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Early
Warning Status Under NCLB
The chickens are coming home to roost even earlier than we thought. The NJ Department of Education released the results of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Accountability Requirements for 2004 on September 29, 2004. Lo, and behold, on page 17 of the report there is a listing for Readington Township schools. It seems we are on the Early Warning List for not making Adequate Yearly Progress. Want this in English? Well, basically our students as a whole did not score well enough on the state-sponsored standardized testing compared to last year. As a result, we are given the "early warning" status. Unless scores improve on the next round of tests, we will sink to the next level down and there could be consequences. Of course, districts can choose not to accept the federal funds that flow from the NCLB law. In such a case, there are no real consequences for not making "adequate yearly progress". In the past, the school administration has pointed out that about 90 percent of Readington school funds come from local sources. Why, then, are we wrapped up in the idea of collecting federal funds? More to the point, are any parents in our district of the opinion that the quality of education in our schools has suddenly nose-dived since testing done the previous year? Probably not. Our test scores have not improved enough for the NCLB requirements, but does this mean that there is less learning taking place? Certainly not. That is the point: the state- sponsored tests bear little if any connection to what is going on in our classrooms. Test scores will vary due to a wide number of factors, most of which have no bearing on the actual quality of learning taking place. That has been explained in detail on this website. Now turn to the subject of additional testing introduced this year. Will this additional round of TerraNova tests make a difference in scores when the state-sponsored NJASK, GEPA and HSPA tests are given in the future? Perversely, yes, they probably will help to raise test scores on the other tests. That is because the TerraNova tests will give students more experience with taking standardized tests and because teachers will be under subtle pressure to review test-taking strategies with their students. The test-prep machine will be in full force. So, our collective scores will rise. Will your child be maximizing his or her potential for learning, for developmental maturation, and for finding the joy of discovery? Hey, who knows? The important thing, to some, is that we will have the hard, precision data to prove that our schools are improving compared to neighboring districts. Never mind individual children. Test scores will show that our collective schools are doing just great. We will have traded child-centered, developmentally appropriate practices, and we will have traded the delicate, unspoiled mind of your child for a piece of paper printed with hard, precision data. The alternative, of course, is to reject the testing machine. We cannot easily suspend the state-sponsored NJASK, GEPA and HSPA tests (yet), but we can suspend the TerraNova testing introduced this year, along with the InView and I-Know programs. Doing so will send a message to the teachers, parents and other stakeholders in our district that we consider our children as individuals and not as numbers. We can also reject the NCLB funds and send a message back to some ill-informed politicians that education is better left to parents and teachers. This is not about Republicans or Democrats, nor about a horse-race of scores. It is about our children.
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