[NLA] Balancing Local, State, Federal control

[Nancy Hansen]

Hi Debbie -
Thanks for the clarification.  And brother do I
_agree_ with your example being typical back then. 
Your parent *did* have a point.  (It's unfortunate
that he was bent on 'screaming' you into agreement,
though!)  

I taught third grade -- probably about the same time
as your story was happening.  Or maybe a bit prior to
that.  I remember parents like this guy.  But I also
remember that there were more parents who trusted the
judgement and expertise of the classroom instructor. 
When it came time to talk to them about holding a
child back for an additional year in that grade, they
_believed_ their child's teacher knew what was best
for their kid.  

Not any more.  As the time went on, I became a
substitute teacher.  I was 'birthing' a family instead
of working full-time. As *that* experience wore on, I
realized that parents were changing.  The support for
the public schools and its teachers was dropping away.
 I decided not to return as a full-time teacher
because of that.

Also, look at the years the book written by Diane
Ravitch covers??  That time-frame was quite awhile
ago!  That is *also* troubling to me.  Man!  If the
last published word about local control and
decision-making was written in 1980, that says to me
that it is _already_ too late!  

"Fundamental change" *should* be at the local level,
but even that doesn't necessarily provide 'the best
technique/methods' (as you noted "Is it good or
bad?").  I agree that "it depends".  There are those
unwilling to compromise - which brings me to a story:

A retired teacher was in here the end of last week. 
She was looking into sharing with our students a
phonetically-based program she'd written and used in
her public school elementary classrooms here for over
30 years.  

It's a good method that she created. I'm no expert,
but I thought it had merit for daily use with small
groups of kids - neither of which fit our program,of
course. However, before she retired from teaching
here, the school administration FOUGHT her use of this
program as the accepted method for ALL fourth graders,
district-wide.  She never did get approval even for
use in her OWN classroom, but did it anyway from the
sounds of it.  Published her own materials.

I don't know what 'they' were afraid of, but it was
obvious to ME, as she told this story, that some sort
of fear existed.  Either THAT or they just couldn't
stomach "compromising" with an elementary school
teacher who had an 'unproven idea'with nat'l
documentation about success as long as your leg.  I
didn't understand that one.  The "proof" of the
method's success locally was the kids scored higher
test scores.

You wrote:
<< ... "But legislators who would ask the national
government to support adult ed funding often distrust
what happens to national dollars when the priorities
are left to local decisions, and for good reason." >>

So allow me to clarify - am I reading you right?  What
you are saying is our legislators have seen national
dollars used incorrectly back home when they backed
legislation to support local programs, thanks to
irresponsible local decision-makers.  Correct?  What
"for good reason" have you seen?  Something happen in
your state that burned the prospect of adult ed being
properly funded due to another federally funded
project which turned out to be a fiasco?

<< " ... So federal dollars come with strings - like
the NRS - attached." >>

You know, Debbie?  I do _not_ mind being accountable
for my program and having "strings attached" to
funding -- as long as the accountability standards are
reasonable and accurate. You know as well as I do that
outcomes do occur for our beginning students, but the
NRS' 'outcomes' don't relate to beginning students'
achievements in literacy programs.  Or do *I* have
such an oddball program that I'm out in left field
with that?

The comment about "who operate wholly in the local
arena (except on this list!)"  

You ARE absolutely correct - I am "operating wholly
local".  But that doesn't mean that I don't have to be
accountable for funding.  Difference is NObody asks me
to take a TABE test of my 50 year old learner's
studies to make sure s/he gained a year from Gr 1 to
Gr 2.  And, no surprise to ME, when I tell the
authority that's what's revealed by testing do they
DEMAND it like the fed's do.  Therein is the
difference.

Thanks for your post.  I wanted so badly to laugh
aloud about your Mouse and Elephant story/conclusion
... but couldn't.  It's been so stressful here that I
couldn't even.  I _am_ that Mouse.  But my intent was
not to tree an Elephant.  (When I READ that, though, I
got this instant picture of an Elephant with big,
fearful eyes, and the word 'Republican' emblazoned on
his hinny, hanging over the crotch of a tall,
leaveless tree - with a teeny Mouse yelling her lungs
out at him from below - the tattoo on her arm said NH
in a heart ... The soft and squishy stuff that nobody
wants to 'fess up to when we are supposed to be
warriors.)

Again thank you, Debbie.  It's good for me to see
there are folks like you who are thinking of the good
folks we teach.

Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD
<sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com>

 


--- "Deborah W. Yoho" <dwyoho at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Nancy, when I said education (I meant all levels)
> was once under solely
> local control I was speaking historically.  A good
> reference book to check
> on this is called 
> "The Troubled Crusade: American Education,
> 1945-1980" by Diane Ravitch.  As
> I have mentioned before, the only constitutional
> role for the national
> government in education is to insure individual
> rights.  Since WW II, and
> especially since Brown vs. the Board of Ed, the
> national role has expanded,
> contracted, and expanded again (as measured by
> national funding levels) as
> we all know. In the South, where "State's Rights"
> are still argued as
> heatedly as at the time of the Civil War, national
> involvement is received
> with, at best, grudging acceptance only because of
> the money attached. On
> the NLA list, discussion about national strategies
> for increasing funding
> and/or efficacy in adult ed should take into account
> that the vehicle for
> truly fundamental change is still controlled by
> local decision-makers
> (teachers, school boards, higher ed), and always has
> been.  But legislators
> who would ask the national government to support
> adult ed funding often
> distrust what happens to national dollars when the
> priorities are left to
> local decisions, and for good reason. So federal
> dollars come with
> strings--like the NRS--attached.  The role of the
> national government is
> intertwined with the civil rights movement. And each
> time funding or
> legislation is considered, the struggle to balance
> local vs. national
> continues.
> 
> Once while I was a high school principal, I tried to
> explain to an irate
> parent the purpose of Title IX.  The parent was
> incensed that his innocent
> little girl was taking her PE class in the same gym
> at the same time as the
> boys. He understood we didn't have the money for two
> gyms, and not enough
> time in the day to schedule boys and girls into the
> gym separately. 
> Finally he screamed at me (no exaggeration) "Title
> IX?  What?  Those people
> in Washington don't give a damn what we do in this
> little hick town in
> South Carolina!  We don't have to pay the slightest
> attention to them!  HOw
> are they gonna know what's going on down here?  Just
> put my girl in study
> hall and give her credit for PE.  You're telling me
> Washington cares about
> that?"  
> 
> He had a point, sad to say.   
> 
> Is the local perspective a force for good or bad? 
> Of course, the answer
> is, "it depends."  Like everything else in a
> representative democracy, what
> results is usually a compromise, which means
> everyone loses (and wins), to
> one extent or another. To foster quality in adult ed
> programs, issues of
> standards, accountability, and control (who minds
> the store?) impact the
> teaching-learning process as much as funding.
> Finding the balance is the
> Holy Grail. 
> 
> To those of us, like Nancy, who operate wholly in
> the local arena (except
> on this list!) it is easy to feel squashed by the
> power of Big Brother. 
> But don't forget, often it has been the Mouse who
> made the Elephant climb a
> tree. Cheers, Debbie 
>   
> Deborah W. Yoho
> Moderator, NIFL-Health Discussion Group
> Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy
> Council
> 2728 Devine St. Columbia, SC  29205
> 803-765-2555    dwyoho at earthlink.net
> 
> > [Original Message]
> > From: <Nashansen at aol.com>
> > To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> > Date: 11/20/2002 10:42:15 AM
> > Subject: Re: [NLA] Research in adult literacy
> education
> >
> > Dear Debbie,
> >
> > I sincerely appreciate the comments below that you
> wrote in your
> 11/19/02=20
> > post.  I hope you are correct that "We have come
> full circle."  I also
> feel=20
> > it's important that we really need a balance of
> decision, policy and
> funding=
> > =20
> > for literacy programs that has not existed.  I
> feel there is such a gap
> in=20
> > understanding between the on-high and grass-roots
> -- sometimes it feels
> like=
> > =20
> > weeds instead.  You know?  The scratchy, pesky
> variety you can't get rid
> of?=
> >  =20
> > I guess that's me all right - not being grassroots
> as much as a Pesky
> Weed=20
> > Patch that won't go away.
> >
> > Debbie, you wrote: =20
> > << "=E2=80=A6Every classroom teacher from
> kindergarten to higher ed
> struggle=
> > s with=20
> > this problem.  It wasn't always so--education was
> once solely in the
> hands o=
> > f=20
> > the grass-roots practitioner, but justice was
> served unevenly, as
> inequities=
> > =20
> > abounded." >>
> >
> > If you have the time, I would love for you to
> expand on how, in *your*
> view,=
> > =20
> > the change occurred and when. Plus were you
> writing about literacy=20
> > practitioners or the K-12 + adult education? 
> Equality is really
> important,=20=
> > I=20
> > feel, and if we knew what caused the uneven
> justice you wrote about,
> perhaps=
> > =20
> > we might avoid making that same mistake now.  *I*
> feel we are already
> seeing=
> > =20
> > inequity in the 'Leave No Children Behind' of the
> Bush administration as
> far=
> > =20
> > as a focus on the adult in that family.  But I
> could be way off base. 
> What=20
> > do you think?
> >
> > At any rate, thanks for your comments.  I
> appreciated your NLA post.
> >
> > Nancy Hansen
> > Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
> > Nashansen at aol.com and (when my Council computer is
> fixed)
> > sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Subj:    Re: [NLA] Research in adult literacy
> education
> > Date:   11/18/2002 4:22:00 PM Central Standard
> Time
> > From:   dwyoho at earthlink.net (Debbie Yoho)
> > Sender: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
> > Reply-to:   nla at lists.literacytent.org
> > To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
> >
> >
> > Thank you, Nancy, for your real-world, painstaking
> summary of this
> thread.=20
> > In regard to policy, I wish someone could sort out
> the quagmire of
> > balancing local control of our programs with fiats
> from on-high.  To me,
> 
=== message truncated ===


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