Sandy Kress with some VERY interesting statistics – and a somewhat unfair, I think, criticism of the Obama administration:

It is certainly no secret that our nation's students are not achieving at the level they should. But here's a secret that seems to be well hidden: Our younger students, particularly those that are disadvantaged, have made dramatic achievement gains in the 2000s, reversing a stagnant trend in the previous decade.

Did you know that in 2008, black 9-year-olds were reading two grade levels ahead of where they were in 1999? According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, this is true.

Did you know that in 2008, Hispanic 9-year-olds were handling math problems two grade levels ahead of where they were in 1999? This is also true.

Did you know that in 2009, eighth-grade students with disabilities were reading almost two grade levels above where they were in 2000? Again, this is true.

Even though reading scores for 13-year-olds are flat (a national problem we have yet to address), it is also true that black 13-year-olds fully caught up the grade level they dropped in the 1990s and gained another half grade level by 2008. This progress in the 2000s narrowed the white-black gap by roughly a grade level.

What has caused these and other similar gains? Most researchers say the biggest factor was that in the late 1990s, states began to implement policies holding schools accountable for improving education for children. Further, in 2001, the Congress extended those policies to schools in all states through the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act.

Today, if schools shortchange students, especially subgroups of disadvantaged students, improvement in the operation of the school is required. Student problems can no longer be swept under the rug. Because of "consequential accountability," business as usual is no longer acceptable.

Make no mistake: Much more than accountability is needed, and we have a long way to go. But accountability works. It must stay. And indeed its reach must be extended to those grades that have not yet experienced growth, especially in high schools.

Now, here's the second big secret: For all of its promise to bring about education reform early in the term, the Obama administration wants to turn back the clock on accountability.

No Child Left Behind does indeed need to be fixed and updated. But it would be a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water to abandon its pillars of accountability.

Yet this is precisely what the administration is proposing to do.

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