Posted on 09/12/2005 6:00:28 AM PDT by cbkaty
IMAGINE being 11 years old in an unfamiliar school. Imagine that your home has been destroyed, that relatives are missing, that you have spent days on a roof or in a dark and terrifying stadium. Imagine knowing your new teacher could be fired and your new school closed if you and others like you don't score high enough on the statewide test.
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings should regard this scenario as she mulls whether to exempt some 200,000 displaced schoolchildren from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. That is the national law requiring school districts to raise standardized test scores by a specific rate each year. Schools that fail can suffer funding cuts and mass firings.
Last week, as the Houston Independent School District enrolled thousands of young storm survivors, arranged transportation for them and reopened two schools, Spellings met with the National Education Association and other groups to discuss Katrina's aftermath. No conclusions from that meeting were announced. In an interview with National Public Radio, however, Spellings said she was disinclined to waive accountability rules for the Louisianans. "We don't want to write off this school year academically for these kids, and shouldn't, at least not yet," Spellings said.
Her instinct is correct. The school year is just starting. New Orleans children in the care of other states deserve all the attention and encouragement to meet high standards their teachers can lavish. This includes the test preparation that is, for better or worse, the core of today's curricula. But prepping for the TAKS is grueling. It is unfair to make already stressed newcomers worry that bad test scores could harm teachers and schools.
Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, was one of several advocates urging Spellings to relax the No Child rules. "Until these children, their teachers, districts and families gain their footing, I encourage you to implement the provisions ... that deal with the impact of natural disasters on testing," Weaver wrote.
Schools should administer their required standardized tests to all students. Evacuees should take the tests alongside their classmates. But Katrina survivors' scores should then be separated from their host students' and have no bearing on their school's overall ratings. Teachers, local students and evacuees all will suffer strain this year. But no school should be punished for welcoming outsiders, and no child should regret finding sanctuary in a neighbor's state.
QUESTION: If the school districts thought that the children from the storm affected areas would "raise" their TAKS test scores, would they really want to exclude them?
Bureaucrats!
"I used to be able to read. Then I moved to a new school. Now I can't read anymore. Why does George Bush hate me?"
The schools are not worried about little Johnny's feelings...they are worried about the results....their standings.....
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