There remains so much wrong with the No Child Left Behind act that I hesitate to even begin to address it. One of the most deplorable chasms, and, coincidentally, most easily addressed by the federal Department of Education, has, however, been the law’s allowance that individual states may calculate graduation rates in any way they desire. Many states initially took advantage of this disconnect between the law-as-written- and the law-as-applied and have, since 2002 at the law’s inception, relied upon a variety of inaccurate formulas producing misleading data, thus artificially inflating their graduation rates.
In September of 2007, State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox released a statement on the
The New York Times posted a story today noting that the US Department of Education is readying itself to force the states to use a single formula agreed upon in 2005 by the National Governor’s Association, called the National Governors Association’s Graduation Rate Compact (NGA Rate, for short). The NGA rate provides rather simple math for the formula, calculating the graduation rate as the number of students who receive a traditional diploma in a given year divided by the number of ninth graders that entered four years earlier. The NGA rate goes on to allow for transfer adjustments so that individual schools are not held accountable for students who attend school elsewhere after initial enrollment.
Though the agreement was made two years ago, it was non-binding and states were permitted to determine when – and indeed, even if – they would implement it.
Returning to the idea of inflated numbers, however, based on the
As a state, we have defined the concept of work-readiness, but not that of college-readiness. How can we legitimately claim an interest in readying our students for post-secondary education if we cannot even bureaucratically define the bare minimum involved in the concept of “ready?”
We fail, as we have for some time now, to reliably teach our children anything beyond the most basic math. We no longer bother overmuch with the grammar of our language; we not only speak no foreign tongues as a nation, but are frequently offended when foreigners pay us the same courtesy; we have abandoned critical thinking – and yet, with even our increasingly lower standards, we in the state of Georgia cannot manage to get, at best, more than 2/3 of out teenagers through a grossly simplified secondary curriculum within four years. We do not even begin to address here the graduation gap between various ethnic groups, which should be a source of outrage to anyone who reads such reports.
Further, as the parent of a dyslexic child, I am fully and painfully aware of a gap beyond that of ethnicity, namely special needs students who are both intelligent and capable of learning, but who may require nontraditional methods in order to both do so effectively and perform to their potential. Due to his diagnosis, my son qualifies for some moderate accommodations, but his already excellent masking and coping skills, combined with his excellent inferential ability make him the Child Not Yet Left Far Enough Behind for the State to Take Any Interest. We prop him up with private therapy and hours of home coaching and parents who will not allow him to fail, because his mind does not deserve failure, but we know that not all parents have such luxuries as the time and money to make these things happen.
And we the people wonder why we have the government we have.
I have little use for Margaret Spellings. I believe she’s frittered away her time at the federal level engaging in too much propaganda and too little substance, but if, before she leaves office, she can force the states to, at a very minimum, report reliable, accurate data, then I will thank her for it.
It’s high damned time.
