« Big education funding vote today in the House |
Main
| What's in a number? SAT scores expected to slide »
May 11, 2006
AP analysis prompts NCLB hearing
BoardBuzz is mildly amused at the fact that House members in Congress plan to hold a hearing on NCLB's racial subgroup accountability largely in response to this Associated Press story in which it says that schools are excluding many minority students from adequate yearly progress.
Congress is reacting to AP's conclusion that states are helping schools skirt the law's requirement to track the performance of different racial subgroups. In AP's analysis, that's because states set the subgroup number--which is needed to make sure test scores are statistically valid for a subgroup--too large, excluding many minority students from AYP.
While AP is right that states do set their own subgroup number (which must be approved by the U.S Department of Education), its analysis is flawed because it ignores many other factors that go into determining the subgroup size and AYP; see this item. AP also neglected the fact that the score of a subgroup that is too small to be counted in AYP within the school will be counted at the district and the state levels. More importantly, any subgroup's scores must be publicly reported under the law, so no scores are excluded from public accountability.
Congress is right to make sure that racial subgroups are accounted for, but it needs to be mindful about other factors skewed by the AP analysis. And perhaps our concerned Congressional members need to sort out the facts with the Department of Education, rather than believe everything they read.
Posted May 11, 2006 2:06 PM |
No Child Left Behind
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry
BoardBuzz Feed
