California school scores tied to attendance, not proficiency
For more than a decade, the release of federal scores indicating California public school students' progress -- or lack of it -- has incited alarm, anxiety and anguish among educators.
But when those marks were ever so quietly posted this month, barely anyone noticed. And it seemed few cared. For the first time in years, California schools met federal standards -- but only because the yardstick had been replaced with an easier-to-meet measurement.
It's the sign that the federal No Child Left Behind law, an effort to hold schools accountable for students' failure to learn, has lost its muscle a year before it expires. That retreat enrages reformers like former state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles. "There is an effort to minimize, whitewash and scrub the file so that parents don't have information," she said. "If you can kill the data, you can't have the reform."
Since 2002, No Child Left Behind tied schools' federal grades to students' proficiency in math and English. But now, under a waiver granted in June, California bases those grades solely on attendance, test participation and graduation rate -- which itself has been inflated with the demise of the state high school exit exam.
Those are much easier bars to hurdle -- and achieved by most California schools.
On Dec. 15, the state posted schools' federal grades, known as "Adequate Yearly Progress." Those that didn't meet expectations could be labeled failing schools, branded with a California school scores tied to attendance, not proficiency - ContraCostaTimes.com: