Following Up With Senator Lightford
Since I ran with Sen. Lightford's remarks last night, let me follow up with a necessary clarification.
I like her, and I get it. I get exactly what was going on yesterday in our Senate. But she overstates the case. Our schools are not failing; in fact, we have pretty much the same profile that our state has always had. We have kids going to MIT and we have kids dropping out., and we have everything in between, all with a single set of standards. The geography of the achievement spread hasn't changed more than an iota in the decade of NCLB-- where poverty is concentrated, we see lower school achievement and general devastation. Where affluence is concentrated, we see higher school achievement and general prosperity. The general arc toward slightly higher NAEP scores is the same here as it is in most places.
The iota of change is that we have some small charter schools now that sculpt their graduating classes down to