Rural Matters

United States Department of Education-approved assessment systems apparently don’t help, if the purpose is to boost achievement scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the so-called nation’s report card.

That’s the best sense you can make out of comparing the NAEP scores of the four states whose assessment systems have received USDE’s full seal of approval with the scores of the 10 states whose systems are so wretched, according to USDE, that it is withholding federal funds from the state education agency. USDE passes judgment on state assessment systems under the authority of No Child Left Behind, a bumbling federal law well-recognized for its consistently perverse effects.

Continue reading "No, No, Doug, USDE Approval Counts, Learning Doesn’t" »

Posted by Marty Strange at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Four years and four months after No Child Left Behind became the most extensive and prescriptive education legislation in the country's history, we may finally learn this month what the sanctions are for states and districts that fail to get all their teachers "Highly Qualified." The deadline is the end of this school year.

NCLB lays out specific sanctions for schools and districts that do not meet its testing requirements. They face incrementally more severe consequences when too few students score at the proficient level on mandated tests. Not so with the highly qualified teacher rules.

The law itself has no specific sanctions related to HQT. It carries only the vague threat of the entire law that federal funds could be withheld from states or districts that fail to comply. Which federal funds is a matter of speculation, for the most part. And whether funds would be withheld from all districts or just Title I districts is also an open question.

Continue reading "Will We Finally Learn HQT Sanctions?" »

Posted by Robin Lambert at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)