Obama cites city school
No Child ‘failure’ sends 95% to college
President Barack Obama used University Park Campus School in Worcester yesterday as one example of how the federal No Child Left Behind Act mislabels successful schools and why states should have the option of seeking waivers from some of the law’s requirements.
The president singled University Park Principal Ricci W. Hall out of the audience in the East Room of the White House and said, “Every single student who graduated from Ricci’s school in the last three years went to college. Every single one. His school ranks in the top quarter of all schools in Massachusetts, and as you know, Massachusetts schools rank very high among the 50 states. But because Ricci’s schools did not meet all the technical standards of No Child Left Behind, his school was labeled a failure last year. That’s not right. That needs to change. What we’re doing today will encourage the progress at schools like Ricci’s.”
Mr. Hall, who did not know he was going to be mentioned, said in a telephone interview afterward that every student at his school has been accepted to college and between 95 and 100 percent go to college.
Last year, the school, a small Worcester public school
The president singled University Park Principal Ricci W. Hall out of the audience in the East Room of the White House and said, “Every single student who graduated from Ricci’s school in the last three years went to college. Every single one. His school ranks in the top quarter of all schools in Massachusetts, and as you know, Massachusetts schools rank very high among the 50 states. But because Ricci’s schools did not meet all the technical standards of No Child Left Behind, his school was labeled a failure last year. That’s not right. That needs to change. What we’re doing today will encourage the progress at schools like Ricci’s.”
Mr. Hall, who did not know he was going to be mentioned, said in a telephone interview afterward that every student at his school has been accepted to college and between 95 and 100 percent go to college.
Last year, the school, a small Worcester public school
