The Wake County school system has made it into the N.C. Public School Forum's "Ten To Watch 2010" issues list.
As the Forum somewhat melodramatically puts it, "The Future of Wake County Schools Will Be Watched By People Around the Nation." You get the impression from the article that the group isn't thrilled with the direction that the new school board majority could take.
"The question for 2010 is whether Wake’s magnet program, considered one of the best in the nation, will be dismantled in favor of a return to neighborhood schools," according to the last week's issue of The Friday Report, the forum's weekly newsletter. "With that is whether the Wake system will do what was done when Charlotte returned to neighborhood schools and created inner-city schools that Judge Manning charged were creating “educational genocide.”
John Dornan, the president and executive director of the Public School Forum, praised the Wake school system at a May forum sponsored by WakeUP Wake County. Dornan also gave money to Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk in his 2008 campaign.
Comments
Web site
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:34 — lferreriRichardAnderson
Target Goal Percent Proficient (At or Above Grade Level) listed on the report at http://ayp.ncpublicschools.org/2009/ I assume that this is what they are talking about when they say that it's the same goal for all students since this goal is consistent for all schools Grades 3-8 and for all high schools.
Thanks
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:39 — RichardAndersonThanks. I read that the same way as you. Those do seem alarmingly low. That less than two in five at grade level is considered "adequate" by the state is really pitiful.
Plus
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:43 — lferreriPlus there are two ways to get out from under even these low percentages. I think I understand Safe Harbor from explanations I found on the Web. If you have 10% improvement from last year, you can meet the goal through S/H. In other words, the way I see it, if you only had a passing rate of 30% last year and had a 33% rate this year, you met your goal.
Melodrama
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:22 — RichardAndersonMelodramatic - good choice of words Mr. Hui. Very good choice of words.
Examples from the publication:
Actually, I think that NCLB is good in concept, but, as with most first tries at a difficult issue, requires some changes based on the experience gained with implementation. Of course, saying that isn't nearly as punchy as "loved or hated" now is it?
Yes, don't we all hate that growth right now? Aren't we way better off with one in ten out of work?
Or maybe, just maybe, people will stand up and tell these clowns to quit messing around, handing out money to their favorites and demand that they take care of the important things like education? Nah, much better to say to use fear rather than call for action, right.
Now for a little fodder for TPG:
Doesn't that make you sick? As if expecting the same thing from all students is somehow this idiotic idea. Of course, with Ann Denlinger listed as a donor, is this really a surprise?
Sick, sad and mad
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 11:41 — TrailerParkGirlConsidering many educrats and much of society in general does not expect all student populations to succeed, I just can't imagine why all students are not succeeding. Ugh.
Adequate Yearly Progress
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:16 — lferreriAnd Adequate Yearly Progress in reading seem to be set so low that it's laughable. For Grades 3-8, it appears that only 43.2% of the students have to be on grade level for AYP. In high school, it sinks to 38.5%. (For math, the goals are a more reasonable 77.2% and 68.4%.) With those numbers, I find it amazing that any school can't reach AYP in reading. Plus there are a couple of "exceptions" that can get a school out from under the goal. So "success" isn't very successful, at least in reading.
Also amazing
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 13:06 — TrailerParkGirlIt is my understanding that in order to be "at grade level" a student has to get about 1/3 of the answers correct. It used to be only 1 in 4 correct, but when they redid the Reading test a few years and incorporated more higher level reading skills, the requirement was also increased to about 1 in 3 correct. (Side note teachers were not told what the new test would assess, so hard to know on which skills/approaches they should focus).
Basically, that means that in 2008-09 about 2 out of 3 ED students at Excellently Healthy Hunter Magnet ES could not get at least 1 in 3 Reading questions correct. Hey, that's better than the science test though where only 1 out of 5 ED students passed.
No troubles though - that's all that is to be expected of "those" kids. As long as the NED kids get exposure to kids on the other side of the tracks - mission accomplished. Wake County can pat itself on the back for its appreciation of and accolades for diversity and excellent, healthy schools. Don't concern yourself with the 2 out of 3 that can't read, afterall as Richard pointed out there are jails for them. Let's just bask in our glory - liberal elites all over the world love us and think we are doing a bang up job. Every place should aspire to be like Wake County and put up these kinds of inspiring results. How can we not be proud and support continuance of this wonderful situation?
