The Washington Post set out to identify, according to NCLB math and reading test scores, the poorest performing school in the poorest performing state, the school that lands on ”the bottom of the heap.”
But instead of simply awarding the dubious distinction, the Post’s article, “By the Mississippi Delta, A Whole School Left Behind,” takes a head-spinning twist.
See, even with abysmal results, [...]
The reauthorization of NCLB certainly has opened the door for all kinds of ideas about how to amend the law, from Richard Simmons’ call for PE as a multiple measure, to a recent suggestion that college degrees replace standardized test scores as the barometer of success.
So let’s add this one to the list: “In a [...]
Over at Teaching in the 408, there’s an interesting blog post and string of comments on NCLB, the value of testing, triaging students, and what exactly is meant by basic skills.
In “Rules for the Voyage,” blogger TMAO writes
NCLB says test kids, report what happens, and if you blow, feel the pressure to pick it up. If [...]
Forget standardized test scores. In Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Lenz, chief education officer and founder of Envision Schools, calls for college diplomas as a better measure of school performance under NCLB. Lenz says:
Designing educational policy to leave no child behind is the equivalent of driving forward by looking in the rear view mirror. If our policymakers want to move America’s [...]
The Greensboro News-Record reports on an interesting solution to the challenge of quickly getting English language learners up to speed and passing standardized tests: an all-ELL school.
After trouble making AYP the last few years, Guilford County Schools spent $2.4 million to develop the Newcomers School, which offers a special one-year curriculum, class sizes of 15 students, and support [...]
Richard Simmons was on Letterman last night, and after taking some customary ribbing about his oil-n-spangles uniform, called for adding physical education as an optional multiple measure in NCLB reauthorization.
Well, okay, he wasn’t that wonky. He stood on a chair and led the studio audience in a chant of “P.E. in schools! That’s the Golden Rule!”
Maybe this is what [...]
Last week, the New York Times published an article about a rise in dental problems among Americans at the same time that dentists’ fees have hit record levels.
Today, the Times has a letter to the editor from Steven Lauridsen of Geneva, IL, with a modest proposal for improving the nation’s choppers.
If you’ve been following No [...]
Earlier this week, President Bush was adamant that there will be no compromise on 100% proficiency in NCLB reauthorization.
Frederick Hess and Chester Finn of the Fordham Foundation call that basic principle the law’s biggest problem. ”A sense of urgency and outsized aspirations is commendable, but there’s a world of difference between determination and delusion,” they write.
Tackling 100% proficiency is [...]
President Bush’s Rose Garden speech on NCLB on Tuesday had the mainstream media reporting an openness to compromise on the law’s requirements, as long as there’s no watering down of standards and accountability. (The amount of compromising Bush committed to varied a bit, with the Washington Post hearing more than the Associated Press.)
But NYC Educator and Jim Horn [...]
An editorial in today’s Orlando Sentinel calls for fixing No Child Left Behind, and here’s why: the law is flunking the same Florida schools that score A’s on state accountability standards “that are among the toughest in the country.”
“It’s frustratingly confusing because both systems rely on FCAT results but apply those scores very differently,” the [...]
