The headlines in the Idaho State Journal newspaper read: “District 25 fails to meet federal benchmark.” The subheading said: “Half of district’s schools fall below student progress standards.” The results of the federal mandated “No Child Left Behind” act testing was released. About half the schools here in Pocatello’s school district went on “alert” status — meaning that one or more student classification groups did not test “at grade level”. The “alert” status means that parents can request that their children be transported to a different school. In today’s paper the lead article was about the spin that school officials were putting on the test results. The paper quoted District Curriculum Director Chuck Wegner as saying, “Expecting every child in the public school system to perform on grade-level is unreasonable and infeasible.” There are a couple of interesting (to me) observations:
First, it won’t do any good for parents to request that their high school students be transferred to another high school. All three high schools here in Pocatello are on “alert” status. That’s right: Pocatello High, Century High, and Highland High are failed to provide a sufficiently good educational experience so that all the students were able to test at grade level.
Secondly, even the school officials can’t count. The standards were that 95% of the students in grades 3, 8, and 10 were to be tested. 72% of them needed to test at grade level in Reading and 60% needed to test at grade level for math. Attention please, Mr. Wegner. The requirement is not that every student has to test at grade level. Three or four out of every ten students can fail the test and the school (or the district) will still make the goal. You must think the public is pretty dumb.
Finally, school officials blamed the failure on a lack of funding. Parents should not be alarmed; it was only one or two groups of students, such as those who are disadvantaged, that failed to pass the test. Whoopee. That sure makes me feel better.
When will the schools ever get it? Their job is to educate the students. All of them. Schools hate the testing process because it demonstrates that what the schools are doing best is failing to educate. I learned many years ago that what gets measured gets done. I am fanatically in favor of testing. The schools take a lot of my money. I want my money’s worth back. I want them to teach students to read, to write, to be able to count, to know a bit about history and science, and to know what it means to be a citizen of this country. I don’t want excuses. It isn’t a matter of money. There is more than sufficient money available for education. It’s a matter of accountability.
So, for the record, here’s the report card:
Century High School: Economically disadvantaged — math
Claude A. Wilcox Elementary School: Students with disabilities — reading
Franklin Middle School: Hispanic — reading
Greenacres Elementary School: Economically disadvantaged — reading
Hawthorne Middle School: math proficiency; American Indian — reading and math; Hispanic — math; economically disadvantaged — math; students with disabilities — reading and math (this is a school with lots of “opportunities for improvement”)
Indian Hills Elementary School: Students with disabilities — math
Irving Middle School: Students with disabilities — math
Kinport Academy: reading, math proficiency
New Horizons High School: reading, math proficiency; third indicator — graduation rate
Pocatello High School: Economically disadvantaged — reading, math
Tyhee Elementary School: Reading profiency; third indicator — language arts; American Indians — reading, math; economically disadvantaged — reading, math
The whole report is available at www.sde.state.id.us/admin/ayp05/