Thank you
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 00:21 — SDR256Thank you, TPG for your stubbornly optimistic standards. If proliferated, these expectations that all children can succeed, that - if, given the challenge and the expectation they will succeed, they will all rise like the little angels they are - these expectations will float all children up up up.
The alternative - the reality today is depressing, isn't it? Completely depressing. You and I can imagine how SUPpressing this lack of expectation is for children. Intolerably depressing.
I can't tell if you are
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 00:33 — klanders65I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. I guess people have that problem with me.
I am optimistic and have high expectations, but for some reason that is seen as a negative thing. At least by that ex-Yank guy anyway, and the likes of him. Boy, I hope that is not really a principal.
I was being sarcastic
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 03:03 — TrailerParkGirlI was being sarcastic in the No Troubles paragraph, which I'm guessing you've read enough of my posts to realize and so did SDR.
"I am optimistic and have high expectations, but for some reason that is seen as a negative thing." It's only seen that way by the narrow-minded low-expectations contingent. I know it's frustrating though.
Yeah, the thought of ex-Yank being a principal - yikes. Have you ever read the book There Are No Shortcuts? ex-Yank reminds me of some in that book. Certainly won't be in the running for revolutionary educator awards. I fear there are a number of ex-Yanks in the education system.
Understanding
Sat, 12/26/2009 - 23:30 — SDR256I'm starting to - slowly - understand that you cannot teach other people an excellent, uplifting vision of the world.
Its mystifying at first - when you have these fundamentally positive expectations of the world - to realize that shockingly there are those -even those close to you - who DO NOT EXPECT THE BEST OUTCOME.
Many people, most people - I hate to venture to say - expect the worst. They look for it, they hunt for it, they wait for it.
They wake up in the morning and expect the worst. They look at you, and if you- your happy little self, are wearing the wrong colored socks or - god forbid - say the wrong thing they will evermore think the worst about you. When you say the wrong thing - unknowingly they REJOICE - AH HA! "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it - the world is all bad".
And yet, that's not what you said, its not what you meant at all.
Holy cow, folks. How can can we dig ourselves out of this for our children?
Well
Sun, 12/27/2009 - 00:46 — TrailerParkGirlWell, someone recently told me, "You can't argue with stupid" and I suppose you may be correct that some will never let go of negativity, but some others will.
Face value
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 00:47 — SDR256It is what it is. I meant it as I wrote it.
Hold on
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 13:30 — RichardAndersonOK, so let me get this straight. 33% is passing for each student and 43% is passing for the whole school (elementary reading). So, if there are 100 kids in the grade and three grades take the test, that is 300 tests. Hypothetical 100 questions on the test. So 30,000 questions. If 43% of those kids get 34 questions right, the entire school is considered adequate? So 4386 correct answers (34×300×0.43) out of 30,000 or 14.62% correct and the school is considered adequate.
That is obviously not a realistic situation and representative of the mathematical minimum possible to generate the AYP level, but even so, that is utterly absurd. Under 15% correct from a school and it is consider to be making progress. Progress compared to what? Living in the Dark Ages?
I wonder
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 13:17 — lferreriMy sister-in-law works at a school in Virgina. She says that when they get back their EOG results, they are broken down by topic. For example, the third graders may have had trouble with fractions or finding the topic sentence. They then meet before school starts to determine how to help the kids to master that skill at the beginning of fourth grade so that it doesn't continue to present problems for them. When you said that teachers weren't told what the new test would assess, it got me thinking about this. Why not tell them? And I wonder if they are told, when they get their results, which skills students were lacking. My sister-in-law's school is very successful by the way so this seems to work well.
Keep in mind that Virginia
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 14:49 — willynillyKeep in mind that Virginia does not administer EOGs. Their tests are called SOLs (Standards of Learning). Like NC, these tests are state based. However, having been in graduate school in 1997 at a Virginia University I can say that the test in Virginia is much more challenging than this EOG mess in NC. In Virginia the tests are compared to other Virginia students taking the same test. Comparing the students in NC to arrive at a "proficiency" label (as has been mentioned here in the blog) has fallen short of where we need to be in this state.
