.
highly qualified teacher: factory worker or assembly line member with no identity, influence, or voice.
Teachers: (see highly qualified teacher.)
right: a rhetorical term to describe a lack of power or control over decisions made without public input.
professionals: individuals who comply with market-based principles. (see "principles.")
sound working conditions: whatever it takes to accomplish the desired results. (see "results.")
high quality preparation: another profit-based opportunity. (see "public educational systems" and be prepared to substitute the term: "public university system.")
professional development: (see: "highly qualified teacher and "high standards.".)
Education reform: ideology developed by a commission for rapid control over the public educational systems in order to provide children with an opportunity to excel in a global marketplace. (see definitions of terms.)
efficiently and effectively: interchangeable terms which are often associated with a loss of options. (see: improve.)
increased investment: a cycle of economic gain that excludes non-members of the commission.
Anne E. Levin Garrison
Advocate for the survival of public education and gardener....
The Aspen Institute, with commentary by A.E.L.G.
http://www.aspeninstitute.org , and AELG
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