Despite all the opposition, and all the kvetching, NCLB is now "implanted" in our educational system, and more and more schools are meeting the requirements of the law, according to Education Week:
The No Child Left Behind Act, which President Bush signed into law in January 2002 as the centerpiece of his education agenda, is the latest reauthorization of the nearly 40-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The revised law is designed to close achievement gaps and bring all students to the “proficient” level on state tests by 2013-14, in part by ensuring access to high-quality teachers, improved reading instruction, and other measures.
Nearly half the states—23 and the District of Columbia—are now testing in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school, as the law will require starting in 2005-06. That’s up from 20 states last year...
Of the states not giving standards-based reading and math tests in each of the required grades, many are running to catch up and meet the requirement by next school year, with a number of them field-testing items this coming spring.
Some states are doing away with additional tests (some of which were not standards-based), in order to make more room for the federally-mandated ones. States are asking for (and receiving) changes to the federal requirements to remove some of the burdens. And states are discovering that schools can be A-level on one report card and failing on another:
Twenty-six states use criteria, in addition to those spelled out in the federal law, to assign ratings, according to Education Week’s survey. And sometimes schools may get dual ratings that do not always add up.
Often, that’s because state accountability systems focus on the overall performance of a school’s students or give credit for growth, while the federal law requires schools to get a minimum percent of students in each subgroup—including those who are poor, speak limited English, have disabilities, or come from racial- and ethnic- minority backgrounds—to the “proficient” level on state tests each year.
In Florida, for example, some schools that got A’s under the state system did not make adequate progress under the federal law...
The article's chock-full of good stuff - go read.
Posted by kswygert at December 8, 2004 02:59 PM