Should Schools Set Sliding Scales For Student Achievement?
It would be tough to find a slope that’s potentially more slippery than this one: public schools setting different achievement expectations for students based on their race and ethnicity.
But that’s exactly what’s happening in dozens of states that have received waivers from the U.S. Department of Education, allowing them to replace the more onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind with more flexible accountability measures. NCLB’s core premise was that all students – regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic or special education status – would have to be proficient in reading, writing and math by the 2013-14 academic year. States were given leeway in setting their definitions of proficiency, and in deciding how best to move students toward the final goal.
But with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act more than seven years overdue (and a congressional stalemate unlikely to be solved anytime soon), U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan began authorizing waivers. In exchange, states agreed to adopt specific reform measures that were in line with
But that’s exactly what’s happening in dozens of states that have received waivers from the U.S. Department of Education, allowing them to replace the more onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind with more flexible accountability measures. NCLB’s core premise was that all students – regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic or special education status – would have to be proficient in reading, writing and math by the 2013-14 academic year. States were given leeway in setting their definitions of proficiency, and in deciding how best to move students toward the final goal.
But with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act more than seven years overdue (and a congressional stalemate unlikely to be solved anytime soon), U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan began authorizing waivers. In exchange, states agreed to adopt specific reform measures that were in line with