Re: VA Superintendents protest NCLB

[CMWUNCHEEL@aol.com]

Not only that, but it kills me how they decry the unfairness of having to 
test limited-Eng.  kids, conveniently failing to note that VA's one-time 
exemption for those kids applies only to elem. and middle school testing, NOT to the 
high school tests needed to graduate - or that, while schools can choose to 
exclude those kids' scores from their pass rates (if they'd bring 'em down, of 
course) if they came into the system after a certain point in the year, failing 
scores still count against the individual kids. (That's in addition to how 
good VA systems have gotten, VA BOE help, at using all kinds of pass rate 
"adjustments" to artificiallly boost accredition ratings, while the low-achieving 
kids who haven't been pushed out of SOL-tested courses or out of regular schools 
or ID'd for special ed. and exempted from testing and who we 're supposedly 
helping w/all this garbage continue to do poorly compared to majority students).
Roxie

In a message dated 9/12/03 9:01:01 AM, sueallison@comcast.net writes:

<< When I read these articles about superintendents protesting these NCLB 
designations -- I am always struck by the double standard.   It's not OK to judge 
THEM on high stakes test -- but where have these superintendents been hiding 
when the VA DOE was proclaiming that the SOL's would be high stakes for the 
diploma?  



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62956-2003Sep11.html

washingtonpost.com 

Schools In Va. Fail Federal Standards 

No Area District Satisfies New Law 


By Rosalind S. Helderman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 12, 2003; Page B01 



Only a handful of Virginia's school districts and slightly more than half of 
individual schools made enough progress on state reading and math tests this 
year to comply with the new federal No Child Left Behind law.


Even in Northern Virginia, where many schools have achieved the top ranking 
on the state's five-year-old Standards of Learning exams, not a single school 
district made the mark. Locally and statewide, most schools that fell short did 
so because special education and immigrant students scored poorly on the 
tests.


For the first time, the law requires schools to track the scores of subgroups 
of students -- including whites, blacks, Hispanics and children from 
low-income families -- and each group must hit the target pass rate on the tests. The 
target will rise gradually until 2014, when the law mandates reading and math 
proficiency for all students.


In Maryland, results released last month showed that 37 percent of schools 
failed to make "adequate yearly progress" under the law, with special education, 
immigrant and low-income students lagging behind on the new Maryland School 
Assessment tests.


Virginia's results, though widely predicted, turned up the volume among some 
state educators who have joined colleagues nationwide in criticizing the 
far-reaching education law, signed by President Bush in 2001. 


The way it measures progress is "extremely punitive," said Rebecca L. Perry, 
superintendent of the small, diverse Alexandria district, where five of 18 
schools made the grade. "It's not a meaningful way to judge schools. The state 
has a far better plan in terms of looking at accreditation -- that's still our 
focus." Under the state's Standards of Learning, the prize is a "fully 
accredited" rating when a certain percentage of all students in a school passes the 
tests.


Loudoun County Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III said the law's complicated 
requirements penalize many good schools. Although he said all schools could 
stand some improvement, he urged parents not to rush to judgment on their 
neighborhood schools based on the results, which are being released today. 


"Fundamentally, I think that 95 percent of our nation's schools are doing 
just fine," said Hatrick, who is also president-elect of the Virginia Association 
of School Superintendents. "Rather than direct our resources -- and I don't 
mean just capital resources, I mean intellectual resources -- toward solving 
the problems where they exist, we're taking this scattergun approach and going 
out and trying to improve schools that are already doing just fine."


Some state officials said the results will force educators to focus on the 
achievement gap between whites and minority groups, especially those with 
limited English skills and those from poorer families. "We're going to have to keep 
it on the front burner," said Thomas M. Jackson Jr., president of the state 
Board of Education.


Advocates of the law said its standards and attention to minorities are the 
only way to see behind averages, which can hide the poor scores of some 
students. 


"When you have an accountability system based on averages, you can't know if 
you're really providing educational excellence to all kids," said Jeanne 
Brennan, spokeswoman for Washington-based Education Trust, which pushed for the law.


Tracking and reporting the scores is an enormous undertaking. Virginia now 
estimates it will cost the state $10.8 million in the next two years to develop 
the technology to do it.


Under the federal law, a school that fails to progress two years in a row is 
placed on a special watch list and faces consequences. At schools with a large 
proportion of low-income children, parents are allowed to transfer their 
children to other schools or get outside tutors for their children -- both at the 
school system's expense. 


Prince William County School Superintendent Edward L. Kelly said he applauded 
the law's intent but doubted that the penalties can be enforced. "I think 
originally people had good things in mind, but it's become so . . . convoluted," 
he said. "I don't think they're going to be able to follow through." 


