[LM_NET] NO child left behind

[Sharon Hamer <shamer@HYDE.EDU>]

There was an article in the New York Times magazine section last Sunday (11/26) by 
Paul Tough called "What it takes to make a student". I urge all of you to read that 
(its available through many magazine databases).

I had no idea about one aspect of No Child. States are allowed to set the standards 
for what proficient means in the standardized state testing, and they are lowering 
those standards drastically in order to have more students qualify as proficient. 
Here is a quote:

"The most malignant element of the original law was that it required all states to 
achieve proficiency but then allowed each state to define proficiency for itself. 
It took state governments a couple of years to realize just what that meant, but 
now they have caught on--and many of them are engaged in an ignoble competition to 
see which state can demand the least of its students. At the head of this pack 
right now is Mississippi, which has declared 89 percent of its fourth-grade 
students to be proficient readers, the highest percentage, while in fact, the 
National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that only 18 percent of 
Mississippi fourth graders know how to read at an appropriate level--the second 
lowest score of any state. In the past year, Arizona, Maryland, Ohio, North Dakota, 
and Idaho all followed Mississippi's lead and slashed their standards to label 
uneducated students educated."

You don't need to respond to me, but please make this known in your communities.

Sharon Hamer
Librarian
Hyde School
Woodstock, Ct. 06281
860-963-4726


HYDE  
Preparation for Life



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