On Tuesday the state released which Georgia public schools met the adequate yearly progress testing goals required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

A few weeks before that came the release of how elementary and middle schools performed on the state’s CRCT exams.

State and national leaders say both sets of results can be used to measure a school. But on the blog we’ve found too many problems with AYP and CRCT.

Many say the standards are too low. Others say too many people cheat. Some say administrators have figured out ways around the rules to make their schools look better than they really are.

If that’s the case, how do we know if a school is any good?

I know some parents go by what they feel. If teachers and the principal seem nice, it’s a good school. If they return phone calls, it’s a good school. If their child gets A’s, it’s a good school.

Of course, we know kids can get high marks and not have a good grasp of basic skills.

Some like using ITBS scores, SAT scores or graduation rates. Even then, what do you compare your school to?

Gwinnett leaders tout that the district average is routinely higher than the state average. Does that say much?

Atlanta school leaders say the district excels when compared to other urban systems.

But one Atlanta parent I spoke with recently doesn’t buy it. She said, “that’s like comparing yourself to the other dummies in the classroom.”

How do you determine if a school is any good?

For full text article, Strong American Schools, click here: http://inmyshoes.org/SAS.AmDeserveLeadershipOnEd.Nov5_.2008.pdf

Too many graduates are unprepared for college, careers, and life.

?Not ready for college: More than one in three college students (34%) must take remedial math or
English courses to catch up on skills they should have learned in high school. In community colleges,
the remediation rate climbs to 43%.

?Not ready for careers: Nearly half of recent high school graduates who enter the workforce (46%) say
they are not prepared for the jobs they hope to get in the future. Employers agree, estimating that 45%
of recent high school graduates are not prepared with skills to advance beyond entry level jobs.

?Not ready for life: American students have a hard time solving real-life problems that call for practical
decision making and troubleshooting. Among 29 developed countries, the U.S. had the fourth-highest
percentage of very weak problem-solvers and the sixth-lowest percentage of strong problem-solvers.

Full text article, click here: http://inmyshoes.org/Report.pdf

A new Southern Regional Education Board report focuses on problems with middle schools and suggests that while Texas’ standards for middle school math are “about right,” its middle school reading standards are too low.

You’ll find a summary of the report in the press release below:

Too Many of Region’s Students Unprepared for High School; Achievement Not Rising Quickly Enough, New Report Finds

ATLANTA — Modest gains in reading and mathematics achievement on state assessments and low academic standards are signs that too many middle grades students are not well-prepared for high school courses, a major new report by the nonprofit Southern Regional Education Board shows.
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Six SREB states appear to have set standards at about the right levels in reading: Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and Mississippi. South Carolina’s standards appear too high. Nine SREB states’ reading standards appeared too low: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

In eighth-grade math, eight states appear to have set standards about right: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas. South Carolina’s appeared too high. Seven SREB states’ math standards appear too low: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Sirdeaner Walker found her 11-year-old son Carl Joseph in his room, dead, hanging from an electrical cord. Driven to suicide, it’s believed, because he was being “bullied relentless” in school. He was being pushed around, told he acted “gay,” and branded a “faggot.” And when she told the school, administrators told her “it would work itself out,” she says. Ms. Walker has relived this nightmare a number of times publicly, for which we thank her, since she has to relive it everyday for the rest of her life. Here, she tells Congress about the reality of bullying: It doesn’t have to be this way for our kids. “This has got to stop. School bullying is a national crisis. … I know that bullying is not a gay issue, or a straight issue. It’s a safety issue.”

http://inmyshoes.org/Developing%20Research.pdf

http://www.balancedreading.com/teacherquality.html (Click on link for full article)

There can be no doubt that teacher quality is critically important for academic success of at-risk students, especially when it comes to teaching literacy skills. However, since No Child Left Behind increased the focus on teacher quality, we really have not been able to agree on a definition of what teacher quality is. Education Trust has focused much energy and study on the topic of teacher quality, but they have not been very clear on how they determine teacher quality.

I would argue that much confusion has come from the conflation of the terms “highly qualified” and “high quality.” Legislation passed since 2001 has called for more “highly qualified” teachers, and the focus has shifted away from “high quality” teachers. The term “highly qualified” does have a clear definition – highly qualified teachers are teachers with degrees and certification in the areas in which they teach. Thus, high school math teachers should have degrees in math (or at least substantial college credit hours in math), history teachers should have a clear and documented background in history. But what about elementary school reading teachers? There is no degree in elementary school reading at most universities.

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“Highly qualified” teachers are those with degrees and certifications in the areas in which they teach. “High quality” teachers, however, are those with talent, knowledge, and skill. Alas, when it comes to reading instruction, there is very little evidence that the two are related. In other words, recruiting and retaining “highly qualified” teachers is no guarantee of “high quality.”

While we define “highly qualified” teachers by the degrees and certificates they hold, I think it is important for us to think more broadly about “high quality” teachers. Over the years, I have observed hundreds of teachers teaching students to read. When I walk into a class and watch a teacher, I have little knowledge of the certificates or degrees that teacher has earned. However, I can tell very quickly whether that teacher is a “high quality” reading teacher.