Grading standard
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 15:04 — RichardAndersonWillyNilly, you make some good points, but I have a question. You said:
I would think that the relative standard (judged against peers) would be just as bad as what we have now. We see now that less than half of members in certain student groups don't read at grade level. How does setting the standard to that low level help?
I think the problem we have now isn't that we have an absolute (not relative) "proficiency" standard, but the level of competence that is needed to be able to say a student has attained proficiency. Instead of dipping our toe into the murky waters of relative grading wherein a student is thought to be doing well even though he is just the least bad in a miserable pool, I think we must make sure that we have absolute standards that are truly vigorous and representative of a student having attained mastery of the content. This is especially true considering the requirements to report test results by demographic categories. Since each would be relative only to the population contained therein, then we would have no way to know who was being left behind.
I'm not sure what breakdown they get with results
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 13:38 — TrailerParkGirlI was referring to the year that the Reading test was changed. The teachers were not told ahead of time what the new test would be like. For example, that there would be more questions requiring the use of inference (a higher level skill) to get the answer rather than the answer being directly in the passage and not requiring intrepretation to get the answer. I think once they saw the test and results, they knew what skills were missed. The issue was that they did not know ahead of time that those would be skills assessed.
That's not it
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 14:30 — lferreriI keep trying to figure out what my sister-in-law's school is doing that they have such good pass rate for ED kids. (83% reading and 79% math) The test can't be a lot easier because the overall pass rate for all students is 87% on both tests. I guess knowing which skills weren't mastered isn't the answer. I wish I knew what was.
I don't think the EOGs have
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 15:52 — klanders65I don't think the EOGs have good reliability at the individual level. I don't think they were designed to be diagnostic at the student level. They are for measuring whether curriculum is being taught by the school as a whole. Wake was using a system in some schools that provided diagnostic information at the student level. It told what kids had not mastered, of the objectives in the curriculum. It also provided information so the teacher would know if they were Level I, II, III or IV given the amount of mastery they had accomplished. The teachers didn't like it for some reason. I think it involved using technology and they didn't like that. Also, at elementary school they supposedly grade based on content mastery, same as EOG. This system, called eMark, said what mastery level a kid was at. I think they called it proficiency level. The teachers didn't like having to grade based on content mastery. Even though they call it Standards Based Grading, they still give 4s for working hard, and 2s for not working hard even or being messy, even if a child has mastered the content. So, Wake did away with that eMark system. Now they use something called Blue Diamond. It is just software and someone has to write the questions for it. They've had a few years of questionable questions but it may be getting better.
Of course you know what I'd say. If we have low expectations for ED kids, and teach them low level stuff, we are going to get low scores from them.
Reliability
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 16:04 — lferreriThat's what my sister-in-law said. They don't look at individual student scores but only at whole groups like the third grade. She never explained why but I see what you are saying about group versus individual reliability so I'll bet that's why her school does it that way. I was under the impression from a friend that we are still using eMark. At least, her daughter got grades based supposedly on content mastery (although my friend is skeptical). I'd never heard of Blue Diamond until I watched the school board meeting a few weeks ago. Does that mean the teachers have to write content questions for the system?
I think your last paragraph tells it all. When I told my sister-in-law about the pass rates for ED and minority kids in Wake County, she said heads would roll in her school district if results like that came in. But more importantly, she thought it was terribly sad for the kids, and she was indignant that people weren't up in arms about it.
interesting
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 10:56 — supportwcpssAnd what do we hear most regarding what people are 'up in arms' about. All I hear is MYR, schedules, and bussing. A few on here talk about the low performing students but that is not what you hear about in the general public.
So who should be up in arms?
Don't play stupid
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 14:33 — RichardAndersonLet's see, the people who take the time to come and comment on this blog have a deeper understanding of the issues than those who don't. And you really think that I am the one who is looking for an argument?
Huh?
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:30 — supportwcpssAnd don't twist words. I specifically said some people on here do discuss low performing students and referred to the general public which is outside of the scope of this blog world.
And...
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:36 — RichardAnderson...you don't see how that is absolutely what one would expect? That those who come here talk about the issues in greater depth than those who aren't as involved in it. Come on.
