Source
Karl Note: Caught as they have been, in terrible
results with their teaching technology, the individual States have each invented
their own way of hiding the truth -- often by deliberately producing confusing
reports on their results. Thus, the reports received from the individual
States have NOT been adequate to allow any national report card to be prepared.
That has changed with the "No Child Left Behind" Act.
This page presents some of the
inconsistencies and inadequacies of the individual State reports.
State departments across the nation have listed more than
8,000 Title I schools as "in need of improvement." It is critical to keep those
numbers in context.
The U.S. Department of Education is reporting the
information as provided by the states as part of a 1994 law that
pre-dates President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
- Under our federal system and the 1994
law, states were required to define "adequate yearly progress." Since then,
states have chosen many ways to report their data--not every state defines
achieving and underachieving schools in the same way.
- Some states define progress as closing
the achievement gap between sub-groups of students. Others define it as
meeting absolute targets on state tests. A third way is measuring growth or
progress on state tests from one year to another. No matter what the method,
the state establishes the target.
The state-supplied data tell us something we already knew:
that America's schools need help. Many of our schools are lagging and could do
much better.
- More than 35 years after Congress passed the first
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, public school spending per-pupil has
more than doubled--even when adjusted for inflation--from $2,853 in 1965-66 to
$7,086 in 1999-00.
- Since 1965, the federal government has spent more than
$321 billion on education.
- But over the last two decades, reading and math scores
have been stagnant.
Next year, No Child Left Behind has
accountability reforms that will improve the quality of information and puts
that information to use.
- Information is the key to identifying and solving the
challenges in education. Parents and the public have a right to know how their
tax dollars are being spent in the education system.
- Under No Child Left Behind, states will
revisit their definition of "adequate yearly progress"-- to meet the goals of
closing the achievement gap and ensuring every child is learning proficiently
by 2012-13.
- Unlike prior years, states will be required to publicize
these schools.
No Child Left Behind
also requires states, school districts and schools to provide annual report
cards on the following:
- student academic achievement disaggregated by subgroups,
- comparison of students at basic, proficient, and
advanced levels of academic achievement,
- graduation rates,
- professional qualifications of teachers,
- percentages of students not tested, and
- whether the school has been identified as "in need of
improvement."
Even though school data will improve next year under
No Child Left Behind, the bipartisan law offers many children and schools
help now.
- If a school fails to make adequate yearly progress for
two years and continues to be identified as in need of improvement after
receiving special help and resources, then students are eligible to transfer
to another public school with transportation provided. If a school continues
to fail, disadvantaged students in these schools are also eligible for
"supplemental services" such as tutoring, after-school help, and summer
school.
- Some low-performing Title I schools will have to offer
public school choice and supplemental services as early as Fall 2002.
In short, for the first time in federal education policy,
schools, districts and states will be able to use high-quality information for
data-driven reforms so that we can improve public education for every child.
