Steiny: Schools shouldn’t use data only as a way to beat up on teachers Julia Steiny projo.com The Providence Journal
"By far the best thing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) did was to force states to build robust data systems. The worst thing it did was use a subset of that data, mainly test scores, to jump to ugly conclusions, like schools weren’t “meeting expectations,” a euphemism for failure. NCLB measures everything in the negative. In five years, when all kids in all schools MUST be 100 percent proficient, even the rich kids’ schools will be failures. By then, NCLB will have created equal opportunities for all teachers to resent data."
"By far the best thing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) did was to force states to build robust data systems. The worst thing it did was use a subset of that data, mainly test scores, to jump to ugly conclusions, like schools weren’t “meeting expectations,” a euphemism for failure. NCLB measures everything in the negative. In five years, when all kids in all schools MUST be 100 percent proficient, even the rich kids’ schools will be failures. By then, NCLB will have created equal opportunities for all teachers to resent data."