The Post Rounds Up NCLB Opinions

Today’s Washington Post features a round-up of opinions about No Child Left Behind, from Spellings, Miller, NEA President Reg Weaver, and a host of other educators and lawmakers.
One of the best of the collection is the in-the-trenches view from NEA member and Teacher of the Year Andrea Peterson, who recounts a student’s remarkable progress and heart-breaking defeat. [...]

Title I Draft: NEA’s Response

Earlier this week, NEA submitted its comments on the House Committee on Education and Labor’s reauthorization draft of Title I.
Bottom line, it’s a mixed bag; some of NEA members’ concerns are addressed, such as multiple measures, but many proposed changes don’t go far enough — oh, and there appears to be a lot of new mandates and requirements on states and [...]

When Laws Collide

A blogger at Where’s the Outrage? is frustrated that his kids’ school won’t be labeled “excelling” this year.
How frustrated? He thoughtfully provides a handy visual.
As he reports it, the Catch-22 went like this: As required by their IEPs, three fifth-graders received “nonstandard accommodations” during testing. Doesn’t matter how they scored, under NCLB they were counted as automatic failures  and as not having taken the [...]

Talk About Blowing It: Disaggregating Data

After seven local schools failed to make AYP, the Bristol (TN/VA) Herald Courier reported the following:
“Virginia Middle School didn’t make AYP (adequate yearly progress) because its black students underperformed in their English classes. In addition, the middle school’s students with disabilities underperformed in math.”
Readers called to complain about how the results were reported, and the paper [...]