by Jim Brown
Some states are lowering academic standards on student achievement tests and redefining the definition of a failing school to avoid losing federal education dollars.
Under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, public schools that fail to meet adequate yearly progress face potential government sanctions. In order to steer clear of such penalties, some states are reducing the minimum grade required to pass assessment tests.
However, Krista Kafer, senior education policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, says other states are gradually raising standards that were once very low. She believes there are benefits to either system.
“The important thing is that each state continue to move in the direction of high benchmarks, tough standards, tough tests — and, of course, the kinds of programs that actually prepare kids to be able to take these tests,” Kafer says.
And according to Kafer, failing schools cannot hide their poor performance.
“Ultimately, if you have a strong test and a strong program, the test scores will reflect that,” she says, adding that test scores can act like “sunshine” by highlighting for people what is going on in their schools. She offers an example.
“If most of the kids are getting low marks on the reading test, I think we can conclude that the reading program in the school is not successful — or the teachers who are teaching the reading program are not doing what they need to do,” Kafer says.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all students meet state-defined proficiency levels in reading and math by 2014. Since the act was signed in 2002, every state has presented the Education Department with its own plan to comply with the law.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
