States Lowered Proficiency Bar
What a way to show you made progress. The National Center for Education Statistics found that in 26 states, from 2005 to 2007, lowered their adequate yearly progress standards, whereas only 12 schools appeared to raise the bar. This is amazing! Well not entirely. In Georgia, as long as a school makes progress year to year, that is minimally improving their test scores, attendance, and subgroups, all while getting to exempt certain students, from the previous year, they make AYP. This is frightening. We are always complaining about how poor our education system is and yet state officials are lowering the bar to make sure their schools pass federal mandates. However, how can states really do anything with the NCLB being so stringent on how things are run. Students are being pushed through the system because they were exempted from being included in the reports because of status, even though they failed every test or had poor attendance.
They also go on to discuss how states could have arrived at this lowered bar. Some states did not change the test, but changed the cut off scores, while others modified the test or standards. In Georgia, the curriculum used to be based off of prehistoric standards. With NCLB, the state came up with QCC's to help improve Georgia's educational system. A sample of some QCC's for lit is here. These standards did not even have a chance to root into the system before state officials decided they weren't working. How can you tell if something as big as changing education standards for an entire state is working if you only allow it for 4 or 5 years? Then they changed to GPS standards or Georgia Performance Standards. Now, I have little problem with these new standards that are as of this year, fully implemented and incorporated into our curriculum. But, will these standards get tossed after 5 years if someone thinks they are not working? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, we need to set the bar higher. If all the students are encouraged to do is the minimum, then we can't get mad at them as teachers OR parents for slacking and making D's and C's. After all, those are grades that can pass them and make them eligible for sports. If you want to improve the educational system for the U.S., uniform standards must be incorporated and the bar needs to be moved up 4 or 5 rungs because the stuff they learn in class today was elementary for me when I was in public K-12 education. These kids can't read rulers, solve problems by themselves, come up with new ideas, or even create art because of the low standards we have placed on them. Let's get tougher, please.
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I feel your pain. Maine recently changed their state standards and I feel they are too vague. Our old Maine Learning Results (MLR) were designed like your GPS standards with indicator skills for each standard. Now, the goals are vague; some years teachers are guided to simply enhance the previous year's indicator. When I was in undergraduate school,it was law that all students graduating from high school in 2010 would have to meet the MLRs in order to receive a diploma. The deadline for meeting was pushed back so many times it became a joke. It has become a trend to make students feel they are acheiving when they are not.
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that the problem reaches outside of school as well. Sometime during the 80's I'm guessing, Americans as a rule stopped thinking. Yes, we still have those individuals who create new and inventive solutions but their numbers are decreasing. I'm getting tired of trying to fix a broken educational system and would support an effort to start from scratch instead.