Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Achievement Gap

in CO and money is not the answer
I know everybody says NCLB was a terrible law but:
"Until now, it wasn't possible for Colorado parents to examine how well individual schools or districts served students from all ethnic backgrounds. But as part of its effort to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Colorado Department of Education has for the first time released school and district CSAP results broken down by ethnicity and gender."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also, in California, 20% of 12 graders have yet to pass the state's exit exam (which is written at an 8th and 9th grade level). I'll bet that the solution will be to lower the standard.
Why can't we just surrender to the fact that some people are going to lay concrete, change oil, sweep chimneys, hammer nails, etc?
So what if those students eventually pass that exam? Then they are sent into the world with no marketable skills and no education. VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS!

John Blom said...

I had a discussion with some German exchange students a couple weeks ago about the differences in English and German education system (they seperate kids in middle school in to vocational schools, gymnasiums, which prep for college, and trade schools). When I explained that we believe that everyone should have equal opportunity, they immediately asked, "Doesn't that mean everyone ends up with lower standards?" While I do not think their system is perfect, I agree with them in that what is the point of "equal" education if it is not much of an actual education

Jodi said...

I heard an interesting comment with regard to the differences between European and American education systems and a quirk of language that is very revealing of their respective attitudes:

In Europe, people "pursue" education and in America they are "given" an education.