Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Browns find another way to lose
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit
Akron Zips:
Zips advance to Sweet Sixteen
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes
Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (70) Savings in Medicare Advantage
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Monique asks how to get tickets for the Polar Express.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
No Child Left Behind requires success in the classroom. What is success? Well, that is part of the problem
Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The target date and the 100 percent proficiency goal capture the ambition — idealistic, to be sure — of the federal law and the difficulties involved.
The law expects states and their public school systems to ensure that a first-grader can read at first-grade level, and a 10th-grader can do the same at the 10th-grade level, regardless of economic, cultural or physical handicaps.
The rationale for the goal is clear enough. How to achieve it, though, has proved challenging from the start. For one, in the absence of a national system of education, there is no single standard of proficiency. Instead, the federal law requires education officials in each state to submit plans indicating their ''annual measurable objectives.'' The plans specify how the state assesses proficiency and what targets it aims to achieve year by year until it reaches the 100 percent proficiency mark in 2014.
As critics have observed, the No Child Left Behind demand for 100 percent proficiency is a progressive idea — up to a point. The law demands some accountability from school systems, but ''proficient'' is relative, under the circumstances. States set their own assessment tests and determine the performance levels that constitute adequate progress. Studies have noted the varying degrees of difficulty of some state tests and the low standards of proficiency.
In short, easier tests and lower proficiency goals mean some states can reach the 100 percent target on time — and with less effort on their part. It would appear the law has provided an incentive for the very problem No Child Left Behind was supposed to cure: ''the soft bigotry of low expectations,'' as President Bush often has put it.
A study released this month by the Center on Education Policy shows another source of concern. In a review of states' strategies to meet the 2013-14 deadline, the center found nearly half of the states, including Ohio, face a steep challenge to make the target date in the time remaining. Planning the timeline for total proficiency, officials in Ohio and 22 other states set low annual targets in the early years for percentage gains in student proficiency. As a result, they must show dramatic gains in student achievement to be able to make the goal at all.
Ohio has spent many years strengthening the base for student achievement, among other things, overhauling curriculum content and aligning it to the state achievement tests. With all that groundwork, the hope is that Ohio's students now will be able to post gains at double speed.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
