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...Obama has been committed to this transformation since long before he arrived on Capitol Hill. Pundits who call Obama inexperienced don’t count the time he spent as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, steering its 80 editors through contentious debates and moving them beyond petty power struggles. Nor do they take note of the time he spent as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago, empowering people who had no means of ensuring a better future. They don’t count the eight years he spent in the Illinois State Senate...
...Counter and the Harvard Foundation, and attempts to give us a lesson on South African apartheid (did Caldwell take a course in South African history like some of us have, or did she simply visit wikipedia and feel it was time to drop some knowledge?), I ask that she review her history, not only of racism on this campus and throughout the world, but on the contributions of S. Allen Counter—hopefully then, she and all of us will realize why this article, despite its efforts to engage the racial issue on campus, was completely out of line...
...much of the day. At 2:45 in the afternoon, Rasheed Abdullah, the kinetic lead math teacher, stages what could be called a prep rally with 11 third-graders. The kids, who are at neither the top nor the bottom of their class, have been selected for intensive review--as has a contingent from other grades--because their test scores hold the key to putting the school over the top on the pivotal Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSSAS). Last year, after a history of failure, the school, under new leadership, managed to meet the federal goal for adequate yearly...
Abdullah, who has an easy rapport with students, issues a quick reminder to sign up for "Super Saturday" review classes and then begins his math-athon with a rousing recitation of the school's declaration of education. "We believe that we can learn at high levels," the children chant. "We believe we can reach our learning potential ... We believe that Blaine will become a high-performing institution...
...addition, the do-or-die AYP system creates perverse incentives. It rewards schools that focus on kids on the edge of achieving grade-level proficiency--like those 11 students in Blaine's math-review class. There's no incentive for schools to do much of anything for the kids who are on grade level or above, which is one reason the law is unpopular in wealthier, high-achieving communities. And sadly, says O'Connell, "NCLB provides no incentive to work on the kids far below...