The Stick — NCLB Sanctions for MMSD

It is now official, 7 Madison schools are among the 79 Wisconsin schools that have been “Identified for Improvement” under the No Child Left Behind Act and are now subject to new sanctions and requirements.

Here is the list.

One thing about NCLB is that it is all stick and no carrot.  The requirements and restrictions pile up, but the only benefits are maintaining the woefully inadequate level of federal support for federal mandates.

The Madison schools Title I schools (Lincoln and Leopold) will now face new requirements; a more forceful stick.  I can’t find a Wisconsin version of the details of what this means, but here is one from Michigan (Wisconsin page on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), here).

I know one thing will be that all students at these schools will be offered transfers with the district paying for transport and pay for supplemental services.

Some things about NCLB bear repeating.

The standardized tests that are the basis of Adequate Yearly Progress  are of extremely limited value in assessing learning and school quality.

Eventually all schools will fail to make AYP.

The standards and data approach that President Obama and Secretary Duncan are so eager to continue will not lead to the kind of education we need.

As I’ve said before, performance on the WKCE should be one tool in assessing schools and students to flag successes and failures fro more attention.  It should not be used to make isolated judgments and it should not be the basis for sanctions.

The Wisconsin State Journal has more.

Thomas J. Mertz