jackiedoherty.org

 Technical difficulties! If you are seeing this old post on our home page, please click on June 2008 archives to access our most recent post – scroll to the bottom to see the latest.  Sorry for this problem; we’ll get it fixed ASAP. 

I hope we don’t end up having to rename this the “No Child Left Behind” blog, but there is just so much wrong with this piece of legislation that we could probably post on it every day. The Economist recently had an article about NCLB, in which they describe it as a ‘noble attempt to impose discipline on American schools,’ (I prefer to describe it as a deeply cynical attempt to undermine public education). The magazine does lay out one of the fundamental problems with NCLB, that federal penalties and subsidies are dependent on standards that states themselves set.

States thus have a multi-billion-dollar incentive to game the system.  In Arizona, for example, only one-fifth of eighth-graders were rated ‘proficient’ at maths after taking the state test in 2003.  Two years later, that proportion had magically tripled.  Does this mean that the test got easier to pass?  “Yes,” says Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s plain-talking governor.

In Massachusetts, we have a very difficult test, and the trend is to make it even harder. I don’t have a problem with that, but I think that before people throw around the terms ‘underperforming schools’ and ‘failing schools’ they ought to understand that these are labels imposed by the federal government that do not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground here in Lowell.

I’ve never been one to shy away from accountability—my own or others—and certainly I’m not against making sure our schools do a great job of educating our children. After all, those are my kids, literally. But give schools the resources to do the job, develop fair assessment tools, and then hold them accountable.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the federal legislation up for re-authorization this summer, attempts to hold public schools accountable by setting arbitrary (one could argue unattainable) goals, under funding its own mandates, and establishing punitive measures without regard to the actual progress being made in the schools. More…. more »

 Imagine my delight as I prepare to launch my own site to discover two noteworthy mentions of other established blogs in the mainstream print media yesterday. The Boston Globe carried a story in its Sunday magazine about the blog Blue Mass Group, conducting an interview with founder David Kravitz that asked, among other things: “What are you getting that the mainstream media are missing? 

That seems to be the proverbial question as blog readership grows and more people, myself included, get on the blogging bandwagon. The opportunity to participate via the internet in multiple discussions and learn a variety of perspectives on current issues has huge implications on citizen awareness and activism. Although Kravitz took the humble road, saying he questions that his blog actually impacted votes in the recent governor’s race–even if it was showing close to 10,000 hits a day around election time—clearly blogs have become an important tool in the Information Age. By enabling average citizens access to a world of others’ opinions, as well as the ability to express their own opinions in a public format, there is a real shift in the power of the established mainstream media.

The Lowell Sun gave several inches of ink to Dick Howe’s blog in its Sunday Column, even going so far as to quote extensively from his comments regarding the 5^th Congressional District and implications of the early-out-of-the-gate campaign of candidate Niki Tsongas.  Excited as I am about this new tool for political discourse, which clearly adds pressure for established media to provide more balanced, accurate coverage (increased competition for one thing), I also can’t help wondering how will we find the time to read it all?

Welcome to jackiedoherty.org, a site dedicated to sharing news and commentary on education, politics and the world at large from a uniquely Lowell perspective. As someone who considers herself a long-time political activist, as well as being an elected member of the Lowell School Committee, I have opinions on just about everything, and I am excited about this opportunity to connect with fellow citizens on a variety of topics. My hope is that this site will give you the chance to learn new perspectives on issues–especially ones that are often outside the venue of established media sources–and that you’ll respond with your own comments, ideas and suggestions.

Please know that all comments will be screened before posting, not because I don’t value freedom of expression and an open exchange of ideas, but because I hold myself and this blog to a standard of political discourse that has no room for personal attacks. (I also want to keep spam out of the blog as much as possible.)

Another author on this site will be Margaret Gilsenberg, a dear friend, my campaign manager, and a colleague who also sees civic engagement as a way to positively change the world around us. Margaret and I both subscribe to anthropologist Margaret Mead’s philosophy: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”