Running On Empty? Or Starting Their Eduengines? Or Is It Time To Pile On?

The AFT’s anti-No Child Left Behind blog has run out of things to say about the law on day 18 of its existence…so now they’re on to National Board Certified teachers! That’s actually really good because more topics will be more interesting but here they (a) tout a somewhat old study (pdf) (b) ignore that some things have been written about remedies to get more National Board teachers into high poverty schools though the usual suspects are nowhere in sight or even essentially opposed (pdf) and (c) ignore that the AFT Connecticut chapter has been a leader on getting National Board teachers into high poverty schools! Likewise, this post about NCLB might have mentioned a useful report by the AFT’s Rosenberg on the grade-level issue…Hmmm….What’s up with the blog’s “John” and “Michele” dissn’ their brothers and sisters like that?

Afterthought: In any event, Eduwonk guesses that the “Harry and Louise” ads of health care fame were the inspiration for the “John” and “Michele” back and forth format but it’s already tiresome because every post more or less boils down to something like this:

Michele: NCLB requires this provision or that or could lead to this outcome or that…
John: I’m frightened…hold me…

Leave aside the chronically worried tone, can’t they work independently of one another and cover more ground? That’s what EdWize, Kindling Flames, and other “group” blogs do.

Piling On Afterthought II: The other day John or Michele wrote the following in response to Eduwonk’s plea that the AFT blog focus on more eduissues than just No Child Left Behind:

Considering the NCLB reauthorization was probably the biggest thing to happen to public education since Sputnik was launched (OK, maybe not that big), we think there is plenty to say.

Actually, breathlessness aside, NLCB was probably just the biggest thing to happen to public education since the last time the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was reauthorized in 1994 and that reauthorization was arguably much more significant in terms of really being a policy shift because it put the federal government in the standards game. NCLB, however, was more significant in terms of what it meant politically and substantively for the teachers’ unions, and that, of course, is the rub.

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