Report Indicates School Accountability Works
by Fred Jackson
(AgapePress) – A new study is giving a boost to President Bush's ideas on education reform.
The Washington Times reports that school reform groups say the nation's latest report card for mathematics shows that the Bush Administration is on the right track with its plan requiring states to push for greater academic achievement and accountability. The report, released last week by the National Assessment for Educational Progress, shows that students in states with high standards, regular testing, and strict accountability for schools outperformed other students in math achievement over the past five years.
Tests showed that the biggest math achievement gains since 1992 occurred in North Carolina and Texas, where strong accountability systems serve as the models for the President's reform plan.
The Center for Education Reform is another group pushing for better standards. It also notes that states such as North Carolina and Texas were the only ones to make headway in closing the black-white achievement gap in math.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – In a victory for free speech, the principal of a California public school decided to allow a student to read his favorite Bible story to classmates.
In May, the family of a kindergarten student in the Buckeye Union School District in El Dorado County, California, contacted the Pacific Justice Institute with the concern their six-year-old son's constitutional rights had been violated. The student, who was named “Star Student” in his class, was told by his teacher to select his favorite book for his mother to read aloud in class. But when the boy told the teacher he selected the Old Testament story of Jonah, he was informed by the teacher — in front of his classmates — that such a story was forbidden because it mentioned “God.”
Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says a complaint was filed and school officials quickly reversed their decision. “We … gave counsel to the parents in filing the complaint,” Dacus says, “and within 24 hours the principal of the elementary school apologized and notified all the faculty that such discriminatory, hostile conduct will not be allowed.”
June Jantz is a PJI attorney and litigation coordinator. “No student, no matter how old, should ever feel afraid to compassionately share his sincere religious beliefs with his classmates in appropriate times and manners,” Jantz said. “We applaud the courage and testimony of this kindergarten student and his mother in standing up for their right to read the boy's chosen religious book in class.”
Calling the principal's decision “appropriate and reassuring,” Dacus says the school's actions serve as a model for the protection of the free religious exercise rights of public school students.
