USA Today gets it wrong
Sent to USA Today, July 18 Re: Today's Debate, July 18
USA Today thinks that the heavy testing required by NCLB was necessary because of poor student achievement, which in turn was due to inept teachers protected by unions and failing schools that were allowed to stay open.
Not so.
Studies show that American students in well-funded schools who come from middle-class families outscore students in nearly all other countries on international tests. Our average scores are unspectacular because the US has the highest percentage of children in poverty of all industrialized countries (over 20%; in contrast, high-scoring Finland has less than 4%). The major problem is poverty, not teachers and not unions.
Poverty means inadequate nutrition, inadequate health care, exposure to environmental toxins, and little access
