Louisiana Bamboozles!
Raise your hand if you’ve ever checked your weight against one of those charts that tells you how much you should weigh based on your height. You know. The ones with unrealistic goals that you immediately dismiss because of their ridiculousness. Well, I have. I can tell you that in all my 35 adult years, even at my thinnest and best condition, I have never been less than 40 pounds overweight according to the scale.
Now, imagine if we started measuring the height/weight of our children in kindergarten with the goal of them exiting high school within the recommended range. We all know there will be some kids that do it with zero effort. Others will achieve the goal with moderate to heavy dieting. And still, others will never make it. Let’s take it a little farther. The federal government provides minimum guidelines for determining reliable diets to follow, and the State’s job is to select a diet and develop a plan to monitor the progress toward meeting the goal. Would you be mad if, in choosing how to achieve these goals that a large percentage of children won’t meet, the State requires the use of a diet that doesn’t meet the minimum guidelines, and a one-time/one-use scale produced by a particular manufacturer? Of course, you would, and every state legislator would be asking questions and changing laws to correct the problem.
Whether you know it, or not, this is exactly what is happening in education, in Louisiana. When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), there was a fundamental shift in requirements for interventions. Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), states were required to use “research-based” interventions when implementing plans to improve failing schools. Under ESSA, the requirement is “evidence-based.” What is the difference? Research-based interventions are designed around CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Bamboozles! – Educate Louisiana