NCLB Working
Mickey Kaus is right: had this study showed that NCLB had lead to decreases or steady “test scores for both “advanced” and “basic” students,” it probably would have been trumpeted all over the place. But instead, test scores, at least according to this 50-state study done by the Center for Education Policy, are going up for nearly everyone. This is contrary to the line of NCLB critics who say that “schools are not focusing on the highest- or lowest-scoring students.” As the report says, quoted in Education Week, “We found no strong evidence that NCLB’S focus on proficiency is shortchanging students at the advanced or basic levels.”
Of course, there’s still the question of how well test scores reflect student achievement, but this sure looks like good news.
I think the venomous distaste for NCLB from teachers has more to do with a resistance to change than any true understanding of the factors involved in ‘excellence’ in education
worddreams
August 9, 2009 at 6:30 pm