Web Site Reveals What Armstrong Williams and George Bush Don't Want You to Know: NCLB Isn't Working

Web Site Reveals What Armstrong Williams and George Bush Don't Want You to Know: NCLB Isn't Working Amid Armstrong Scandal and Bush Push for NCLB in High Schools, http://www.NCLBgrassroots.org Finds Growing Evidence of Failure of 'Reform' Scheme WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- NCLB isn't working in communities across America and only one Web site -- http:///www.nclbgrassroots.org -- continues to zero in exclusively on documenting the failure of the Bush education reform campaign. The four-month-old Web site now contains more than 1,200 news stories from nearly every corner of the U.S. and is reaching an ever-widening audience of parents, grandparents, taxpayers and other concerned Americans. Civil Society Institute President Pam Solo said: "With the third anniversary of NCLB unfolding amidst a scandal about Bush Administration payola to conservative columnist Armstrong Williams and a dangerously unsound proposal by President Bush to expand to the high school level the damage done by 'No Child Left Behind,' our Web site is needed more today than ever. What http://www.nclbgrassroots.org/ does is strip away the glittering generalities and overheated hype that is used to sell NCLB. When you look at how NCLB is working in the real world, you find a dismal failure." The Web site -- http://www.nclbgrassroots.org/ -- is intended to help national policymakers, the news media and parents understand that the controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school reforms are not working as intended and, in fact, have sparked widespread local opposition. Featuring current local newspaper articles that can be sorted by state and eight key NCLB topic areas, the ambitious Web site was launched in September 2004 by Results for America (http://www.resultsforamerica.org/), a project of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute. Articles collected in the Web site can be sorted by such issues as: federal intrusion in education policy; narrowing of curriculum; teacher flexibility; class size; funding burden; unintended negative consequences of NCLB; adequate yearly progress (AYP) reporting; and standardized testing. Solo said: "The national debate about NCLB is taking place in a way that is almost completely divorced from what is actually going on out there at the grassroots in the schools where NCLB is not working and is creating huge headaches and disparities. As a result, there is a big and growing 'disconnect' right now between the abstract national discussion of NCLB and how it actually plays out locally in concrete terms. Our new Web site gives voice to the mounting evidence that NCLB has a noble name, but that its merits as social policy begin and end there." The impetus for http://www.nclbgrassroots.org/ first arose during the course of Results For America's February 2004 survey that parental support for NCLB is thin and does not hold up when parents are given the alternative of considering other common-sense changes for schools. The CSI President added: "This vast social experiment has neither helped with student drop-out rates nor has it done much to advance the real learning curve of the vast majority of the nation's students. Parents and local educators already understand all of this. Now, it's time to make sure that NCLB's real-world impact also is understood by national lawmakers and journalists who tend to think and write about this issue in terms that have little to do with what is actually going on in America's classrooms." ABOUT RESULTS FOR AMERICA Results for America is a project of the Civil Society Institute, which is based in Newton, Massachusetts. The mission of the Institute is to serve as a catalyst for change by creating problem-solving interactions among people, and between communities, government and business, that can help to improve society. Visit Civil Society Institute on the Web at http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/. RFA seeks to shape and tap the tremendous amount of community-level knowledge, experience and innovative action that could solve America's problems in four key areas, including education reform. The RFA initiative for schools is entitled "Great Kids, Great Schools, Great Communities." Results for America supports investing in public schools, making sure parents have more of a say in their schools and creating conditions that will lead to learning and success for every child. Source: Civil Society Institute/Results For America, Newton, MA CONTACT: Ailis Aaron of The Hastings Group, +1-703-276-3265 or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com, for Civil Society Institute-Results For America, Newton, MA Web site: http://www.nclbgrassroots.org/ http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/ http://www.resultsforamerica.org/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment