NY Sun: Letter to Editor 'Accommodations Do Not Benefit the Student'

December 26, 2007

'Accommodations Do Not Benefit the Student'

There was an error in Andrew Wolf 's otherwise thoughtful column OpEd, "Did the Dog Eat Mills's Homework?" December 21-23,2007. Mr. Wolf described how the State Education Commissioner, Richard Mills, has tried to downplay the bad news from the federal government's tests of mathematics and reading.

Mr. Wolf correctly noted that the state's own tests produce far rosier results than the national tests The latest federal test results showed that there were no academic gains for students in New York City or New York State from 2003 to 2007, except in fourth grade math. Wolf erred in saying that 21% of students in New York City were "assessed with accommodations," which means that they got extra time or other advantages when they took the tests. Actually, 25% of New York City fourth grade students got accommodations when they took the math test, as did 22% of fourth graders who took the reading test.

Far more New York City students were given accommodations than in other cities that were tested. The figure for New York City students doubled between 2003 and 2007. This is not because we have more students who are English language learners. In Los Angeles, for example, nearly half the students are English language learners, but only 5% of them were assessed with accommodations.

Accommodations do not benefit the student because no individual scores are reported. They do benefit the district, however, by giving extra help to students who might get lower scores. This explains why federal officials (as your Elizabeth Green reported) are now trying to set a national standard to define which students should be given accommodations or excluded from taking the national tests.

The unusually large number of accommodations granted in New York City supports Mr. Wolf's assertion that the NAEP is taken seriously by school officials, and that Commissioner Mills is wrong to belittle the poor results on the NAEP as contrasted with what appear to be inflated results on the state tests.

Diane Ravitch

Research Professor

of education

new York University

Freakonomics Blog: What Should be Done About Standardized Testing?

The Freakonomics blog at NYT has occasional 'quoroms' where they get a few experts in a field to opine on a subject. For the recent post about standardized testing, they had several, including FairTest's Monty Neill, who invoked NAEP:

NCLB’s testing mandates have flooded American classrooms with millions of additional tests. At the same time, the rate of learning improvement has actually slowed, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Why State Standards Trouble me

Deborah Meier says NAEP might "even offer another source for teacherly curiosity"! Says other stuff about national standards too.

The old NAEP—with its information-gathering core—doesn't kill that. It may even offer another source for teacherly curiosity: "I wonder how my students would answer that?" "Hmm, if I'd worded it differently…." But it is clearly a hard battle to keep such "standards" from turning into efforts to decide what everyone "ought to" think (know?), and then into tools for "making them" do so.

NCLB in waiting

commentary from the co-chairs of the Aspen Institutes's Commission on NCLB...

Yesterday, across the United States, more than 7,000 students dropped out of school. And the same number will drop out tomorrow, and the next day.

This statistic is staggering, to be sure, but it's not the only worrisome one. Every day we see evidence we are also letting down far too many of those students who remain in school. Far too few of our students are even minimally proficient in reading and math. Even our best and brightest students have difficulty competing with their peers internationally. And the achievement gap between our most and least advantaged students is still far too wide...

WaPo: Calls Grow for a Broader Yardstick for Schools

For nearly six years, the federal government has defined school success mainly by how many students pass state reading and math tests. But a growing number of educators and lawmakers are pushing to give more weight to graduation rates, achievement in science and history and even physical education.

The debate over the formula for rating the nation's public schools has stalled efforts in Congress to revise the No Child Left Behind law. At issue: What's the best way to measure whether schools are doing their job?

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501747.html?nav=rss_education

Rothstein: Leaving "No Child Left Behind" Behind

Richard Rothstein wrote a long article in Prospect about arguments against NCLB that is full of background and detail and that mentions NAEP prominently throughout, and calls for a vast expansion of NAEP. It's getting a decent amount of play already, and is definitely worth a read.

The next president has a unique opportunity to start from scratch in education policy, without the deadweight of a failed, inherited No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The new president and Congress can recapture the "small d" democratic mantle by restoring local control of education, while initiating policies for which the federal government is uniquely suited -- providing better achievement data and equalizing the states' fiscal capacity to provide for all children.

This opportunity exists because NCLB is dead. It will not be reauthorized -- not this year, not ever. The coalition that promoted the 2001 bipartisan law has hopelessly splintered, although NCLB's advocates in the administration and the Congress continue to imagine (at least publicly) that tinkering can put it back together.

WaPo: Hoping to Turn the Beat Around

Arts being squeezed out... lobbying for more attention to Arts in NCLB reauth... relevant as we are assessing Arts in 2008...

Hoping to Turn The Beat Around
Even as Attention to 'No Child' Law Squeezes Class Time, Teachers in Manassas Champion the Value of Music

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 17, 2007; Page B01

(...)
Music and the arts are listed in No Child Left Behind guidelines as "core" subjects, but there is no money in the law to support such programs nor any mandate requiring schools to provide them. As instructional time in math, language arts and other subjects students must achieve proficiency in has risen, time devoted to other subjects has declined. Time spent on arts and music in 2007 is about half what it was before No Child Left Behind became law in 2002, according to a report recently released by the nonprofit Center on Education Policy.

Educators are lobbying legislators to raise the profile of music education when No Child Left Behind is reauthorized, action that had been expected this year but has been delayed until next year. They are pushing for more money for arts programs and seeking a requirement that school systems report to the federal government on the status of their music education programs.

Finn: NAEP Math Framework Too Thin, Proficieny Level OK

Chester Finn comments on the Tim Loveless (Brookings) report on NAEP, agreeing that Loveless has it right on "the thinness of mathematical content in NAEP's math frameworks and exams, and how NAEP's governing board and bevies of experts have seemingly compensated by setting lofty targets that students must hit on those exams to be deemed "proficient,"" but that Loveless is incorrect on the idea that "NAEP's proficient level is too high."

If you haven't read the report yet and would like to, it is available here.

Losing the race

It's report-card time again for America's education system, and, unfortunately, our schools have once again brought home a failing grade. The latest round of international test scores paints a grim picture for the United States.

The new results were released from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tested hundreds of thousands of 15-year-old students from 30 industrialized countries. The results, which were released last week, show that American students are below average in math and science. Out of 30 industrialized nations, American students rank 25th in math and 21st in science, and our average scores on both tests are below the U.S. averages from the 2003 test. America is falling behind its global competitors and the economic security of our children is at risk.

Bridging Differences: The Value of Standards

..."Mathematics and science should be the easiest fields to reach a consensus, because—while there are certainly many controversies in both fields—it is also quite possible to identify important knowledge and skills that can fairly be tested. I just looked at the NAEP test. A typical fourth-grade question: “The Ben Franklin Bridge was 75 years old in 2001. In what year was the bridge 50 years old?” The student is given a choice of 1951, 1976, 1984, or 1986. There is a single correct answer. The student who answers this question correctly knows that she must deduct 25 from 2001 to get the answer of 1976."...

-Diane

Full post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/12/dear_deb_i_dont_understand.html

HuffPo: Diane Does Rush (Gerry Bracey!!)

The report showed (page 273) that NAEP math scores had been steady for whites and rising for blacks and Hispanics although both groups trailed whites substantially. An analysis by community type (rural, advantaged metro, disadvantaged metro) showed NAEP performance steady or rising. We're talking NAEP here, not some dinky test the Sandia engineers made up.

Full post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/diane-does-rush_b_75696.html

Bridging Differences: The Fallout from Testing

I see national testing as another nail in the coffin of a nation prized for being creative and innovative. I know, Diane, that textbooks often establish dumb standards, too. But whatever leads you to believe that these tests won't repeat what's already in (and not in) those textbooks??? At least now some schools—and not just private ones—can ignore them or use them as mere back-up. There remains another way to get good information without dumbing education down; sampled in-depth testing (which NAEP started out doing) could be invaluable, based on interviews, performance tasks, writing samples, etc.

Deborah Meier

Full Post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/12/dear_diane_theres_a_streak.html

NY Daily News: Gifted test to be used to identify slow learners, too

New York plans to give an assessment to kindergartners to assess who gets into gifted programs and who might need special education services too. No mention of NAEP, but has general implications for testing.

A test school officials plan to give kindergartners to make gifted programs more accessible will also be used to assess academic ability, the Daily News has learned.

Starting next fall, schools will give the Bracken School Readiness Assessment in all kindergarten classes to identify which children should be further tested for coveted spots in gifted programs.

But the standardized test, which gauges understanding of letters, numbers, colors and shapes, is also designed to identify learning disabilities and find out where kids stand when they enter school.

Continue reading

The Grand Illusion of Proficiency

More talk on national standards/testing from Diane Ravitch, once again highlighting that NAEP "is the only measure that is maintaining a consistent standard across the fifty states."

As usual, you raise lots of interesting questions and you sharpen our clear differences. Yes, I do think we should have national testing. This idea that fifty states should each have their own standards and their own tests is nutty. We are not getting higher standards; we may even be getting lower ones.

How did we get to this point? President Clinton's Goals 2000 pushed the states to create their own standards and tests (Clinton, to his credit, actually preferred national tests, but he couldn't persuade the Republican Congress to go along with his proposal for such tests). Then along came NCLB, and President Bush wanted a bigger emphasis on standards and testing, but knew that his own party would never accept national testing. So he built on the idea that each state should set its own standards, develop its own tests, grade its own progress towards the goal of having every student "proficient" in reading and mathematics by the year 2013-2014. Since the bill passed Congress in the fall of 2001, I assume that the goal of 2013-14 was based on the idea that this was the amount of time (12 years, starting in 2002) necessary to raise the achievement of children who were then in kindergarten.

Continue reading article.

CAP: What is the Urban National Assessment Data Telling Us?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress released its latest Trial Urban District Assessment on November 15th. The TUDA assesses the performance of fourth and eighth grade students in reading and mathematics from 11 participating districts: Atlanta, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, San Diego, and Austin.

The development of TUDA came from a belief that urban districts should be assessed independently from the national report card. Yet as the recent TUDA reports show, not all urban districts are alike.

Full post: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/11/naep_data.html

Schools for Tomorrow: False, cheery optimism from the feds

Adam Honeysett over at the US Department of Education sends me an email now and then. I don’t know who he is, but I like him. He always makes me feel that our country is making great strides in education. Which, of course, it probably isn’t. The most recent newsletter cheered that,

“the percentage of students achieving at or above the state’s proficient level rose for most student subgroups in a majority of states. Also, both National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and state assessments results indicate that the achievement gaps between disadvantaged students and other students may be narrowing.”

Full post: http://www.headfirstcolorado.org/blog/index.php/2007-11-29/false-cheery-optimism-from-the-feds/

EdWeek: National Math Panel Unveils Draft Report

Students’ success in mathematics, and algebra specifically, hinges largely on their mastering a focused, clearly defined set of topics in that subject in early grades, the draft report of a federal panel concludes.

Full Story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/12/05/14math.h27.html

Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You

Naomi Wolf wrote an op/ed for WaPo, lamenting young people's disengagement with and ignorance of democracy. Cites NAEP history results, but not by name.


"Is America still America if millions of us no longer know how democracy works?

When I speak on college campuses, I find that students are either baffled by democracy's workings or that they don't see any point in engaging in the democratic process. Sometimes both.

Not long ago, I gave a talk at a major university in the Midwest. "They're going to raze our meadows and put in a shopping mall!" a young woman in the audience wailed. "And there's nothing we can do!" she said, to the nods of young and old alike."

Bridging Differences: National Tests Keep the Districts Hones

National Tests Keep the Districts Honest

Dear Deborah,

I note with pleasure that The New York Times endorsed (again) the principle of national testing. My guess is that the latest NAEP results for New York City prompted them to do so....


...When NAEP's urban district scores were released on November 14, it contained a heap of bad news for New York City. The reports compared progress in 11 cities and showed that NYC's public schools had made "no significant gains" from 2003-2007 in 4th grade reading, 8th grade reading, or 8th grade math. The only subject and grade where there was a significant improvement during these years was in 4th grade math. However, doubt has been cast even on that gain because (as an article in the New York Sun pointed out), 25 percent of the city students received accommodations (e.g., extra time), a rate far higher than in any other urban district and double the rate for the city's students only four years ago. Los Angeles, which has a far higher proportion of English-Language Learners than NYC, assessed with accommodations only 8 percent of its 4th graders on the math test, compared with NYC's 25 percent. Giving such a large number of accommodations presumably would give the city an extra boost in scores in 4th grade math...


...If one sees significance in the national tests, which have similar standards for all states and cities that take it, then the clear winner among the cities over the past five years is Atlanta. Atlanta has an enrollment that is more than 90 percent African-American; it has a superintendent, Beverly Hall, who has been on the job for eight years. Its NAEP scores in math and reading at both 4th and 8th grades have trended steadily upward over the past five years. Something is happening in Atlanta that the nation should pay attention to. Too bad the Broad Foundation didn't notice.

Full post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/11/national_tests_keep_the_distri.html

NYT: Test and Switch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 26, 2007
Editorial
Test and Switch

Congress hoped that if it required the states to give annual tests in return for federal education aid, state politicians would be encouraged — or at least embarrassed — into improving dismal schools and closing the achievement gap between rich and poor children.

That’s not how things have worked out. Many states have gamed the system — and misled voters — devising weak tests, setting low passing scores or changing tests from year to year to prevent accurate comparisons over time. The charade will continue, and children will continue to be shortchanged, until the country develops a rigorous national test keyed to national standards.

This problem is highlighted in a recent study by Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center run by Stanford University and the University of California, that analyzed the testing practices of a dozen states between 1992 and 2006. States that performed swimmingly on their own weak math and reading tests tended to score dismally on the more rigorous federal National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as NAEP.

In nearly all of the states studied, students did noticeably worse on federal tests than on state tests. In Oklahoma, the gap in scores was a shocking 60 percentage points in math and 51 percentage points in reading. In Texas, that gap was 52 percentage points in math and 56 points in reading. The state that came closest to the federal standard was Massachusetts, where there was a modest 1 percent gap in math and 10 percent gap in reading.

New York was not included in this study. But the same issue emerged here earlier this month when NAEP scores for the state’s students turned out to be strikingly lower than scores achieved on the state-level test.

Advocates of the mediocre status quo will oppose any requirement for a national test. Congress could get the process started by instructing the NAEP board, an independent body created by the federal government, to create a rigorous, high-quality test and offer it to the states free — if they use federal scoring standards. Congress might push things further if it published a list of states that still insisted on using their own weaker tests. Americans need an accurate picture of how this country’s students are doing.

EdWeek: Students in Urban Districts Inching Forward on NAEP

Atlanta’s middle school students were just starting their academic careers when the district began rolling out efforts to improve reading and mathematics instruction. Now, the district’s 8th graders are gaining faster than much of the nation and many other cities in raising achievement in those subjects, according to the urban district results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/28/13naep.h27.html

WaPo: 'No Child' Law May Slight The Gifted, Experts Say

Some scholars are joining parent advocates in questioning whether the education law No Child Left Behind, with its goal of universal academic proficiency, has had the unintended consequence of diverting resources and attention from the gifted.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/24/AR2007112401420.html?nav=rss_education

N.Y. Gave the Most Breaks for School Exam

Yet another potential salvo in the New York testing wars. New York state gave the most students accommodations, and NYC did the most for the TUDA districts. One analyst is quoted as saying so many students got accommodations because they had been excluded previously.

So many New York City students received extra time and other accommodations on a respected national test this year that several testing experts are saying the results should be considered invalid.

On the test known as the nation's report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, New York state gave accommodations to more fourth-graders than any other state in the nation, and New York City gave more help than any of the ten other major cities that participate in a separate city-by-city comparison. On three of four tests the accommodation rate hovered around 20%. On the last — a fourth-grade math exam city officials are trumpeting as evidence the Bloomberg administration's schools program is working — the rate was 25%.

The math test this year showed the city's fourth-graders making record gains, with 79% of students reaching the basic level, up from 73% in 2005 and 67% in 2003. At the same time, the number of students receiving legally allowed accommodations, such as extra time to take the test, having the test read out loud, and receiving a translation into the student's native language, more than doubled, to 25% this year from 12% in 2003.

LAT: California schools are failing all our kids

LAT Opinion article on how NAEP scores reveal problems with California students compared to the nation as a whole.

State schools Supt. Jack O'Connell hosted a summit in Sacramento last week of 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts. He asked them to confront California's "racial achievement gap" -- the persistently lower test scores of California's African American and Latino public school students compared with their white and Asian peers. In 125 packed sessions, participants probed causes of the gap and offered strategies to close it. O'Connell asked them to "honestly and courageously face this pernicious problem," and for two days, the capital was abuzz with ideas, energy and even some hope.

Strikingly, the state's other "achievement gap" was barely mentioned at the summit; this is the gap between California and the rest of the nation.

The most recent results from the National Assessment of Education Progress test (popularly known as "the nation's report card") place California's fourth- and eighth-graders below those in nearly every other state in math and reading achievement. (Although California's math scores have improved over the last decade, so have the scores in the rest of the country.)

Ed Week: Core Subjects in Danger of Being Axed From National Assessment

Lindsy sent this out to NCES already, but at last week's NAGB meeting, there was discussion about cutting many future assessments due to budget constraints.

National tests in several core subjects could be eliminated or scaled back over the next five years without more federal funding, the officials who set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress said last week.

Scheduled exams in economics, foreign language, geography, and world history could be canceled if funding remains flat, as is projected.

Moreover, some grade levels would not be tested in civics, U.S. history, and writing, and the next administration of the NAEP long-term trend tests in mathematics and reading, which have been conducted regularly over the past 40 years, would be given in 2008, but not in 2012.

Impression Management, or: How I Learned to Stop Hating Press Releases on Test Scores

Eduwonkette posts on the divergent takes on the TUDA results by different cities.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, district leaders did not live and die by their students' test scores. When I peered back into the educational debates of the 1980s and even the early 1990s, I found that the release of state and federal test scores was not an occasion for carefully orchestrated media stunts.

Sure, there was spin then, too - but district leaders were just as likely to decry poor test results to build political momentum to infuse additional resources or make needed changes.

Not so last week, where almost every district publicly releasing scores from the Trial Urban District Assessment spun a fabulous yarn around the NAEP results. Indeed, some of the results were promising. But many of the results that district leaders swaggered about were not. Instead, district leaders cherry-picked the results, up-playing positive news while ignoring or discounting negative news.

TUDA and the DOE Response

More coming from the war between the NYC DOE and the UFT/people like Diane Ravitch/everyone else. This time about TUDA.

The DOE’s press release on NAEP is among the most misleading I have seen from them in the past five years. Touting “impressive gains” – especially for Black, Hispanic and low income students – Klein bragged that the NAEP results “confirm that our reforms have helped raise performance to an historically high level.” But, again, there has been no progress in three out of four categories during the Klein years.

WaPo: A Troubling Case of Readers' Block

Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at troubling rates, according to a report that the National Endowment for the Arts will issue today. The trend is particularly strong among older teens and young adults, and if it is not reversed, the NEA report suggests, it will have a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civic future.

"This is really alarming data," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "Luckily, we still have an opportunity to address it, but if we wait 10, 20 years, I think it may be too late."

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801415.html?sid=ST2007111900059

More on the AIR study

USA TODAY U.S. students 'middle of the pack' compared with world
Educators and politicians these days make a point of saying that U.S. schoolchildren aren't just competing locally for good, high-paying jobs — they're competing globally."

"Crunching the most recent data from a pair of U.S. and international math and science exams for middle-schoolers, Gary Phillips, a researcher at the non-profit American Institutes for Research (AIR), a non-partisan Washington think tank, finds a decidedly mixed picture: Students in most states perform as well as — or better than — peers in most foreign countries.

But he also finds that even those in the highest-scoring states, such as Massachusetts and Minnesota, are significantly below a handful of top-scoring nations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan."

"He should know. Before joining AIR, he headed the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Education Department, overseeing large-scale testing programs that included the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS ), the two tests he compares in the new analysis."

EdWeek: Top-Achieving Nations Beat U.S. States in Math and ScienceStudents in the highest-performing U.S. states rank well below their peers in the world’s top-achieving countries in mathematics and science skill, according to a new study that judges American youths on an international scale.

CSM: World's schools teach U.S. a lesson
For states interested in international benchmarking, a new report just added a piece to the puzzle. It takes data from each state's 8th-grade scores in math and science on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and links it to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The two tests were designed to be compatible, says Gary Phillips, chief scientist at American Institutes for Research (AIR, www.air.org), a nonprofit in Washington that released the data Nov. 13. Each state can see where it ranks on a scale with 45 industrialized and developing countries.

"Most [states] are doing as well as or better than most countries," Mr. Phillips says. But he's concerned because "our best states are ... lower than the best countries – so even though we're in the race, we're not winning the race."

EdWeek: Dropout Prevention

Students who are at risk for dropping out of high school can be identified as early as 6th grade by key warning signs such as low attendance, little classroom participation, and poor grades in core subjects, says a report Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader by the National High School Center, a division of the Washington-based American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on social and behavioral sciences.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/14/12report-5.h27.html

Study Compares States’ Math and Science Scores With Other Countries’

NYT article on TIMSS, by Sam Dillon

American students even in low-performing states like Alabama do better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, according to a new study released yesterday. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that students in Singapore and several other Asian countries significantly outperform American students, even those in high-achieving states like Massachusetts, the study found.

Union gain is pupils' loss

Education is not ordinarily thought to be in the purview of a Federal Reserve chairman. So it's striking when Alan Greenspan in his memoir, "The Age of Turbulence," raises the subject.

"Our primary and secondary education system," he writes, "is deeply deficient in providing homegrown talent to operate our increasingly complex infrastructure." The result: "Too many of our students languish at too low a level of skill upon graduation, adding to the supply of lesser-skilled labor in the face of an apparently declining demand."

So if you're concerned about widening disparities in income, Mr. Greenspan tells readers attracted to his book by its publicists' promise of criticism of George W. Bush, you need to "harness better the forces of competition" in educating kids.

AP: Calculation of graduation rates differ

WASHINGTON --If Congress doesn't get the job done, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she'll consider using her authority to require states to report high school graduation rates in a more uniform and accurate way.

Full story: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/11/09/calculation_of_graduation_rates_differ/

Chicago Tribune: Illinois looking into record-low test scores

A few months after Illinois high school students posted the lowest scores ever on the state achievement exam, state education officials are investigating whether the test, or the scoring process, was flawed.

Illinois State Board of Education officials confirmed Friday that they plan to hire an independent auditor to delve into the drop in 2007 Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) results, especially in reading, where scores plunged more than 4 percentage points.

Full article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-test_webnov10,0,3603393.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

EdWeek: Alexander NCLB Bill Offers Pilot Project on Flexibility

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee proposed giving 12 states wide latitude in devising accountability systems and intervening in schools that fail to meet their NCLB achievement goals. In exchange, the states would agree to increase the rigor of their subject-matter standards

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/14/12nclb.h27.html?levelId=2300&rale2=KQE5d7nM%2FXAYPsVRXwnFWYRqIIX2bhy1%2BKNA5buLAWGoKt77XHI2terRpWBSgktLCXMT9GhM0FfQ%0ABpNWoD3y7MIQ%2B3918Izn1nuI1h1nm00bG8UMgOitEFboRy8zQyHPASRokBka0THyWRxs8ye%2BhbTm%0AyVnXWNGh%2Fm9iR4xl6zBMgLA2PjVDb2hyGBZVwDtjbjvztAlTWWDbks%2BEZAIgwKAIYKXnYYYbhKtU%0A06lB14ESY2IVsPuO5BthXwq%2BKkIqpGr68LOxgV9UjbMEZlYFY1boRy8zQyHPJmSpEnBfkxv%2FBe4D%0AfdeFdgLCT6b3N3uwAEm2gFZ2d51PBydnukLovP%2BE0K4TmuU9J324dLakEPP5iUTNaj1hxWfgbb3m%0Ayc%2F0CJofU4EKdvaEq1TTqUHXgdSVBzUTqwxn5NNbFJzJ0iHPK0nKI2yCTQFDXmI%2FlcT0V1vepDzk%0A1M2XIeKdsN0SOaYgWJMqY70ZAUNeYj%2BVxPTxQmVzP7FIsAEviOk0d2S8mBL90J1C2wfmdaVhIZiP%0AXEu8O3lLANBM0XuZ0OGdMSYqjlHGrKAroYOkZUa0Aom1%2FRsk4tLIgega9dPXjDLnIqr4fnU6%2BjHZ%0APQEY14GHljZOx%2BOaK1TL2aausTGg%2B1BYrwwi0i2X73Vu1wG2qxx9YBrOrpRYC%2Fyc6BMNjiOqZx0%3D

LA Times: State schools bad, L.A. worse

Thought this was relevant due to upcoming TUDA release. Also, there's a NAEP mention further down in the story

"California students are among the nation's worst academic achievers, and those in the Los Angeles Unified School District are faring even worse than the statewide average, according to a UCLA study released Thursday."

"The study also incorporated results of the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed that California's fourth-graders rank 48th in reading and 46th in math. Meanwhile, eighth-graders ranked 47th in reading and 45th in math."

Full story: http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7411327

WaPo: An Unlikely Partnership Left Behind

"Ten months later, the optimism has vanished and the campaign to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind education law has bogged down. Not only has it not passed, but no formal legislation has even been introduced. In an interview last week, Kennedy said it will not happen this year after all. "It's going to tip over to next year," he said -- right into the teeth of a presidential campaign with candidates on both sides denouncing the program."

"The back-and-forth came as new test results bolstered Bush's case. The National Assessment of Educational Progress showed math and reading scores rising and the gap between white children and black and Hispanic students shrinking. Bush aides saw vindication. "Obviously there have been complaints and there have been growing pains, but the proof is in the pudding," Kaplan said."

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110401450.html?nav=rss_education

U.S. News & World Report - Room to Improve

Room to Improve
The No Child Left Behind law is scheduled for reauthorization by the end of this year, but Congress has been slow to make that happen
By Eddy Ramírez
Posted November 2, 2007
It was expected to be one of the most contentious debates of the political year. President Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is due for reauthorization by the end of 2007. But as the calendar ticks into November, little has been heard since early summer, when U.S. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller began circulating his proposed changes to the education law designed to combat the "soft bigotry of low expectations." The Democrat's proposal—which included allowing schools to measure how much students learn using methods other than the policy's signature standardized tests—was simultaneously criticized for potentially weakening the law and potentially making it more stringent. By both Democrats and Republicans.

Miller and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings say they are committed to getting the bill renewed this year. And even without a reauthorized version, the original NCLB law and its mandate that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014 remain in effect. That means students, parents, and educators will grapple with its requirements for years to come.

Full article: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2007/11/02/room-to-improve.html

Ohio Goes After Charter Schools That Are Failing

Below-the-Fold Front Page Story on failing charters in Ohio. Over half of charters are getting a grade of D or F; apparently Ohio had a "wide-open" policy for opening charters, where lots of agencies were given authority to open schools, many of which had little educational credentials. The Attorney General of Ohio is suing to close three schools, and is investigating "dozens" of others.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio became a test tube for the nation’s charter school movement during a decade of Republican rule here, when a wide-open authorization system and plenty of government seed money led to the schools’ explosive proliferation.

But their record has been spotty. This year, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.

Politico: Arts educators battle No Child Left Behind

No NAEP mention, but relevant given the 2008 Arts assessment

Arts educators battle No Child Left Behind
By: Erika Lovley
November 5, 2007 06:27 PM EST

Raising school test scores in reading and math remains the biggest hurdle for No Child Left Behind, with many schools nationwide performing at less-than-acceptable levels, according to government proficiency tests.

But while districts scramble to improve on core subjects, educators say the latest subject to be left behind is arts education.

. . .

A recent study by the Center on Education Policy indicates that school time spent in art classes has decreased by nearly half since NCLB was passed in 2001. Some educators say the focus on testing is so intense that it is forcing schools to siphon time away from other nontest subjects such as music and dance.

The shift has alarmed and energized some of the nation’s largest arts groups, like Americans for the Arts, the nation’s largest arts advocacy nonprofit; American Arts Alliance, a group of 4,100 performance artists; and NAMM, a trade association representing musical instruments. NAMM spent $320,000 on lobbying last year, the most out of the three groups.

With the reauthorization of NCLB stalled on Capitol Hill, the community has time to plan its attack. In March, on Arts Advocacy Day, it plans to saturate Capitol Hill; some activists will be toting samples of professional and student artwork to show lawmakers.

. . .

Kress points to studies that show arts education hasn’t suffered dramatically under NCLB. The Digest of Education Statistics shows that 2005 high school graduates took more courses in noncore subjects like history, science and arts than 2000 graduates did. [this is HSTS data]

full story: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6715.html

Baltimore Sun, Inside Ed: Glossary

"NAEP: National Assessment of Educational Progress. Also referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card.” The only standardized test administered to schools around the nation. The standardized tests administered under No Child Left Behind vary from state to state, and therefore it’s difficult to make comparisons. NAEP is considered to be a harder test than many of the statewide assessments. But NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools as the statewide assessments do."


Full glossary: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2007/11/our_glossary_of_education_jarg.html

EdWeek: U.S. Math, Science Skills Exceed Broad

Contrary to the opinions being voiced by many business and political leaders today, U.S. schools are producing an ample supply of students with the skills necessary to work in science and engineering fields, a new paper suggests.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/07/11report-b1.h27.html

EdWeek: Illinois Drops Its Alternative Test for English-Language Learners

Illinois has stopped using an alternative mathematics and reading test for English-language learners because state officials haven’t been able to convince the U.S. Department of Education the test is comparable to the state’s regular tests.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/07/11brief-2.h27.html?levelId=2300&rale2=KQE5d7nM%2FXAYPsVRXwnFWYRqIIX2bhy1%2BKNA5buLAWGoKt77XHI2terRpWBSgktLCXMT9GhM0Fcq%0AB10LZqO1tKetlyaLVmc61nuI1h1nm00bG8UMgOitEFboRy8zQyHPASRokBka0THyWRxs8ye%2BhbTm%0AyVnXWNGh%2Fm9iR4xl6zBMgLA2PjVDb7RLiQbnL9OLHVGbGFf9SoErWkJHRJGKIWP3JB4D%2BltYhKtU%0A06lB14ESY2IVsPuO5BthXwq%2BKkIqpGr68LOxgV9UjbMEZlYFY1boRy8zQyHPJmSpEnBfkxv%2FBe4D%0AfdeFdgLCT6b3N3uwAEm2gFZ2d51PBydnukLovP%2BE0K4TmuU9J324dLakEPP5iUTNaj1hxWfgbb3m%0Ayc%2F0CJofU4EKdvaEq1TTqUHXgdSVBzUTqwxn5NNbFJzJ0iHPK0nKI2yCTQFDXmI%2FlcT0V1vepDzk%0A1M2XIeKdsN0SOaYgWJMqY70ZAUNeYj%2BVxPTxQmVzP7FIsAEviOk0d2S8mBL90J1C2wfmdaVhIZiP%0AXEu8O3lLANBM%2BoZIDp1H9icL1BXD8FK%2BmsU7w1HX5MsrD691xJ6Xi%2BYBL4jpNHdkvJgS%2FdCdQtsH%0A5nWlYSGYj1xLvDt5SwDQTPqGSA6dR%2FYnC9QVw%2FBSvprFO8NR1%2BTLK49dmLfskT5Sr0icOvtgh5QR%0AFXDJKaos5w%3D%3D

WaPo: Seven Warnings and One Mistake in High School Reform

5. Many reports say that high schools should also prepare students for the workplace, but nobody really knows how to do that either. Grubb and Oakes find this glaring weak spot in many higher standards proposals: "It's not obvious when and where anyone might need to find a tangent line or solve a quadratic equation, and so there's no help for teachers who want to motivate students by discussing the practical usefulness of academic work."

6. Amid all the talk about involving employers in high school reform, few people have good examples of this actually working. You often read in newspapers like mine about businesses forming partnerships with high schools. They sound good, but I have yet to find one that has had any significant impact on student achievement.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/06/AR2007110600549.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

USN: The Education Secretary Talks About NCLB

Monday, November 5, 2007Subscribe Contact Us advertisement

The Education Secretary Talks About NCLB
Spellings shares her thoughts on how that law can be improved when it is renewed
By Eddy Ramírez
Posted November 5, 2007

As the U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings oversees the implementation of the No Child Left Behind law. In a recent interview, she defended the original law's focus on reading and math assessments but expressed support for an improved bill that makes better distinctions between chronically failing schools and schools that just need more help with particular groups of students. A believer that "what gets measured gets done," she remains confident that schools can bring all students to grade-level proficiency by 2014 but says progress is not being made fast enough.


Some folks have criticized the law for not setting clear expectations about what children should learn. The pressure to meet federal proficiency requirements may in fact be driving some states to lower their standards. Is it time to set a single set of national standards?

For us to take x number of years to have a federal debate about intelligent design just seems like a real bad idea to me, particularly when we have a speedometer that says, "We're going too slow; we need to pick up the pace." The president has already called for us to start to report
[the results of the National Assessment of Education Progress] to parents. Let's tell the parents of Mississippi that while their state test says 80-some percent of their kids are proficient, this is how they are doing on the NAEP test. Let the good people of Mississippi take that into account and say, "You know what? We probably need to raise the bar." And they are raising the bar.... I don't think the way to do it is a one-size-fits-all national standard that morphs into a national curriculum that morphs into national textbooks. It's the wrong way to go, and it's a giant time-waster.


full article: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2007/11/05/the-education-secretary-talks-about-nclb_print.htm

WSJ Editorial: The Union Libel

November 5, 2007

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

The Union Libel
November 5, 2007; Page A18

Utah's children may not excel in math or English, but their teachers are very good at instructing them in how to run a political campaign. As 2007 achievement test data show another disappointing year for the state's children, the teachers union is running a multi-million-dollar campaign to insulate itself from competition.

On Tuesday, Utahns will vote on whether to proceed with a statewide voucher program enacted in February. The plan passed both houses of Utah's legislature after a rough-and-tumble debate, and was signed by Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. But the teachers union immediately launched a ballot initiative to overturn the law and succeeded in blocking it from taking effect prior to Tuesday's vote.

A new report from the Utah Foundation shows the state's public education could certainly use a shake-up. The states most similar demographically to Utah, by measures such as student poverty and parental education, are Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Utah finishes last in this group, based on eighth-grade scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Utah youngsters trail the pack across the range of core subjects -- last in math, last in reading, last in science.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119422589982182044.html

USA Today: No State Left Behind

Most parents and students instinctively recognize the logic behind national education standards.

Whether they are from Maine or Montana, high school graduates who want to be nurses should know enough math to adjust medicine dosages based on the weight and age of the patient. Police officers in all jurisdictions have to be able to write a coherent arrest report. Workers on semiconductor manufacturing lines everywhere must make quick calculations about temperatures and densities.

Full story: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/10/no-state-left-b.html#more

Data, 'Crises', and the Way We Interpret Them

The latest NAEP-related post in the Ravitch/Meier blog.

Bridging Differences: This Is Not Good Education

I said that many people who have spoken out about the recent round of NAEP scores seem not to have read the report in which the scores were embedded. I expressed the wish that the commentators would take the trouble to read the report before characterizing what they read in the newspapers, which is third-hand at best. This observation sent you into musing about how the original sources themselves are “an interpretation of data,” and how we all rely on the writers that we trust—or happen to agree with.

But that was not my point. The NAEP data are an original source for those who wish to discuss the latest round of national tests. They are not an “interpretation of data.” They are the data. I assume that you mean to say that you are unimpressed by NAEP, that you do not like the content of the NAEP frameworks or the methodology of the NAEP assessments. That is fair enough. But that is a different discussion from the one I raised.

Policymakers in Washington and the state capitols are influenced by the every-other-year reports from NAEP about state and national progress. It is your right to dismiss NAEP out of hand, but the people making important decisions about education policy are on a different trajectory. They look at the numbers and they see a reality that you dismiss as trivial and unimportant. Maybe you are right and they are wrong

Full post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/10/this_is_not_good_education_2.html

EdWeek: Spanish-Speaking Oregon Students Get Helping Hand

The Oregon Department of Education is looking beyond its borders—well beyond—to encourage Spanish-speaking students to stay in high school.

Currently, 19 high schools in the state are taking part in the Oregon-Mexico Education Partnership, a program between the Mexican government and the state education department that provides students with free Spanish-language textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and an online site, covering mathematics, science, and other subjects needed to earn a diploma.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/31/10stjour.h27.html

EdWeek: English Language-learners

The lack of a national standard for how English-language learners are identified and tracked—and the lack of a uniform standard even within some states—makes it difficult for anyone to know how well such students are doing academically, a report by the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of State Boards of Education says.

The report recommends that states establish a standard way to identify and monitor English-language learners, select and develop a system of viable and reliable assessments for such students, and require all educators to receive training on how to work with English-language learners.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/31/10report-4.h27.html

EdWeek: How NAEP Works

A new guide attempts to unravel the complexities of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federally sponsored testing program that has gauged student achievement in core subjects for nearly 40 years.

Education Sector, the Washington-based think tank that produced the report, outlines the history and purpose of the assessment program, as well as the appropriate uses and interpretations of NAEP’s test data.

The 17-page online guide says it describes “how the assessment is designed, how its scores are calculated and what they mean, and what controversies surround the reporting and use of NAEP data. It seeks to set straight what conclusions can and cannot be legitimately drawn from the NAEP assessment and examines what challenges lay ahead for the ‘nation’s report card’ in an era of increased accountability."

Full article: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/31/10report-5.h27.html?levelId=2300&rale2=KQE5d7nM%2FXAYPsVRXwnFWYRqIIX2bhy1%2BKNA5buLAWGoKt77XHI2terRpWBSgktLCXMT9GhM0Ffk%0AUZUZC8U2n9IAJp9rH%2BMj1nuI1h1nm00bG8UMgOitEFboRy8zQyHPASRokBka0THyWRxs8ye%2BhbTm%0AyVnXWNGh%2Fm9iR4xl6zBMgLA2PjVDb4CWG%2BEc%2FIRhBBazZEK5mK5kSKzAV6%2FZ5RsbxQyA6K0QVuhH%0ALzNDIc8X%2BI%2Fb8nt35TdU5uIuNNM9QBk55mX8ML0Gf8gsnKo2UZHII%2Fmu01CUZqeSJgz3EN888if9%0ARMgP62QhycRw6TffqszYytDh5fBahu4kxyy%2Fj%2BelRTNBUKjIc%2F7cbc2wkzm9zvkuEHOsYuT4qmpJ%0AonaHNHIG4grfnrFW6EcvM0Mhz6X9j%2BLoUNqfcyUihbuTYqliPADH6%2BFquOoRm%2F%2F5CeGAn7Wm4Fxn%0AoJ6niNhfYiCbtmI8AMfr4Wq46hGb%2F%2FkJ4YDtZ2WMqQ7t7MNvRhGKB5RjLxw4YDtlKaxm7ZeQmEHd%0Aq4Bu4FdzPjc4mIGy0Ij%2B8J7qcIopLSQkFQjDW8uOiDs7D691xJ6Xi%2BYBL4jpNHdkvJgS%2FdCdQtsH%0A5nWlYSGYj1xLvDt5SwDQTFMXh02E9av5wjGT%2B1p%2BXjTS8HobeELidWxje9gVj2tSIKmWJddW5GD2%0AmUSt7yUpAQ%3D%3D

The Science Education Myth

Business Week article arguing that US is actually doing pretty well in math and science, citing, among other things, rising NAEP scores.

Political leaders, tech executives, and academics often claim that the U.S. is falling behind in math and science education. They cite poor test results, declining international rankings, and decreasing enrollment in the hard sciences. They urge us to improve our education system and to graduate more engineers and scientists to keep pace with countries such as India and China.

Yet a new report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, tells a different story. The report disproves many confident pronouncements about the alleged weaknesses and failures of the U.S. education system. This data will certainly be examined by both sides in the debate over highly skilled workers and immigration (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07). The argument by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), and others is that there are not enough tech workers in the U.S.

The authors of the report, the Urban Institute's Hal Salzman and Georgetown University professor Lindsay Lowell, show that math, science, and reading test scores at the primary and secondary level have increased over the past two decades, and U.S. students are now close to the top of international rankings. Perhaps just as surprising, the report finds that our education system actually produces more science and engineering graduates than the market demands.

Boston Globe (via AP): 1 in 10 schools are 'dropout factories'

-It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That dubious distinction applies to more than one in 10 high schools across America.

Full post: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/10/30/1_in_10_schools_are_dropout_factories/

NCLB Act II: Adaptive Tests Could Answer NCLB Accountability Problems

A new report out today suggests the law should allow new forms of assessing students, too.

The report from a Delaware-based group says that NCLB should let states use computer-adaptive tests instead of grade-level tests, which are usually given with pencil and paper.

Grade-level tests, the groups says, are unable to measure progress of students who start the year either far below or far above grade level. Students at the lower end of the spectrum are going to fail a 4th grade test, even if their academic standing improves from 1st grade level to 3rd grade level. Similarly, high-achieving 4th graders will ace their tests, even if their achievement level didn't increase during the year.
Full post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/NCLB-ActII/2007/10/the_next_version_to_nclb.html

EdWeek: Closing the Measurement Gap

"What’s ironic is that the federal government endorses entirely different ideas about measuring performance in education. In medicine, governments recognize that hospitals should not be blamed for patients’ characteristics that they do not control. When educators make this point, they are censured for their “soft bigotry of low expectations.” In medicine, the government acknowledges that no matter how good the care is, some patients are more likely to die. In education, there is a mandate that schools should make up the difference, irrespective of students’ risk factors.

Perhaps most of us could agree that if the sole goal of accountability systems is to compare organizations, risk adjustment is the most fair and accurate approach. When patients in a hospital die, we rarely claim that the hospital is failing. By the same token, the fact that some students in a school are failing does not mean that the school is failing. Sound public policy should be able to distinguish these two conditions. "

"If we close the measurement gap, we can begin a radically different conversation about what investments in public education are necessary to give disadvantaged kids a fair shot. The likely educational dividends for these children make risk adjustment a risk worth taking."

full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/31/10jennings.h27.html

NYT: Schools Raise Bar for Classes for the Gifted

In an effort to transform the city’s gifted and talented programs, which he has long derided as a hodgepodge of offerings that have favored children in certain neighborhoods and with well-connected parents, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced a plan yesterday to limit the programs to students who score in the top 5 percent on admissions tests.

At a news conference yesterday announcing his plan, the chancellor estimated that roughly half the children in gifted programs now might not meet the new standards because they did not score in the 95th percentile or above on admissions tests. There have been no standard citywide cutoffs on admissions exams; last year, available slots in gifted programs were filled by the top scorers in each school district, and before that the admissions process varied throughout the city.

“In some districts you’ll find that half the kids that got in wouldn’t have met the 95th percentile threshold, and in other districts you’ll find a much different number,” Mr. Klein said. “The number is significant, and if you talk citywide, about half, that could be certainly in the ballpark.”

Mr. Klein’s overhaul of elementary school gifted programs also includes a new test to identify the gifted, the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, which gauges students’ understanding of colors, letters, numbers, sizes, comparisons and shapes. The Bracken test replaces the Gifted Readiness Scales, a test added last year because, officials said, it was easier to administer and would be more objective.

Under the new plan, Mr. Klein said, school districts that usually have a wealth of gifted programs could lose some, while parts of the city with a dearth could gain new ones. Officials said it was hard to tell whether the total number of children in gifted and talented programs would go up or down.

Children now in gifted and talented programs will not be affected by the changes.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/education/30kindergarten.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5088&en=492b5188e19c5d7e&ex=1351483200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

By the Mississippi Delta, A Whole School Left Behind

Lowest performing school in MS. Cites NAEP data on poor performance of MS overall.

By the Mississippi Delta, A Whole School Left Behind

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 28, 2007; A03



COMO, Miss. -- Of all the nation's elementary schools, the one serving this poor, rural crossroads is at the bottom of the heap.

Its math and reading test scores ranked at the bottom in Mississippi last year, and Mississippi, in turn, ranked last among the states.

"We're just light-years behind," said Versa Brown, the school's new principal.

Como Elementary is, in other words, just the sort of school that was supposed to benefit from the landmark No Child Left Behind law, which is up for reauthorization by Congress.

But in Como and other poor, rural districts around the country, the law's regimen of testing and sanctions has had little, if any, effect.

Despite abysmal test scores, Como earned a passing grade under No Child Left Behind, largely because the standards of student proficiency, which are determined individually by the states, have been set so low in Mississippi. Its small size also exempts it from some standards. The resulting passing grade -- it makes "adequate yearly progress" -- has exempted Como Elementary from any of the corrective actions dictated by the law.

But the more fundamental difficulty, administrators said, is that while the law requires schools to have "highly qualified teachers," places such as Como face critical difficulties in attracting any teachers at all. The location is remote, the salaries are low, and its at-risk students are arguably more difficult to teach.

More than a third of Como's 32 teachers are new this year, and five of those have been hired with an "emergency license" because they lack full teacher training. At least three of the new teachers had been dismissed or released from other schools. One resigned after just a few weeks when he was found hiding from the third-graders in his class who were throwing papers at him.

"Has No Child Left Behind done some good things? Sure," said the state's superintendent of schools, Hank Bounds. "But in many places like the Mississippi Delta, I would have to say no."

He rejected the notion that raising test standards -- without somehow persuading legions of motivated teachers to move in -- would help students.

"It's easy to put your bow tie on every day and say, 'If Mississippi would just do X then you would see Y results,' " he said.

As Congress this fall begins considering the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, at least some of the law's effects on places such as Como Elementary are being rethought. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House committee overseeing the reauthorization, said the law should help states recruit teachers and give them incentives to develop stronger standards.

"Unless we do those two things, it's going to be very difficult to provide kids with the quality of education they deserve," he said.

On the edge of the Mississippi Delta about 45 minutes south of Memphis, Como is a small town surrounded by fields. Its downtown consists of a strip of old brick storefronts, some empty, facing a railroad track. A rusted water tower hovers in the distance.

About 25 percent or more of the population is white, but only a handful of whites -- about 1 percent -- attend the public schools. Many instead attend Magnolia Heights, a private academy.

Como Elementary's student body is 99 percent black, and most of the students live in poverty, many in tattered mobile homes.

Some teachers have to buy books and other basic supplies for their classrooms, and then take their neediest students to Wal-Mart to buy clothes and backpacks. Last week, a teacher gave an old clothes dryer to a grandmother who kept sending a student to school in wet clothes. The school itself could use a coat of paint and new linoleum floors, which have been worn through in places to the concrete.

Challenged by poverty, indifferent parents and transient teacher ranks, Como Elementary scored dismally on Mississippi's annual school tests.

According to the government tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the "Nation's Report Card," Mississippi ranks last among states in combined math and reading scores for fourth-graders, the only elementary grade in the survey.

And within Mississippi, Como sits at the bottom for test scores. The combined reading and math scores for grades two through six -- the earliest grades are not tested -- were among the bottom three in the state.

The state as a result recognizes Como as a "low-performing school."

Yet under No Child Left Behind, Como Elementary is considered to be making "adequate yearly progress" because enough of its students have demonstrated "proficiency" -- a standard that the state itself gets to define, and has done so at a very low level.

A report by the Education Trust is telling: While the state has judged that 89 percent of its fourth-graders are reading proficiently, the federal tests assert that only 18 percent are.

"There are clearly some state tests that are too easy," said John Cronin, a researcher at the Northwest Evaluation Association and co-author of a recent paper on the subject called "The Proficiency Illusion."

Como Elementary's small size also makes it easier to get a passing grade under the law. The law requires measures of proficiency not just from the school as a whole but also from each of its "subgroups" -- such as low-income students, the disabled, Hispanics and African Americans. But if a subgroup at a Mississippi school has fewer than 40 students in it, the standards do not apply -- an exemption that particularly benefits small schools.

Faced with criticism over its testing standards, Mississippi is planning to raise them next year.

But a tougher standard will not resolve the challenge of attracting the "highly qualified teachers" -- with a bachelor's degree and demonstrated proficiency in class subject matter -- that places such as Como desperately need, Bounds and others argue.

The nature of the work -- bringing disadvantaged children up to speed -- is arguably more difficult, while the pay is less. Nearby jurisdictions, such as Memphis, pay roughly 30 percent more for teachers, and Mississippi cities that have casinos can also afford to pay far more than Como's district.

Some good teachers come anyway. "I know somebody has to stay here," said Chiquitha Rosemon, 31, a second-grade teacher whose students last year fared well on the tests. "You have to love the children."

"Some of the kids come in here and don't even know how to hold a book," said Lauren LaVergne, a first-grade teacher. "They hold it upside down, or they read it from the back to the front. They just haven't ever been read to."

Other teachers arrive at Como because they could not make the teacher exam scores required in Tennessee, or because they have failed elsewhere. Several struggle just to maintain order. Their students slump in chairs. Some seem to doze off. Some puff out their cheeks to make rapping sounds and shimmy in their seats. Principal Brown peered through the doorway of one classroom and watched the teacher doing paperwork as the kids romped.

One of the new teachers hushed his first-grade class over and over during a fill-in-the-blanks exercise.

"Those people who are talking are not going to know what to do," he warned.

Several times, he motioned for quiet. Soon he began his warning count. "One. . . . Two. . . . There are a lot of people who are going to get their cards full. . . . Three."

Later, he said frankly that the districts in Tennessee, where he lives, were "too picky" to give him a job.

Como wasn't.

Brown offers her own biography as a parable of what can happen without, and with, an education.

A native of the Delta, she dropped out of high school at 17 and began life as a fieldworker. She cut tobacco in North Carolina and picked celery in Florida and cotton in Mississippi. Then she worked as a prison guard.

At 33, she decided to go back to school, earning straight A's and graduate degrees.

Now, she said, she isn't waiting for No Child Left Behind to make a difference.

To pique the interest of parents, she has invited them to school breakfasts -- "If you say free food, they'll come," she said. Every Sunday she goes to a local church to plead for community support. She is arranging to have state prison inmates paint the school. She has even written to actor Morgan Freeman and talk show host Oprah Winfrey for help.

Some aid has already arrived. The Barksdale Reading Institute, funded with $100 million from Netscape founder Jim Barksdale, last year placed two teachers at the school who run a remedial reading program.

"We know we can do better," Brown said. "And if it takes my last breath, we will."

EdWeek: California Fires Shut Schools; Officials Pledge Support

EdWeek on school closings in CA due to the fires, mentions disruption to testing including NAEP:

“We are working on how to address the missed [standardized] tests right now,” she also said, referring to the California English Language Development Test, the California High School Exit Examination, and, in some areas, the National Assessment of Educational Progress for 8th graders. “We don’t have a solution now, but we’ll have one soon.”

San Francisco Chronicle: Science courses nearly extinct in elementary grades, study finds

The third-graders looked puzzled when asked what they liked best about science. No answer.

OK, then, next question: "What is science?" a visitor asked the children in a hallway at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School in San Francisco.

"Science is like art," said Manuel, 7, who let that cryptic response hang in the air as he ducked away.

He might have meant that both can open the heart to beauty. Or maybe he was saying that science, like art, is something students don't get much of these days in elementary school.

If it were the latter, a new survey of 923 Bay Area elementary school teachers would agree.

About 80 percent of those teachers said they spent less than an hour each week teaching science, according to researchers from the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley and from WestEd, an education think tank based in San Francisco.

-- About 16 percent of the elementary teachers said they spent no time on science at all. (Most taught at schools that had missed the reading and math benchmarks of No Child Left Behind and were trying to catch up.)

-- Most kindergarten to fifth-grade students typically had science instruction no more than twice a week.

-- Ten times as many teachers said they felt unprepared to teach science (41 percent) than felt unprepared to teach math (4 percent) or reading (4 percent).

-- Fewer than half of Bay Area fifth-graders (47 percent) scored at grade level or above on last spring's California Standards Test in science. (Only fifth-graders are tested in science at the elementary level.)

"The demands of No Child Left Behind have made it almost impossible to devote enough time to science," said Melinda Dart, a fourth-grade teacher at Wilson Elementary School in Daly City's Jefferson Elementary District.

EdWeek (via AP) Maine’s Laptops Found to Aid Writing Scores

Maine’s program to give every 7th and 8th grade student a laptop computer is leading to better writing. 4real!

Despite creating a language all their own using e-mail and text messages, students are still learning standard English, and their writing scores improved on the state’s standardized writing test in 2005 compared with 2000, before laptop computers were distributed, according to a new study.

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/31/10apmaine.h27.html?print=1

Bridging Differences: What Did the NAEP Scores Mean?

On Sept. 25, the National Assessment Governing Board released NAEP scores for 2007 in reading and math. The report was mixed, with scores up a bit in both subjects in fourth and eighth grades. As you can well imagine, the U.S. Department of Education trumpeted the gains and attributed them to No Child Left Behind, but the gains were really very modest. The report can be viewed here.

I read the reports, which I highly recommend, and this is what I found:

* Fourth grade reading scores were up by a modest 2 points from 2005 to 2007, from 219 to 221. Actually, scores for this grade on NAEP had been 219 in 2002. The biggest increase in reading scores occurred between 2000 and 2002, when the scores went up by six points. In other words, the gains since NCLB was enacted do not equal the gains recorded on NAEP in the years prior to NCLB.
* Eighth grade reading scores were up by only one point. The trend line for this grade in reading from 1998 to 2007 is a flat line. The score was 263 in 1998 and it is 263 in 2007.
* Fourth grade mathematics scores increased by two points, from 238 in 2005 to 240 in 2007. The trend line in this grade points steadily upward. The biggest gains occurred in the pre-NCLB period, when scores rose from 226 in 2000 to 235 in 2003.
* Eighth grade mathematics scores were up by two points, from 279 in 2005 to 281 in 2007. Again, the pre-NCLB gains were larger, when scores increased from 273 in 2000 to 278 in 2003.

After I read the NAEP reports, I wrote two articles. I referred to NAEP to debunk New York state's claims of historic eighth grade gains on its state tests in May and June 2007. On NAEP, the scores for eighth graders in New York state in both subjects were flat. The state assessment director wrote a letter saying that tests that sample students, like NAEP, are less accurate than those that test every single student. I suppose if the scores on NAEP had been good for New York state, the state Education Department would have been satisfied with its methodology.

Then on Oct. 3, I published an article in The New York Times arguing that NCLB was "fundamentally flawed" and should be radically overhauled. I pointed out in the opening paragraph that the test score gains before NCLB, as I showed above, were larger than those that have followed the implementation of NCLB. I also said that "the main goal of the law—that all children in the United States will be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014—is simply unattainable," and that this had never been accomplished in any district, state, or nation. My article prompted a response from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings....

...I have been reading the debates in the press and on the blogs about what NAEP really says and what the scores really mean. I have been struck most forcefully by the fact that so many people who argue these questions have not read the NAEP reports, which are written in plain English, and have not seen the graphs, which are intelligible. Instead, they repeat what they read and what they heard. I would feel much better about the state of our democracy if everyone who opines made a point of reviewing the facts first before uttering an opinion about them. Commentators should be ashamed to recycle what they heard, instead of checking the source for themselves.

Full post: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/10/what_did_the_naep_scores_mean.html

EdWeek: Ed. Dept. Requires Changes in Race, Ethnicity Reporting

The U.S. Department of Education has pushed back implementation of controversial new requirements for classifying students by race and ethnicity, but is holding firm in the face of objections to changes requiring that institutions report some students as being members of more than one race.

Under final guidance issued by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and published in the Federal Register Oct. 19, schools must update as needed their method of student-data reporting to the Education Department no later than the 2010-11 school year—one year later than was announced when the guidelines were proposed last year.

More here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/23/09raceregs_web.h27.html?print=1

EdWeek: Report Card Time for Research Arm of Education Dept.

The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education, is the latest department program to get an “effective” rating from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

So far, only 18 percent of the programs reviewed across the federal government have gotten the coveted “effective” rating. At the Education Department, where the OMB has so far evaluated 92 programs, only four others got that distinction.

The kicker, though, is that two of the other four top-rated programs—the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the National Center for Education Statistics—are part of the IES.

More here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/24/09fedfil.h27.html?print=1

Alabama: State: Locals help scores

More from Alabama. Check out the local initiatives to get kids excited -- named a flagship school for NAEP, they were ambassadors for NAEP, called NAEP Heroes and received a letter from the governor.


SOURCE: Brewton (AL) Standard (The)
AUDIENCE: 1,930 [provided by Nielsen//NetRatings]
DATE: 10-18-2007
HEADLINE: State: Locals help scores



The Brewton Standard - News

State: Locals help scores

By Lisa Tindell

news editor

Are you smarter than a fourth-grader?

The answer could be "no," according to scores seen recently by Alabama students - including those at Pollard-McCall - in the National Assessment of Education Progress.

Students, chosen randomly by the U.S. Department of Education, took a battery of tests in reading and mathematics in February. Scores were released in September and found Alabama fourth-graders among the best in the nation in both subjects for improvement.

Pollard-McCall Junior High School was chosen as the only school in Escambia County to participate in the testing.

"When we were chosen to be a part of the process, we were happy to represent Alabama," Principal Hugh White said. "We had a picture made of the students who would be taking the test and sent it in a card to Dr. Joe Morton."

White said the card asked Morton to "believe in each of us. We won't let you down." Morton responded to the card by passing a special resolution in honor of the fourth-grade students at Pollard-McCall Junior High School.

"A resolution was passed for our school naming us as a Flagship School for NAEP," White said.

"We were even named ambassadors for NAEP."

White said last year's fourth grade students who took the test worked hard on their studies and when taking the tests, and their hard work paid off.

"These students worked really hard to do their best," White said. "I'm so proud of them. In doing so well, our students here helped to make our state look good in education. We're very proud."

Dubbed NAEP Heroes, the school received a letter of congratulations from Gov. Bob Riley and state superintendent Morton.

In the letter, school officials were told that Alabama led the nation in reading score gains with an improvement of eight points.

"This is the largest state gain in reading ever recorded by NAEP," Morton said in the letter.

"We also made wonderful progress in mathematics in grades 4 and 8 with growth of 4 points in each while the national growth was 2 points."

(c)Copyright (c) 2007 The Brewton Standard.

Mayor Announces Plan for Teacher Merit Pay

Big news on the merit pay front: Bloomberg and Klein make deal with UFT President Randi Weingarten on offering incentives to schools for increased performance (which would then be dispersed to the teachers).

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced this afternoon what he called the biggest program of merit pay for teachers in the nation. Under the program, 200 schools — about 15 percent of all schools in the system — will be eligible this academic year for $20 million in privately financed bonuses if student performance improves by a certain amount. In the 2008-9 school year, 400 schools will be available for the bonuses.

The annual bonus would be equivalent to $3,000 per educator, but a committee at each school would have the power to decide how to distribute the money. So under the system, a teacher whose students showed particular improvements on standardized tests would not necessarily receive a greater individual bonus than another teacher at the same school whose students had not shown as much improvement.

Top charter communities

Brief Summary Report (PDF) of cities with the highest proportion of charter schools. New Orleans is by far the most, with DC tied for second.

NYT: Failing Schools Strain to Meet US Standard

LOS ANGELES — As the director of high schools in the gang-infested neighborhoods of the East Side of Los Angeles, Guadalupe Paramo struggles every day with educational dysfunction.

For the past half-dozen years, not even one in five students at her district’s teeming high schools has been able to do grade-level math or English. At Abraham Lincoln High School this year, only 7 in 100 students could. At Woodrow Wilson High, only 4 in 100 could.

For chronically failing schools like these, the No Child Left Behind law, now up for renewal in Congress, prescribes drastic measures: firing teachers and principals, shutting schools and turning them over to a private firm, a charter operator or the state itself, or a major overhaul in governance.

Letter to the Editor: Education Gap Persists

Your Oct. 9 Metropolitan article "Quarter of high-schoolers failing exit exams" quotes Columbia University's Teachers College professor Jay Heubert as saying states have set standards that are impossible for youngsters to meet. I would argue that many state standards are not set high enough to assure that our students are being prepared adequately for college or the modern workplace.

There is no question that far too many students are not receiving the supports they need to reach and surpass these benchmarks.

In particular, students of color, who make up the majority of the population in the two Maryland districts with the highest exam failure rates (Baltimore City and Prince George's County), are often subject to lower expectations and consequently tracked into less rigorous courses.

Study examines public, private schools

Low-income students who attend urban public high schools generally do just as well as private-school students with similar backgrounds, according to a study being released Wednesday.

Students at independent private schools and most parochial schools scored the same on 12th-grade achievement tests in core academic subjects as those in traditional public high schools when income and other family characteristics were taken into account, according to the study by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy.

Ed Funding Matters: NAEP Scores Reveal, Shockingly, That Money Matters

Recent headlines have been full of the news that America’s children are scoring higher than ever in math and reading on the national NAEP tests. If your immediate reaction was skepticism, well, it’s understandable given the political hoopla around NCLB right now. But there’s reason for optimism. Let’s look a little closer.

AFT NCLBlog: Pres. Bush Invented NAEP

From yesterday's Rose Garden remarks:

"Last month, we learned that 4th graders earned the highest math and reading scores in the history of our Nation's Report Card -- and that's good news. I'm able to report that because we actually measure now in the schools."

Two points: First, scores are increasing at a slower rate since NCLB passed. Second, uh, NAEP, or "our Nation's Report Card," has been "measuring...in the schools" since the late 1960s.

Parents irked by letter on scores seek apology

BRISTOL, Va. (AP) — A letter from school administrators saying black and disabled students caused Virginia Middle School to fail to meet annual progress benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act has angered parents.

The one-page letter said some black students and students with disabilities didn't score high enough on their statewide reading and math exams, and the low scores prevented the school from meeting progress goals.

The letter was attached to student report cards last week. About 30 parents, outraged by the letter's wording, met Tuesday night and decided to request a meeting with school officials before the Nov. 5 Bristol School Board meeting.

"We would like an apology — that'd be nice — but we know it won't be sincere," said Kathy Bunche, one of the angry parents.

Blog Discussion on what Hispanic's NAEP scores mean

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond J. Simon told a roomful of Latino leaders yesterday that the No Child Left Behind Act is working because it "has driven dramatic gains in math and reading achievement." Mr. Simon spoke at a meeting on Latino education held in Washington by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

He cited examples of gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as evidence that the federal education law is working for Hispanics as well as for all students. He said scores for 4th grade reading and math, for instance, "are higher than ever, including those of Hispanic students." My colleagues Sean Cavanagh and Kathleen Kennedy Manzo have written an article citing experts on what the 2007 NAEP gains mean. The article includes the views of people who contest the Education Department's argument that the rise in scores can be attributed to the NCLB Act, or to any single education program.

Continue reading

Schools for tomorrow blog: Will the feds pony up for middle grades reform?

According to David Hoff, rumor has it that among the amendments being proposed to No Child Left Behind, one with a good chance of success is the Success in the Middle Act. The amendment comes in response to data showing that “On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), studies show that 70% of 8th grade students score below proficient in reading and writing; in math, only 30 % of students in eighth grade perform at the proficient level, and nearly a third score below the basic level.”

