Mixed Messages, or Meaningless Labels?
California education writers and citizens are wondering what to make of the contrasting stories told by state and federal accountability measures. In short, the state uses an Academic Performance Index that sets a level of satisfactory performance and also targets for growth that are based on prior performance. The federal system under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) relies an a measure called Adequate Yearly Progress. (Kathryn Baron has a more detailed explanation at Thought on Public Education). Somehow, schools that are doing quite well by state measures are turning out to be failures on the federal
