NCLB, Ten Years Later: A round table discussion on NCLB and it's influence on public edu. law, policy and practice.
Rutgers University - Newark
Thursday, November 10, 2011
This workshop was a panel discussion with five presenting speakers:
Shavar Jeffries - Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law School
Craig Livermore - Founder/Executive Director, The New Jersey Law and Education Empowerment Project (NJLEEP)
Dennis Parker - American Civil Liberties Union
Alan Sadovnik - Associate Director of the Institute on Education Law and Policy , Rutgers University
Paul Tractenberg - Rutgers School of Law- Newark, founder of the Education Law Center
The event focused on providing current information on the implications of No Child Left Behind and how it has affected education law policy. The panel of speakers were diverse, of different ethnicity, backgrounds and age groups. They were all knowledgeable on the topic and had different opinions and views.I will provide a synopsis of the main points that were discussed.
The word of the night was "capacity" (ability to provide schools the necessary means i.e. funding, staffing, training,environment, etc. to provide students with the best education possible). The panelist all agreed that NCLB was not feasible by 2014 because schools did not have the capacity to fulfill the requirements held by the law. A big debate point between was funding. Especially with all of the media emphasizing the amount of funding Abbott districts, why is it that school sin these districts are still failing? Shavar Jeffries provided a response that i firmly agree with. He stated that yes, Abbott districts do get more funding but, it is often not transferred to the individual schools. Much of it is caught in administrative and bureaucracy hands. In addition, the amount that Abbott districts get in funding is not only for student academic needs but it is also for student social-emotional needs such as counseling. Jeffries point resignated with me because in my current class i have a student whose mom was recently arrested and if it wasn't for the school providing support and counseling, i am not sure where that student would go.
Sadovnik mentioned that parents should have choice. Usually school choice(s) for inner city parents comes in the form of vouchers, private schools or charter schools, all which usually fall under the same Social economic status environment. Sadovnik proposes choice that crosses county lines, he mentioned that a true democratic school system consists of parents having the choice to send their child to the best school for their child's needs and interest(s). This requires a balance of students commuting into and out of the city for schooling. Yet, this choice also comes with a caveat. If done incorrectly, intra-county schools can also fall prone to tracking which will result in racial and SES divisions in opportunities presented to students. Lastly, Sadovnik questioned if we have political will for district choice? The answer as of today is no, currently Essex county is open to intra-district choice but it has no receiving districts. Which leads me to my last point, in the words of Parker "How accepting have we become of disparities? Overall the wealth of black families is 1/20th of white families, yet no one cares. It's hard to get people to care about these issues". Early in the semester I learned that by looking at a society's educational system you could learn a lot about their government. If our current education system is a direct link to our government system, then can we call ourselves a true democracy? Change in our Educational system will not be easy, nor can it be fixed by an increase of funding or laws. It needs and inside -outside approach, looking deep inside our culture/society and understanding the factors that are affecting the children in the poorest communities. After we understand these circumstances we must try to address them one by one. The road that we have ahead of us as educators will not be easy. We will be the front line army advocating for our students needs against teh will of those in power who try to preserve the status quo.
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