Full post: http://www.headfirstcolorado.org/blog/index.php/2007-10-10/will-the-feds-pony-up-for-middle-grades-reform/

National Journal interviews Sec. Spellings: "Improving on '99.9 Percent Pure'"

As President Bush's chief domestic policy adviser, Margaret Spellings led negotiations on his signature domestic achievement, the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law. Promoted to Education secretary for Bush's second term, Spellings is urging Congress to reauthorize the law. She discussed the legislative prospects, as well as her plans for the future, in a recent interview with National Journal's Lisa Caruso. Edited excerpts follow. For previous Insider Interviews, click here.

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Q: Is it still possible to reauthorize No Child Left Behind this year? What can the administration do to jump-start the process?

Spellings: I surely hope so. First, the law doesn't expire. It's a good law. It's a strong law. So to the extent we can improve it, I'm all for it. But any old anything is not necessarily worth having. The second thing I would say is that there's a ton of consensus about the areas that need to be improved. We agree that a better way to chart [a school's] progress over time might be to use a growth model. The other thing we agree about is the need to go from No Child Left Behind being a pass-fail system to a more nuanced accountability system that makes distinctions between those chronic underperformers and those schools that are within range. There's also a lot of agreement about the need to start talking about highly effective teaching -- the idea about rewarding our best people who do the most challenging work.

Q: When it comes to testing students, would the administration support going beyond annual reading and math tests to look at other measures?

Spellings: We tried for 40 years the kind of do-your-own-thing approach, and there was a lot of fungibility in that system. What I worry about is, what are these multiple measures? Are they valid? Are they reliable? Are they comparable? Can we make decisions based on them?

Q: What about the additional measures in the draft legislation by House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and ranking member Buck McKeon, R-Calif.?

Spellings: My issue with the discussion draft is the multitude of ways that schools get over the bar of meeting the targets. It's all these variations on the theme that are confusing and mitigate against this clarion call of kids reading and doing math on grade level. I haven't met a parent -- rich, poor, black, white, or any other kind of modifier -- that didn't want that for their kid. This law says we're going to get children on grade level in a 12-year trajectory. It was signed in 2002, and by 2014 we said we are going to get the kids to grade level. This is not undoable. It's not unheard of. It's not wildly ambitious. So the idea that we have to find ways to mitigate against this basic, necessary, do-able goal is puzzling to me.

Q: But many schools and school districts say it is not do-able within that timeframe and that keeping the goal of 2014 just sets them up to fail.

Spellings: That's what the president calls the "soft bigotry of low expectations," and I surely do hope that somebody with that attitude is not in front of my child. Parents want teachers who believe their child can perform on grade level. We're not talking about nuclear physics. We're talking about basic reading and math skills. So it is a do-able deal. The second thing I would say is, I'm the one who approves plan amendments from states and who is looking at the kind of quality -- and, in some cases, lack of quality -- work that's been done on assessment systems across the country. I think the state of the art in the field is maybe a little behind where Chairman Miller might hope it is, and where I would want to get it myself.

Q: What do you think about Miller's proposal to offer teachers performance bonuses if their students are successful academically? He's taken a lot of flak from the teachers unions.

Spellings: I'm for it. I'm for things that reward the people who do the most challenging work in education. If we're going to make these great goals of grade-level achievement for kids by 2014, we're going to have to use time and people better and more effectively. The dirty little secret in education is, we often have our most experienced, most skilled personnel doing the least challenging work, and vice versa. That's how our urban districts often work. The new news about that is that Miller is a key Democrat and he's the one taking that position. Folks on my side of the aisle, including me and the president, we've been for this sort of thing for a long time. The unions obviously are fiercely opposed to it. So people expect Republicans to be for merit pay. We are. We've pushed it. People expect that less from the other side of the aisle.

Q: Politically, what do both parties need to do to move the reauthorization process forward and remain bipartisan?

Spellings: It has been a huge asset to this law and to this department for [Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.] and for Chairman Miller to stay strong on this policy. Obviously, they were at the birth and have continued to watch their child grow up. And so it's been important and will be important going forward. But we need to find the sweet spot here, the consensus things, and work together around those things that are in keeping with the core principles -- which are working -- and move forward in that way.

Q: Is the administration willing to put more money into the law, since the Democrats' primary criticism seems to be that the administration hasn't provided enough funding to carry it out?

Spellings: The best time to get a ramp-up in resources is when policies are affirmed and debated and refreshed or renewed. Resources and reform go together. There's a better prospect for more resources if we have a No Child Left Behind bill that is sustained for the president and lives on around these core principles.

Q: Are we better off with the existing law than with the discussion draft? If that came to the president, would you recommend that he veto it?

Spellings: That's a call for the president to make. We are so far away from any kind of decision like that. I am working in good faith, as they are, because we all know that if you care about resources, this is the time to act. If you care about perfecting the policy, making the law work better for real live educators and addressing legitimate things that they want to see fixed -- or if you care about math and science or high schools or competitiveness, all the things that business leaders around the country are on fire about -- this is the time to act. I'm also presuming that [the next president] is not going to want to come up to the Hill and work on George Bush's No. 1 domestic achievement. So this is a good time to get it done.

Q: Are you going to stay through the end of the administration?

Spellings: That's up to the president.

Q: Do you want to?

Spellings: I feel very passionate about this law and it's certainly the most important thing I've done professionally, and it's had a profound impact on education, in my humble and modest view. So, yes, I want to see it through.

Q: There's been some speculation that you'll run for governor of Texas -- is that your plan?

Spellings: I have no plans to run for anything but the city limits as soon as my time is up. All kidding aside, I am so busy I haven't had a chance -- I mean, I do hope to have some interesting, exciting something to do. I hope whatever I do will pay some money, too. So we'll have to see.

Q: Earlier this year you faced off against the state of Virginia, and your own home school district of Fairfax County, over their refusal to test English-language learners in English. The state was willing to forfeit its federal education money, and even Virginia Sens. John Warner and Jim Webb were prepared to intervene. Although the state ultimately backed down, that couldn't have been easy for you.

Spellings: I do a have a passion for poor and minority kids, and for getting them a high-quality education. That's been my life's work. And when I know that two-thirds of these kids are born in the United States and that three-quarters of them have been here for at least five years, certainly it's not unreasonable for citizens of this country to get to the end of the third grade and read on grade level.

Q: Wouldn't it have been easier for you politically to let the state have its way?

Spellings: Politically for whom? In the neighborhood? But politically on behalf of Hispanic kids, it would have been a very bad call, and the wrong thing to do, and by the way, not what's on the law books. This is what is so powerful about this law. The mighty Fairfax has done a damn good job of educating Anglo students and kids from affluent families, and we say, hooray, congratulations. What this law is about is those who have been left behind. It's about Hispanic kids. It's about poor kids. It's about special-ed kids. It's about African-American kids. And that has caused discomfort in suburbia. But [only] half of our African-American and Hispanic kids are getting out of high school on time, and we just can't sustain that as a country when we're getting more diverse by the year and when most of the jobs require post-secondary education.

Q: Are you ever sorry that you used the phrase "99.9 percent pure" to describe the law? You've certainly been criticized for it.

Spellings: When I say "99.9 percent pure," these core principles -- give ourselves a deadline of 2014; [count] every kid; annual assessments are the way to do that; disaggregate the data -- I mean that those are 99.9 percent pure. And they're here to stay, and we're not advocating that they be changed. Why? Because they're working.

Q: I understand the president's nickname for you is Margarita -- how did that come about?

Spellings: It's the national drink of Texas!

Bush, rights leaders confer on education

President Bush yesterday met with the nation's leading civil rights groups and urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, highlighting the law's effectiveness in shrinking the achievement gap between white and minority students.

"We've come a long way since the days when children were simply shuffled through the schools, just moved grade to grade, whether or not they were learning," Mr. Bush said.

"We don't necessarily agree on every issue, but we do agree that education is a basic civil right, and that a good education is important for America."

Mr. Bush stressed that testing to measure children's proficiency must continue and said the key component of the federal education law is that "if a child is falling behind, we will provide supplemental services to help that child catch up."

The civil rights leaders have criticized the lack of funding for the law and the slow movement of government enforcement for poorly performing schools. They also are concerned with the lack of expediency in providing supplemental services or tutoring.

EdWeek: Mobility of Native American Students Can Pose Challenges to Achievement

Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/10/07native.h27.html

But she continues to be frustrated by an obstacle to achievement that seems particularly pronounced among the Native American students who make up 61 percent of the school’s enrollment: high mobility.

The turnover rate for North Middle students last year was 50 percent overall—meaning that half the school’s 468 students came or went after the start of the school year. Many of them were Native Americans.

And instability carries a cost. Ms. Burckhard cites the steady coming and going of students as one reason the school has always failed to make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, goals under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Statistics are limited on the mobility of Native American and Alaska Native students, who make up just 1.2 percent of public school students nationally. But an analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics, by an NCES researcher for Education Week, found that 15.7 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native sophomores in 2002 changed schools in their last two years of high school, compared with 7 percent of white sophomores and 8.5 percent of Asian sophomores.

EdWeek: Reauthorize NCLB With National Standards

Commentary
Reauthorize NCLB With National Standards
By Patrick Mattimore

We need national subject-matter standards, such as those represented by testing under the National Assessment of Educational Progress.



Full story: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/08/07mattimore_web.h27.html