Education Sector Reports on NCLB

Taking the AP to task for simplistic reporting the Education Sector gets it right. When looking at NCLB score reporting it is critical to look at the N that is being reported for issues of reliability. But that only addresses the statistical ramifications of NCLB.

What is more important is to look seriously at the social ramifications of this bad law. Ken Goodman reports that teachers are building nonsense word walls in 1st and 2nd grade because Dibbles testing asks students to pronounce nonsense words as part of their testing. NCLB requires over-testing which, in turn, affords children a greater opportunity to fail. The law does not account for clear socio-economic differences in both performance and in school funding (perhaps the two are related somehow). It does not account for different learning styles. It confuses assessment with rigorous engagement in both teaching and learning. So the fact that states have chosen to use different group sizes to report scores as a loophole for not having to report all scores is not the real question. The real question is why are we doing all this testing in the first place.

Education Sector: The Education Sector

Zoundry

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