States Help Schools Hide Minority Scores
By FRANK BASS, NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON and BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writers
Monday, April 17, 2006
States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law’s requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress.
With the federal government’s permission, schools aren’t counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress by racial groups, an Associated Press computer analysis found.
Minorities  who historically haven’t fared as well as whites in testing  make up the vast majority of students whose scores are being excluded, AP found. And the numbers have been rising.
“I can’t believe that my child is going through testing just like the person sitting next to him or her and she’s not being counted,” said Angela Smith, a single mother. Her daughter, Shunta’ Winston, was among two dozen black students whose test scores weren’t broken out by race at her suburban Kansas City, Mo., high school.
Under the law championed by President Bush, all public school students must be proficient in reading and math by 2014, although only children above second grade are required to be tested.
Schools receiving federal aid also must demonstrate annually that students in all racial categories are progressing or risk penalties that include extending the school year, changing curriculum or firing administrators and teachers. (more…)
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April 19th, 2006 at 9:49 am
This article and follow-ups are causing a lot of noise in my part of PA. PA is allowed to exclude scores for ‘groups’ of 40 and under.
This is one more example of the NEA spending its time and resources in fighting the No Child Left Behind initiative rather than working to improve the system.
Their Wizard of Oz “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” approach has been swallowed by our “leaders” in the CBC.
Maryland (maybe due to that Oreo Republicn Mike Steele who is being trahed by the Democrat State Committee) has bitten hard on the bullet and uses an exempt group size of 5. They can truly assess problem areas.
Where is your state in this exempt situation? Unless you live in MD, it probably is too high, and problems are being masked. Raise hell folks!
April 19th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Slowly but surely…