NCLB Outrages
Education department inks $6 million contract
Ohanian Comment: Here's another note on who gets rich from NCLB. America's Choiceฎ School Design describes the NCLB connection:
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is placing extraordinary new requirements on educators. The America's Choiceฎ School Design can help states, districts and schools meet these requirements. It is built on the premise that teaching to explicit standards is the best strategy for helping disadvantaged and low-performing students -- the same strategy adopted by the authors of NCLB.
http://www.ncee.org/acsd/nclb/index.jsp
The America's Choiceฎ School Design is part of Marc Tucker's outfit, National Center on Education and the Economy. NCEE describes the creation of America's Choiceฎ: "NCEE's founders created this not-for-profit organization in the conviction that virtually all young people in the United States can and must achieve at the same high standards reached by their counterparts in other nations."
Some people regard NCEE as saviors, others as satan incarnate. The NCEE overarching goal--and the proposed means to achieve it--are embedded in the infamous and engrossing "Dear Hillary" letter. The introduction to this letter on the Eagle Forum makes for interesting reading in face of No Child Left Behind. Conservatives deserve credit for recognizing a mangy cur when it first shows up. Certainly they were sending out warning sirens long before so-called progressives had a clue. In any case, it is informative to read Tucker in his own words to Hillary.
The Tucker empire has the following funders:
Alan L. Wurtzel
Anonymous
Apple Computer, Inc.
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Circuit City Foundation
David Rockefeller/David Rockefeller, Jr. Trust
DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
Eastman Kodak Company
Ford Motor Company Fund
Fort Worth, Texas Independent School District
Gannett Foundation
GTE Foundation
Holland Associates
Jewel-Osco
John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation
Lilly Endowment, Inc.
Melville Corporation
New American Schools (Development Corporation)
New Schools Venture Fund
New York City Board of Education
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Public School District
Rochester, New York City School District
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Sam M. and Helen R. Walton Foundation
San Diego, California, Public Schools
SJS, Inc.
State of Arkansas
State of California
State of Colorado
State of Connecticut
State of Delaware
State of Florida
State of Iowa
State of Kentucky
State of Maine
State of Massachusetts
State of Missouri
State of New York
State of Oregon
State of Pennsylvania
State of South Carolina
State of Texas
State of Vermont
State of Virginia
State of Washington
Target Stores
The Abell Foundation
The Boeing Company
The Broad Foundation
The Danforth Foundation
The German Marshall Fund of the United States
The Leon Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Stupski Foundation
Union Carbide Corporation
The Union Carbide Foundation, Inc.
United States Chamber of Commerce
United States Department of Education
United States Department of Labor
Verizon Foundation
Walton Enterprises
Xerox Corporation
by Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - The Arkansas Department of Education announced Monday that it entered into a $6 million contract with a Washington-based education reform company to assist three dozen low-performing public schools.
The state will institute a school improvement model championed by America's Choice Inc., of Washington, at 36 schools hit hardest by provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. All of the schools are in their third or fourth years on the department's school improvement list.
The $6.095 million contract is funded by federal education aid and was approved last week by the Arkansas Legislative Council.
America's Choice is affiliated with the National Center for Education and the Economy.
"What America's Choice offers is a comprehensive strategy to enable schools to best reach and educate those students who are not achieving academically," said Ken James, state education commissioner.
The group's proposal was selected from among four companies vying for the contract. None of the companies were based in Arkansas, said Julie Thompson, education department spokeswoman.
Under the program, administrators and teachers will undergo professional development this summer in areas of instructional leadership, literacy instruction and math instruction.
America's Choice personnel will be employed in the state and will visit schools each week to measure and help implement strategies for improving math and reading scores.
Schools will be forced to eliminate programs that have been proven to have no effect on student achievement.
— staff
Arkansas News Bureau
2006-05-23
INDEX OF NCLB OUTRAGES