Spin...Spin..Spin...
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:57 — supportwcpssYou sure you don't have a side job as a spinmeister?
The orginal point was that someone from up north things our community (not this blog) should be up in arms over the ED graduation rate and heads should roll.
We all know this is NOT what the community as a whole is all revved up about.
The community as a whole
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 21:49 — TrailerParkGirlThe community as a whole is completely CLUELESS as to the reality of the situation thanks to the WCPSS/WEP/N&O/Independant/NC Spin/etc. propaganda machine. Remember all the general community hears about is all the accolades of our wonderful diversity policy. They NEVER hear about the fact that scores have trended downward, that half of A-A males drop out - only to positive spin, never the downsides. NO ONE does front page articles on that do they?
How would the community be reved up about something they don't know about?
Up in arms
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:27 — lferreriAs a native Virginian, my sister-in-law will think it's hilarious that she's "someone from up north." Seriously, I think her point is that she doesn't understand why the people at the schools with these poor results are not in trouble. They would be at her school, which may be one reason why her school has such good results. I believe that she was surprised that the administration wasn't up in arms about what's happening here. Where she lives, there isn't much interest in education among the general public. (Kind of ironic)
I would love to hear a public outcry about this situation. But I would settle for an outcry from the administration and the involved citizens. I wish there was more publicity about some of these issues. Yesterday's discussion about how few correct answers students have to have to pass the EOGs and how few students have to pass to make AYP in reading would be a good start. I'll bet if you polled 1000 people in Wake County, only a tiny number would have any idea about this.
Disarmed
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:37 — klanders65One reason the administration is not up in arms is because results are reported internally using that Effectiveness Index. It adjusts results by income levels and other demographic information. So, if ED kids in a high ED school do poorly, those results are adjusted and what is reported is how they did relative to what was expected. Lots of decisions are made based on these adjusted results. Even though they do not align with the actual results reported for AYP.
I'm glad that's changed
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:58 — lferreriI'm glad that's going to change in the future. (It is, right?) Still, someone had to decide to create a system like that with lower expectations for some groups. So I continue to blame the central administration since I assume that they were the ones who created and/or accepted this system. I guess my conclusion is that "the buck stops here."
I used to teach accounting. Universities look very carefully to see how many of their students pass the CPA exam and how other institutions are doing. I doubt that anyone outside the academic accounting community gives a hoot about this statistic. Yet one year the university where I taught was surpassed by an "inferior" (in their eyes) institution. Everyone was very upset and rushed around to change the classes, curriculum, etc. Ironically, I later went to teach at the "inferior" university. They were jubilant that they had beaten out my original school. The best part was that the students at both places benefited from the competition. I wish we could develop some of that mentality in the public schools. I know some administrators and teachers have that internal drive for success but I'd like to see more "friendly competition".
I guess they have quit using
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 21:17 — klanders65I guess they have quit using it, but they haven't eradicated it from the underlying message of everything they do. Look at the reports on E&R's website. They identify effective practices by whether kids met the targets set with the Effectiveness Index. Those targets are lower for ED kids. So, programs that they call effective in their reports are programs that may have had bad outcomes for ED kids, as they expected. They also have their report on what is effective with "at risk" kids.
http://www.wcpss.net/evaluation-research/reports/2007/0623effective_multirisk_study.pdf
In the report on that link, they talk about how they are looking for effective practices by using the effectiveness index. If you don't know what that means, you may not know that low income kids can lose ground and that may be better than expected and seen as positive.
This report reeks of low expectations for ED kids. They look for (poor) kids with positive residuals in the effectiveness index. They may have done terrible, but that was better than we expected. Then they try to figure out what miracle happened that these kids could learn more than we thought.
They may have quit using the Effectiveness Index, but they didn't get rid of all this garbage that they provide to teachers and decision makers. All of their "effective practices" research is based on the Effectiveness Index.
Good point
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 22:09 — lferreriI hadn't thought about all the research reports that are based on EI and still out there.
Again, your point is
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:05 — RichardAndersonYes, people are concerned mostly for themselves and their own situation. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Any other stunning revelations you want to share with us, oh great one?
