We are encouraged to see that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is continuing to argue that No Child Left Behind needs to be changed to recognize and reward schools and districts that show improvement based on progress and growth.
This proposed change could arguably be good news for two groups of students – those who are well below grade level and those who enter grade level well ahead of their peers.
Under the current system, schools and teachers do not typically receive any statistical credit for moving those students who are well below or well above grade level forward.
That means in schools that are at risk of being sanctioned because of their lack of success in reaching Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals, there is inevitably a temptation to ignore the needs of these two groups of students, focusing instead primarily on students who are just below grade level and therefore most likely to hit performance targets on standardized tests.
The premise of No Child Left Behind, as the name clearly states, is that all students should be moving forward academically. And this forward movement can only come when the formula being used to measure schools recognizes all growth – including academic growth seen among our lowest and highest performing schools.
Duncan says that he would like to see the law changed before the 2011-12 school year, so that schools can be more fairly assessed and their needs supported. We hope this is a proposal that can move forward quickly.
What do you think?
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