Re: [EducationLoop] Digest Number 761

["Arthur Hu" <arthurhu@attbi.com>]

More proof there is no such thing as "proficiency", especially
"raising the bar by 2008" proficiency. The whole validity of the
idea of "standards based education" is built around meeting
"one high standard" of what "every student should know and be able to
do", or else.


Message: 12
   Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 15:14:22 -0400
   From: "Joan Masters" <masters@erols.com>
Subject: Bill lowers standards to get federal money

Bill lowers standards to get federal moneySent from another loop. Joan


           Posted on Mon, May. 26, 2003



            Bill lowers standards to get federal money
            But legislators hold districts to higher state marks
            By Doug Oplinger and Dennis J. Willard
            Beacon Journal staff writers

            COLUMBUS - Sixteen years ago, as lawmakers finished work on the
state budget, a state senator put a rider on the massive bill that created
proficiency tests -- with no public debate.

            Since then, proficiency tests have been used to pillory school
districts -- mostly in urban areas -- and to provide justification for the
state takeover of the Cleveland Public Schools system.

            Poor proficiency test scores were used to open the door to
voucher and charter schools in Ohio. A national school funding expert relied
on the test scores to determine the base amount the state should guarantee
to provide every child with an adequate education.

            Now -- with federal money at stake -- some state lawmakers
maintain the proficiency test standards are too difficult to comply with the
No Child Left Behind Act.

            If the state can't produce better results, at least $356 million
in federal aid could be lost.

            When representatives passed House Bill 3 on Wednesday, they
lowered the standards for school districts to comply with No Child Left
Behind -- and to keep the federal money flowing into state coffers -- but
maintained higher state standards that determine whether a district is
considered failing or successful.

            That could be a problem: The Legislative Service Commission, in
an unusual warning to lawmakers, said that the federal law prohibits trying
to establish lower scores to receive federal dollars while holding schools
to higher state standards. The potential consequence: revocation of Title I
money.

            Rep. Kevin DeWine, R-Fairborn, said Ohio's proficiency tests,
compared to other states' testing, are more difficult, and it would not be
fair to use those scores as a national yardstick.

            ``We're not lowering our standards. We're not changing the
tests. We're not lowering the cut scores. We're not changing the curricula
or academic standards. We're putting Ohio kids on a level playing field when
it comes to federal reporting,'' DeWine said.