Thanks
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:19 — supportwcpssfor the confirmation that a majority are not interested in high risk kids and only by there schedule and personal inconvenience.
Glad we agree on something.
Yes
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 16:21 — RichardAndersonand the majority of high risk parents don't care about other high risk kids, just their own. Don't going playing the class warfare card and attaching my name to it. People are concerned with their own lives first. You felt that was information worthy of posting while I think the rest of just figured it was so obvious that it wasn't worth typing out.
Maybe some schools are using
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 16:44 — klanders65Maybe some schools are using eMark. The system as a whole gave it up. They supposedly grade on content mastery but I don't think they really do. I am not sure who writes the questions for Blue Diamond. I don't think they are done in a way that reliability is established. It may be better now than it has been. I think maybe they could use building level information from EOGs about what is mastered and what is not. That is something people could look at on Wednesdays in the PLCs. I have never heard of anyone doing that. There are lots of good ways data can be used but WCPSS doesn't use data those ways much. Some schools do based on individual leadership. There is nothing system-wide. System-wide they promote using income data for academic interventions. Look at the evaluation reports on E&R's website.
Oh, sorry I misunderstood
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 15:17 — TrailerParkGirlWell, Dillard Drive ES here has relatively good ED pass rates (73% Reading, 88% math). Unfortuneately, status quo supporters are more intent on focusing on diversity and reassigning ED students out of DDES than figuring out what they are doing that they have such relatively good pass rates. If we could get everyone focused on that instead of ignoring that in favor of the concept of diversity, maybe we could actually get somewhere with achievement for ALL students.
I agree
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 15:44 — lferreriI didn't mean you misunderstood. I agree that the system here isn't focused enough on what can be done to increase pass rates. I just meant that, if teachers here know what topics students had difficulty with, then that doesn't explain why my sister-in-law's school does so much better. She doesn't think what her school does is particularly unusual so it's hard to get her to describe what they may be doing that works so well. She just keeps say, "Well, we just do the usual stuff." As someone said above, their tests are called SOLs and include subject matter testing like science and history. But their reading and math tests are like ours. Maybe having subject testing helps the students in reading. I just wish I knew. I can see things that our son's schools didn't do (like teaching grammar), but I don't know if that's the problem. Any ideas what Dillard Drive does?
This is all I know
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 17:56 — TrailerParkGirlBelow is the partial link to a best practices presentation.
"She doesn't think what her school does is particularly unusual" -
My Mama always said that the tone sets the music. Is it possible that your sister's school uses a different tone as it relates to expectations?
See if you can spot the tone in the DDES presentation. I think the quotes included are telling.
wcpss.net/isd/bp for lep swd frl.pps#13
(If link doesn't work go to the wcpss.net site and search "best practices" and you should find it)
I see what you mean
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:26 — lferreriThanks. I see what you mean. It sounds like they have a high level of commitment and are willing to try a lot of different approaches. But I think you're right--it's the tone that really matters. I've read a lot of books on different teaching techniques that have worked. They are often very different. But the one thing they have in common is that the people using them believe the students can learn.
I've tried to get my sister-in-law to consider why the attitude is different at her school. She says that they are held strictly accountable for meeting AYP and I suppose that has impact. But they also seem to believe that they are supposed to educate every kid. She can't understand why anyone would work at a school and not think they are there to do that. They have the usual complaints--neglected kids, uncooperative parents, very long bus rides because they are out in the country, weird mandates from bureaucrats, etc. Somehow, though, they don't let those things serve as excuses. I'm not trying to paint too rosy of a picture but I do sense a huge difference in attitude there.
I've gotten the impression
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 03:18 — TrailerParkGirlI've gotten the impression that there is a variance in attitudes here school to school, which is driven by the school level (not district) leadership. Like Klanders posted there are some wonderful principals here that have the positive attitude, but there are also some that do not. I suspect this may be one factor why there is no clear pattern in ED EOG scores relative to school poverty level.
"She can't understand why anyone would work at a school and not think they are there to do that."
Have to agree with your Sis on that one. I had a similar thought with ex-Yank - why is he in education if he thinks the way he does?
