Prescribed Failure
Welcome to Lake Wobegone where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.
– Garrison Keillor
National media recently reported two major stories regarding education under the weight of No Child Left Behind without drawing the obvious connection between them.
First came the revelation that an estimated 200 administrators and teachers in the Atlanta school district were engaged in cheating to achieve higher scores on standardized testing. Second came a projection by the Department of Education that an astonishing 82% of public schools could fail to meet proficiency targets for the coming year.
The standards of NCLB are constantly moving. To avoid failure a school must record improved test results in reading and math for all its students and in eight subgroups until all students (100%) are considered proficient by