Jim Sanders of the Sacramento Bee asks, "Is the bar set too high?"
Too many students fail to meet California's standard for proficiency, sparking a simple solution under consideration in the Capitol: redefine "proficient." By changing a few words in state law, legislators could dramatically affect how the federal government rates the state's education system."I think it's a totally sensible thing to do," said Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley. Critics of Hancock's proposal, Assembly Bill 2975, say the state's goal should be to improve schools, not alter words. Hancock counters that both are needed to avoid severe sanctions in coming years under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB.
"What all of this needs is for grown-up egos to be set aside and to focus on the young people," she said...
Under AB 2975, proficient students need not necessarily perform at grade level. Rather, test scores must show that they are acquiring adequate skills, year by year, to pass the state's high school exit exam by the end of 12th grade.
The concern here is that the US accepts each state's definition of "proficient," and requires each state's students to reach the state English and math standards of "proficient" by 2014. The bar, in California, is apparently set high, and currently fewer than half make it in each area.
Resetting the bar such that "proficient" is out of alignment with grade level seems rather surreal. If the argument is that it's wrong to judge California by their set standard, there should be data - other than the percent of students not making it - to support the argument that the standard is in fact too high. By twiddling with the numbers to make the percentages look better, the message would be that California in fact has no idea what their standard should be.
Posted by kswygert at March 20, 2006 10:34 AM