Carrot and stick
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 09:20 — lferreriI'm beginning to think we need a carrot and stick approach. I'd really like to see the WCPSS give recognition and rewards to those principals and schools that are doing a great job. We hear too little about them. (For instance, when KLanders says there are some principals who are at high-poverty schools and who are so great that teachers want to work for them, I believe her. But I have no idea which principals they are.) The current system gives out "Schools of Excellence" etc. even when, in my opinion, some of these schools are doing a poor job with minority and ED kids. Same thing with the Magnet Schools of America awards.
On the other hand, I do think we need to start to have a way to penalize principals who are not doing their job. I don't know any other way to get their attention. I wish, as professionals, they would be committed to doing a good job with all students. But some people won't get it until there is a penalty involved for them. Not to be too pessimistic but that's how I see it.
Yes, but here's the rub
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:25 — TrailerParkGirlIf high poverty schools do well and we publicly celebrate those responsible as we should and we penalize those that do not do well with all students, which includes some at low F&R schools then - POOF, gone is the justification for the need for the current assignment policy as the socio-engineered facade crumbles.
Exactly ... if there is not
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:41 — user12345Exactly ... if there is not difference between school ... teachers, adminstration, offerrings, etc. there is no reason for to reassign kids (except growth) or parents to move around shopping different schools ... again, the fact that a Black charter school can raise scores from 30% to 40% in a year (a 33% improvement) and be threatened with closure for not getting to 60% shows how messed up the incentives are. On the other hand, we celebrate the White schools that move from 96% to 97% and give them awards like school of excellence for very little YTY improvement ...
I agree it's messed up
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 22:36 — TrailerParkGirlThe question is how and why did it get messed up?
Can we please put the race card back in the deck, especially, after all the dialogue about stereotyping, labels, hatred of differences, etc.???
I'm sure if a "White" Charter school were not getting to 60%, they would face the same threats and it's not White schools, it's schools with high percentages of NED students getting school of excellence even the ones where ED students are below district results. That's what happens when the focus is on the school level and why people wanted a BOE that would focus on student level achievement.
TPG .. I am going to say
Thu, 12/24/2009 - 11:23 — user12345TPG .. I am going to say that Race does not bother me ... I grew up in the South and made my peace long ago ... so the almighty "race card" does not mean anything to me ...
So, if we can come up with a generic word for the group of underserved students who are not wealthy, privileged, attend schools of excellence, etc ... whether we call them Black, low income, EI, LE, etc. ... they are not getting what they need to function in society (the 54% kids) ... so, when I see the "system" and the "public" allow something that should be celebrated (33% improvement) be dismantled due to some arbitary 60% limit the public schools do not have to meet is shows how little we care about ALL kids to me ... caring about ALL kids to me will be when we can, like you mention above, celebrate both 30% to 40% and 96% to 97% ....
TPG
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 15:29 — RichardAndersonI hate to agree with this as it sounds kind of tin-foil hat, but I think you are right. What has changed my mind is the conversations about the magnet program. It has become clear that there was an agenda to keep regular schools inferior in order to maintain the appeal of the magnet schools and work of the diversity program. That revelation makes it entirely plausible that all achievements outside the magnet program and contrary to the diversity program would be similarly penalized.
Don't mean to be tin-foil hat
Wed, 12/23/2009 - 22:54 — TrailerParkGirlI was saying that those that do not do well should be penalized, not that those that do well are being penalized.
I don't think those that are doing well are being penalized, they just are not being publically celebrated or having their name put up in lights. If they were up in lights, the people that keep saying certain groups and school compositions cannot be healthy and good educators would never want to work in those schools would have some explaining to do. It gets harder to spin the current policy and creates a sticky situation.
I think the inflexibles probably look at those situations and write them off as a fluke anyway because they don't fit their narrow-minded conception of the world. That's basically how Millberg wrote off KIPP on a radio show on which I heard her.
Question and comment
Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:23 — RichardAndersonlferreri -
Question:
Where do you get the data for the percentages to be considered attaining AYP?
Comment:
I saw a TV show this weekend that claimed that over 70% of the incarcerated population in the state was functionally illiterate. I have a feeling that whatever it will cost us to get those kids able to read today will be a lot less than it will to process them through the criminal justice system as adults.