St. Louis CofCC Blog

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

DESE has released results of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test scores, the uber-important set of tests to see if the state and its districts will comply with the Federal No Child Can Get Ahead (NCLB) Act.

As the state targets rise toward 100 percent of students being proficient in reading and math by 2014, even some of the most well-regarded districts can’t keep up. Brentwood, Clayton, Kirkwood, Ladue, Lindbergh and Rockwood all had at least one group of students fail to meet this year’s goals. And under the federal No Child Left Behind law, if one group fails, the whole district fails.

And which “group” or “groups” would that be? I know for certain that it has something to do with race, because a notable and insane part of NCLB is that if any one race of students is not proficient, then the whole district fails. This means that the only school districts in America that will be square with NCLB are those with relatively exceptional black students.

“The state demands that all our children be average by 2014. That’s impossible,” said Rockwood School District Superintendent Craig Larson. “But we’re going to work our hardest and supply extra support and effort wherever it’s needed.”

(snip)

“You’re not gonna hit 100 percent here,” said Michael Podgursky, an economics professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The only way to make it would be to keep lowering the definition of proficient, he said.

Why not? The whole education system has become a farce and a joke, with ever-decreasing standards so that more and more students can graduate with diplomas. We’re living near Lake Wobegon.

The Post has a database of MAP scores here, and a flash animation of the same here. The database is searchable by individual school, while the flash animation only shows whole district averages.