State officials have warned for months that many high-performing schools that 
have achieved accreditation on the state SOLs would not make "adequate yearly 
progress" under the federal law.


Hatrick said the job of explaining the contradiction will fall mostly to 
school principals, who must tell parents plainly where their schools fell short 
and what improvements are being made. Parents might understand, he said, if the 
school fell short in just one category.


"If I'm a parent, that's a whole different story to me than if the whole 
school didn't pass, if no group made it," he said. 


Perry said diverse school systems such as Alexandria's are at a disadvantage. 


"Any school division with a high poverty or [limited English] population is 
going to have a very difficult time in meeting these measures," she said. A 
student "could arrive to you in March and be expected to take a test in a 
different language the next month. It's crazy."


Many Virginia schools and school districts did not make adequate progress 
only because they tested too few students with limited English skills, exempting 
those who were facing the test for the first time. The federal law requires 
schools to test 95 percent of each group of students, and in June -- after the 
tests had been given -- federal officials said they would not accept the 
exemption.


In Arlington, where 17 of the district's 29 schools did not make adequate 
progress, Superintendent Robert G. Smith said the decision was unfair. Next year, 
he added, the district will "assiduously follow kids to make sure they get 
tested," he said.


Statewide, 24 percent of students with limited English skills were allowed to 
skip the reading tests. Next year, when there will be no exemptions, simple 
reading and math tests will be available for students with limited English 
skills.


More than half of Fairfax County schools did not meet the targets set under 
the No Child Left Behind law, and officials there attributed it to the failure 
to test limited-English and special education students.


"To expect a newly arrived child to speak English and pass is ridiculous," 
said Fairfax County Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech. 


But Domenech added that the district is taking the data seriously and urging 
schools to focus on the students who need to improve. 


"Historically, a certain amount of failure has been a part of the educational 
system. What we're saying now is that no failure is allowed," Domenech said.


In general, individual schools that made adequate progress were less diverse 
and had fewer poor children than schools that missed the mark. Many had fewer 
than 50 students in certain subgroups and were not required to count their 
scores in the law's complicated formula.


The law allows each state to set a minimum number for each subgroup to ensure 
that test results are statistically significant, and states have chosen 
widely divergent numbers. Virginia chose 50; Maryland counts scores if there are at 
least five students in a subgroup.


State, district and school results broken down by subgroups of students can 
be found online at www.pen.k12.va.us. 


Staff writers S. Mitra Kalita, Ylan Q. Mui, Elaine Rivera and Christina A. 
Samuels and contributed to this report. 





© 2003 The Washington Post Company 




----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path: <arn-l-owner+M5679@interversity.org>
Received: from  rly-xa06.mx.aol.com (rly-xa06.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.69]) 
by air-xa04.mail.aol.com (v95.13) with ESMTP id MAILINXA41-6bf3f61c3733dd; Fri, 
12 Sep 2003 09:01:00 -0400
Received: from  inter.interversity.net (inter.interversity.net [64.41.72.53]) 
by rly-xa06.mx.aol.com (v95.1) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXA69-6bf3f61c3733dd; 
Fri, 12 Sep 2003 09:00:37 -0400
Received: from interversity.org (localhost [127.0.0.1])
    by inter.interversity.net (Postfix) with SMTP
    id C549F3F68; Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:00:35 -0500 (CDT)
Received: from sccrmhc13.comcast.net (sccrmhc13.comcast.net [204.127.202.64])
    by inter.interversity.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 308B63F68
    for <arn-l@interversity.org>; Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:00:33 -0500 (CDT)
Received: from n4p3l6 
(pcp02975368pcs.prfred01.md.comcast.net[68.84.142.37](untrusted sender))
          by comcast.net (sccrmhc13) with SMTP
          id <2003091213003101600rr4fae>; Fri, 12 Sep 2003 13:00:31 +0000
Message-ID: <000b01c3792e$23453320$258e5444@prfred01.md.comcast.net>
From: "Sue Allison" <sueallison@comcast.net>
To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@interversity.net>
Subject: [arn-l] VA Superintendents protest NCLB
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 09:02:35 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
Content-Type: text/plain;
    charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Content-Discarded: application/octet-stream
X-Content-Discarded: text/html
Precedence: bulk
Sender: arn-l-owner@interversity.org
Reply-To: arn-l@interversity.org
X-AOL-IP: 64.41.72.53
X-AOL-SCOLL-SCORE: 0:XXX:XX
X-AOL-SCOLL-URL_COUNT: 0

 >>