Just maybe it is possible Eduwonkette spent years teaching, unlike so many policy wonks who don’t have a clue.

I know the drill. Schools that are high performing (easy to teach in) = High quality instruction. Schools that are low performing = low quality instruction. To 90% of the teachers with any time in the system = one big joke.

For the record I spent 30 years on what you would term a “low-performing” school in Brooklyn NY. Guess what? I had years with high performing kids (about 1/3) of my school and (more) years with low-performing kids. Guess that makes me a failure as a teacher 2/3 of the time.

Real teachers get a laugh every time they read this crap.

1. Another viable option would be to improve instuction so that more learning can be accomplished in less time. The reason why this isn’t done is because monopolies, i.e., public schools, aren’t very good at improving efficiency.

2. You’ll want to take a look at the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study, the Minnesota Twin Family Study (and Brouchard’s Reanalysis), the Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project (and Willerman’s various analyses) which show that parental SES has less of an effect than you think.

1) I can say with certainty that our district’s understanding of NCLB requirements is that students in Program Improvement schools who score below proficient in reading or math need to be offered extra minutes in that subject. This is done by a combination of extending the school day, and limiting access to electives, with science being classified as an elective.

2) However low the standards are, there is still a question in my mind of how much schools can do for the average child in 6-or-so hours of formal, largish-group instruction, if this is not supported in the off-hours by the sort of informal instruction that is typical of middle class families with educated parents. Sure, there are exceptional kids, and exceptional teachers, but I think the reality is that effect of informal, out-of-school learning opportunities on test scores (and general academic success) is under-studied, and probably underestimated. One of the best predictors of students test scores is parent educational level.

Eduwonkette’s aggrieved partisans are rushing to the comments section and whining…

I was about to make a comment with some content, but I couldn’t help noticing the irony of the request that commenters keep remarks civil given the tone of the original post.

http://www.eduwonk.com/2008/02/garrison-keilor-on-reading.html

That’s the key point. The NCLB-haters are just trying to shoot the messenger.

How exactly does one have a serious policy discussion with someone who simply applies the “apologist,” “status quo,” or “entrenched interests” lingo to anyone who disagrees or offers evidence to the contrary?”