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April 18, 2006
No Child Left Behind -- Just Left Out
Well, the Texas Legislature has reconvened in a special session to solve (or not) the state's broken public school finance mechanism. So far, key players -- with the exception of the State Comptroller -- are saying the right things about reaching a deal, if they are saying anything at all (you have been awfully quiet Mr. Lt. Governor). Given the Lege's oft-demonstrated ability to put differences aside and solve real problems over the last few years (that's your cue to laugh), we will believe there's a deal when there's actually a deal.
Providing interesting context for the special session -- since Governor Perry has declined to expand the Legislature's call to take on any actual reform to the state's educational system, which ranks at or near the bottom in most national categories -- is an article today from the Associated Press.
The authors take a look at President Bush's much touted No Child Left Behind education law, now four years old. As readers may know, and those with children in public schools know all too well, President Bush's "landmark" education reform places heavy emphasis on standardized testing to measure progress in our public schools. School ratings, and ultimately federal funding, are tied to student performance on these tests. Consequently, school teachers and administrators are under great pressure to achieve high test scores.
The article finds that nearly 2 million minority students' test scores have simply been omitted from school tallies nationwide, allowing schools to distort their overall testing performance and escape potential penalties.
In certain states (Texas among them), if the population of an individual minority group in a single school is below a certain threshhold, then, by law, scores from that group can be omitted from the school's total, creating a less than complete picture of that school's (and that minority group's) overall testing performance.
Once again, with Bush administration policy, appearance trumps reality. Never mind if actual student test performance is lacking; cut the corners you need to and pretty up the numbers. The wisdom of an educational policy that relies so heavily on standardized testing itself is debatable, to say the least, but if accurate test results are not even being gauged then what is the point? It's not No Child Left Behind -- we are leaving these children out all together.
Sadly, it's par for the course in the George W. Bush White House. Why let a little thing like the truth get in the way of running the country?
Posted by houtopia at April 18, 2006 09:13 AM