States Found to Vary Widely on Education

It's widely known that many states, in response to NCLB, have engaged in a disgraceful race to the bottom, dumbing down their test and passing scores.  But this sentence is completely wrong in attacking NCLB: "The wide variation raises questions about whether the federal No Child Left Behind law, President Bush’s signature education initiative, which is up for renewal this year, has allowed a patchwork of educational inequities around the country..."

 

NCLB didn't cause this problem -- states have long dumbed down tests so politicians could deceive voters and hide how bad their schools were.  The obvious solution is to strengthen NCLB to prevent this kind of gaming, so the sentence would have been better written as follows: "The wide variation has led many observers to conclude that the federal No Child Left Behind law, President Bush’s signature education initiative, which is up for renewal this year, needs to be modified to prevent a patchwork of educational inequities around the country...Some have even called for national standards..."

Academic standards vary so drastically from state to state that a fourth grader judged proficient in reading in Mississippi or Tennessee would fall far short of that mark in Massachusetts and South Carolina, the United States Department of Education said yesterday in a report that, for the first time, measured the extent of the differences.

The wide variation raises questions about whether the federal No Child Left Behind law, President Bush’s signature education initiative, which is up for renewal this year, has allowed a patchwork of educational inequities around the country, with no common yardstick to determine whether schoolchildren are learning enough.

 

The law requires that all students be brought to proficiency by 2014 in reading and math and creates sanctions for failure. But in a bow to states’ rights it lets each state set its own standards and choose its own tests.

 

The report provides ammunition for critics who say that one national standard is needed. “Parents and communities in too many states are being told not to worry, all is well, when their students are far behind,” said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation who served in the Education Department during Mr. Bush’s first term.

 

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in a statement, “This report offers sobering news that serious work remains to ensure that our schools are teaching students to the highest possible standards.” Still, in a conference call with reporters, she said it was up to the states, not the federal government, to raise standards.

 

The differences between state proficiency standards were sometimes more than double the national gap between minority and white students’ reading levels, which averages about 30 points on the national test, Mr. Whitehurst said.

 

Many education experts criticize No Child Left Behind, saying it gives states an incentive to set low standards to avoid sanctions on schools that do not increase the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency each year. Those experts argue that uniform national standards are needed.

 

But Congress is unlikely to go that far. Ms. Spellings said, “It’s way too early to conclude we need to adopt national standards” and added that it is also too early to conclude that state standards are too low.

----------------------

States Found to Vary Widely on Education 
 

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: June 8, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/education/08scores.html

Academic standards vary so drastically from state to state that a fourth grader judged proficient in reading in Mississippi or Tennessee would fall far short of that mark in Massachusetts and South Carolina, the United States Department of Education said yesterday in a report that, for the first time, measured the extent of the differences.